Our mainframe has a static IP addre

[kjonnnnn]

Our mainframe has a static IP address. Periodically, it will just drop off of network neighborhood. It can be pinged and accessed using its IP address, but not its name. I can even MAP a drive to folder in it, but not to its main name.

Suppose the computer's name is Dave and it has a fold in it called Sam. I can map a drive to \\Dave\Sam, BUT NOT just to \\DAVE. I've went into WINS and added it to Static Mappings, but this doesnt seem to help. We have two WINS servers.

Any ideas what could be causing this.

 

[dearingkr]

I don't know much about mainframes, but speaking from the Microsoft world.......

The Network Neighborhood has nothing to do with WINS, this is a popular misconception.

The Network Neighborhood is based on the Browser Service. When machines first come on line, they announce themselves to the network, and a Browser Election takes place. The winner of the election is determined by the operating system (in order Windows 2000, NT, 98, 95, 3.11), version, etc.

The winner is called the Master Browser. The Master Browser is responsible for maintaining a list of all available resources in the domain.

When PCs come online they initially announce themselves about every minute and then gradually taper off to about once every 12 minutes.

The Master Browser doesn't remove a resource from the list until it misses 3 announcements. Therefore, it is possible for a machine offline to remain on the list up to 36 minutes later. This may be what is happening to your mainframe, it is not announcing itself occasionally.

As to the second question of why you can't map a drive to \\DAVE. You can only map a drive to a shared resource. DAVE
is the name of the computer itself, not the shared resource. The shared folders on DAVE can be mapped.

Hope this helps.
dearingkr@aol.com