UNC naming not working

[2ffat]

We have an odd problem that has cropped up that is driving us crazy. We have several Win 2003 servers. Most of our PCs (using XP and 2000) map folders on these servers as drives. Saturday, I made sure all the servers were patched and ready to go for the coming week. I then checked several PC to make certain than they worked, too.

On Monday morning, some of the PCs couldn't map the folder on one of the servers. At first we thought it might be because the OS was Win 2000 but 1) not all the Win 2000 PCs have this problem and 2) we've seen this on a couple of XP machines, too. We got around this problem by using the IP address to map the drives on those PCs.

For example, the T drive was mapped to \\OurServer\Work on our PCs. On Monday, some machines could not see OurServer, but we could map the T drive to \\10.10.10.10\Work which is the same server.

Any ideas? Anyone had this problem before?


James P. Cottingham
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[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Davetoo]

Would immediately suspect a DNS issue. Are they DHCP? Is DHCP handing out the right info? Can you ping the FQDN from a WS with the mapping issue?

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[2ffat]

Pinging is not a problem. DHCP is NOT enabled, all IP addresses are static. I thought about the DNS but what would change on this?




James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Davetoo]

So, from a machine that won't map a drive to \\servername.server.com\share, you can ping servername.server.com?

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[Spirit]

Sounds like the machines have got there DNS a bit mixed up.

I would run a flushdns then reg dns and go from there.

What would cause this???? Microsoft Magic!!! Don't laugh keeps us in a job

Iain

 

[2ffat]

Davetoo,
[tab]Yep, I can ping to the name but I can't get it to come up in explorer.

Spirit,
[tab]I give it a shot.



James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[petrosky]

In the past I have found the Computer Browser service to be cause similar problems to what you describe.

Maybe, something in this KB will help diagnose the problem?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188305

HTH.

Peter.

Remember- It's nice to be important,
but it's important to be nice

 

[2ffat]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[2ffat]

[red]Update:[/red] The server in question came crashing down yesterday for (we THINK) unrelated issues. After we got it up and running, the PCs can now use UNC to see the server. Nothing in the logs to explain why some PCs couldn't see it nor why it crashed. We will continue investigating.



James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]