Problem seeing server in My Network Places (and other issues)

[Kainan]

This morning I came in early to reboot the server because it hasn't been rebooted for a good while and we've had reported intermittant problems saving files on our data drive.

After reboot I've found that people can't gain access directly to the server (ServerOne). People can get to the shared folders on that server and they can authinticate through it for DNS but can't get directly to it. If I go to My Network Places/Entire Network/ I can see ECDLP (Domain) but in the list I see all of the computers but not Serverone itself. Also, I can go into a browser and type in \\serverone\ it will show the contents of the server in an explorer window but if I close the window and open it up again I find serverone is missing from the list under My Network Places/ECDLP once again. This is causing problems for our main plotter because it can't authenticate to serverone to scan print jobs into the server where it stores them. Surely someone has seen this problem and I'm just missing it. It is strange to see DNS working fine (get out to internet) as well as active directory (logging in is fine) but not able to go to the server and see the server in the list on My Network Places. I first noticed this when I lost all of my mapped drives on my PC. Luckily the employees haven't had this problem. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

[octavian10]

Sounds like your NetBios is disabled. IPCONFIG /ALL the sever, and check to see if it says that Netbios over tcp/ip is disabled. If it is, go to the servers tcp/ip properties, click on the advanced tab, click on the WINS tab, and check to see that either Use NetBios from the DHCP Server, or Enable Netbios over tcp/ip is checked. If you are using DCHP I recomend using the Use NetBios from DHCp option.
Hope this helps.

 

[Kainan]

Thanks Octavian. I figured this out after hours of scratching my head. Isn't this turned off by default? I'm just wondering what changed from the reboot. I can't remember if it was set to off or on before but the server has been working fine for months. Anyway, I was glad to find it and I set it just as you would have. Everything is working now. I still have a lot to learn man. I appreciate the reply.

 

[octavian10]

Glad I can help. There are alot of things that can affect NetBios, but one of the most common is enabeling Routing and Remote access for VPN's. This is how I stumbled across this scenerio. Some of the newer anti-spywhere programs also diable it. While you would think it should be disabled it is a crucial part of a DC running DNS, as you found out with your printer, and other applications that need a name not IP address.

Good Luck