Suddenly - unable to map drives 1

[JimPletcher]

I originally posted this on the VPN forum, but it appears to be a Microsoft specific situation.

Two locations connected via VPN routers.
Had been able to map drives in both directions. As of last week we can only map drives in one direction.
Now unable to map to remote XP Pro machine.

No third-party software firewalls.
Domain controller sets Microsoft (local PC) firewall policy.

Any ideas?

 

[chipk]

Elaborate on "unable to map". Do you get specific errors? Can you UNC to this computer, ping the hostname, etc.?

 

[JimPletcher]

Thanks for the response.

Ping is OK.
Cant map by name or IP address.
Error message states "The network path . . . . could not be found."

 

[Diancecht]

Has the firewall policy been changed?

Cheers,
Dian

 

[MakeItSo]

I have encountered this when connecting to one of my computers that is not a member of the domain.
After I changed my domain password (change pw every xx weeks is policy), I was unable to connect to that drive.
I first had to unmap it, make sure there is no more connection to that drive, then re-connect and re-enter my credentials - voilà.

Perhaps a similar issue here?

[navy]"We had to turn off that service to comply with the CDA Bill."[/navy]
- The Bastard Operator From Hell

 

[JimPletcher]

As far as I know, the firewall policy has not changed - although this would be a logical suspect.

The domain controls the local firewall, and the policy is set to allow "local subnet" and 10.10.20.0/24 (the other subnet).

There have been no MANUAL changes made to any of the systems. I don't know what MS updates may have done.

 

[chipk]

Bad cached login information, perhaps? When you map the drive have you tried to click the "connect using a different user name" link and providing valid credentials? If you can ping by ip and hostname, name resolution is not the problem, so I'm thinking permissions or credentials are screwy somewhere.

 

[JimPletcher]

Never could ping across the VPN by hostname (sorry if I didn't nmake that clear).

Have tried "using different user name" - no change.
It acts like a firewall thing, but I can't find anything.
Users on the same subnet CAN map to this PC.

 

[chipk]

Ok, when you ping by IP, it responds? But if you ping by hostname, you get what? timeouts, or "host not found"....

If the name resolves and you just get "request timed out" responses, then the problem is likely with a firewall. If you get "host not found" then the problem may be with name resolution, but that doesn't mean the firewall isn't also blocking something.

 

[linney]

These are just some odd behavior examples when having mapping problems.

Mapped drives failing
thread779-1394389

Networking 2 windows xp

http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t9932-50.html

 

[JimPletcher]

As mentioned earlier:
Ping is OK.
Can't map by IP address.
Error message states "The network path . . . . could not be found."

UPDATE:
Mucking about with Group Policy settings (added another subnet to firewall File Sharing exceptions), and now users can map the drives again.
I just removed the added subnet, and will wait to see what happens.

 

[JimPletcher]

Removed the added subnet and users can still map to the remote XP.

It appears as though my dorking through the Group Policy settings did something I'm not aware of - even though the only change I (conciously) made is stated above.

 

[chipk]

Did you force a refresh on the policy (gpupdate /force)? It may be that it simply hasn't propagated back out. It may stop working again if that is the case.

 

[JimPletcher]

Ouch!
No I didn't force an update (until just now).
Thanks for reminding me.

Apparently, everything is still OK though.