Apologies for the lengthy post, but I'd really appreciate some help with this one...
I have 'My Documents' redirected to a Network Share (\\server\username) which is available offline, along with a drive mapping (Z
on the same server (\\server\drive) also enabled to work offline.When connected to the office LAN everything works fine; synchronisation happens without issue.
When I'm not connected to the LAN, I log-in to Windows where files in 'My Documents' and 'Z:' are available in cached offline mode (as expected). A systray icon reports 'Offline Files - The network is not available'.
I connect to the office using VPN (via a DSL connection or a mobile broadband device.)
The systray icon still reports 'Offline Files - The network is not available'. (I believe this is by design; I initially logged on to the computer with cached credentials and worked offline. When I connect to the VPN, the status remains as offline because Windows does not automatically detect that it is now connected to the network.)
To prompt Windows into realising I am 'online' a manual synchronisation should be performed (See MS-KB290523: 'Tools' menu, 'Synchronise') which results in nothing happening for ~15 seconds and then prompting me for a user name and password.
If I enter my credentials, the following message is returned "Logon unsuccessful: the user name you typed is the same as the user name you logged in with. That user name has already been tried. A domain controller cannot be found to verify that user name."
If I enter my user name as "domain.local\username" or any other user, synchronisation fails with the following message: "Offline Files (\\server\drive on server): Unable to connect to '\\server\drive.' Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again."
I'd like to point out that once I am connected to the VPN, I am able to ping all my servers and resources, and browse other network shares that haven't been made available offline (albeit very slowly!).
Browsing other network shares when connected via VPN that have not been made available offline makes Windows realise that it is 'Connected' and therefore bypasses offline mode, resulting in extremely slow performance when opening files, but does allow synchronisation.
I've tried this on two laptops with the same results.
I have a number of 'remote' users that don't come to the office very often. I want them to be able to synchronise changes to documents on a shared network drive via VPN, without Windows thinking it's 'connected' and serving up documents as if they're on the LAN because it's so slow.
I would really appreciate some comments, or some advise regarding how to successfully use Offline files. While we've never had the need for this functionality in the past, due to a change in job roles it's about to become essential.
Many thanks, Darren.
