XP Users loose connection to Win-2k Shared folders - why?

[amitech]

Hi,

We have a self set-up stand alone Windows 2000 Server (SP4) It’s not running Active directory, and it’s set up in a simple workgroup mode, and no Domain controller in operation. There are only about 6 client PC’s windows Mostly Win XP and 2 Windows 98 machines. Running TCP-IP only and getting Dynamic addresses from the 2k server.

Mostly noticeable on the Windows XP clients users seem to be able to log on and have full access to two shared folders which reside on the server (Mapped drives to the XP Clients).
However some users appear to log out at the end of the day & others seem to be leaving their machines on and logged in. When these users retun the next morning, they appear to be/logged in correctly, but they are disconnected from the file shares. If the do a full reboot and log back in again then the have access to the two shared/mapped folders. It seems that all of the XP users have to reboot and login again to give every on access to the mapped folders.

On the server Users section, I have not found, what used to be the hours of access config section that used to be in user properties on NT4 server, which might be my problem. And I also wonder if this is due to DHCP leases expiring?

Unfortunately 2 users log on very early in the morning, before us technical types get in, so we are not sure exactly what the symptoms they are experiencing. And I’m not able to ascertain if the same problem applies to the Windows 98 client, which is not used until a few hours later.

Any helpful advice please?

TIA. Jim.


Also posted at MS Forum:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsser...px?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.general

 

[wbg34]

Try the fix from this MS KB article.

Mapped Drive Connection to Network Share May Be Lost

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q297684

SYMPTOMS

On a computer that runs one of the versions of Windows that is listed at the beginning of this article, if you map a drive to a network share, the mapped drive may be disconnected after a regular interval of inactivity, and Windows Explorer may display a red "X" on the icon of the mapped drive. However, if you try to access or browse the mapped drive, it reconnects quickly. This behavior occurs if the network share computer runs Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows Server 2003.

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because Windows NT Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows Server 2003 can drop idle connections after a specified time-out period (by default, 15 minutes) to prevent wasting server resources on unused sessions. The connection can be re-established very quickly, if required.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, change the default time-out period on the shared network computer. To do this, use one of the following methods.

NOTE: You cannot change the default time-out period for Microsoft Windows 95-based computers and Microsoft Windows 98-based computers that have shared resources.

Registry Editor
NOTE: You cannot use this method to turn off the autodisconnect feature of the Server service. You can only use this method to change the default time-out period for the autodisconnect feature. WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Use Registry Editor to increase the default time-out period. To do this, follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:
Click Start, click Run, type regedit (Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003) or type regedt32 (Windows NT 4.0), and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
In the right pane, click the autodisconnect value, and then on the Edit menu, click Modify. If the autodisconnect value does not exist, follow these steps:
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click REG_DWORD.
Type autodisconnect, and then press ENTER.
Click Hexadecimal.
In the Value data box, type ffffffff, and then click OK.