Dropping Shared Connections (only)

[+Bob+]

Vista SP1

I have an issue with Vista dropping shared drive connections, often
while working on files on those drives. Today I was working in Word on
a file on a shared drive... the connection just dropped. Word hung,
checking in Explorer (clicking on drive letter) gave me a "drive not
available" message on several drives mapped to that machine.

The drives are shared off a win2003 server and I use simple
username/password authentication to access the drives, no domains, no
A/D.

It's not a physical or general networking issue. I can still browse
the Internet. In fact, the last time it happened I was logged into the
server with an RDC connection and it continued to act normally.

I found that I could not see the server by browsing the network.
Browsing from the win2003 server side I could still see the client on
the network.

Ideas?

 

[Adam]

Vista SP1

I have an issue with Vista dropping shared drive connections, often
while working on files on those drives. Today I was working in Word on
a file on a shared drive... the connection just dropped. Word hung,
checking in Explorer (clicking on drive letter) gave me a "drive not
available" message on several drives mapped to that machine.

The drives are shared off a win2003 server and I use simple
username/password authentication to access the drives, no domains, no
A/D.

It's not a physical or general networking issue. I can still browse
the Internet. In fact, the last time it happened I was logged into the
server with an RDC connection and it continued to act normally.

I found that I could not see the server by browsing the network.
Browsing from the win2003 server side I could still see the client on
the network.

Ideas?

I have exactly the same issue and as yet have found no fix although the
issue seems to be due to the workstation service becoming unstable on the
Vista machine. Once this issue has ocured any attempts to stop/restart the
service fail. The issue started shortly after the SP1 install!

 

[LeftFoot]

If I'm understanding your situation, it sounds as though you've proved that
name resolution is your problem. All systems member of same workgroup? Are
the IP addresses of all of these systems fixed, provided by DHCP from some
source like a router or a server (if server, the one with the shares?), or a
mix? You are connecting to the server via RDP as an admin or as a TS user?
You have what kinds of accounts on the server / local workstation?

Worst-case scenario, as in you you have no admin rights to fix general
issues / make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is working everywhere, you could
just creat your mapped drives using the IP address instead of the server
name. If that's not satisfactory, maybe you could post back with an outline
with more information about the general network environment infrastructure
and your working relationship to it. That might provide enough information
for someone here to give more concrete suggestions.

 

[+Bob+]

If I'm understanding your situation, it sounds as though you've proved that
name resolution is your problem.

I don't know if that's it... I'm no MS networking guru, but when I use
RDC I am using the server's MS network name, not a FQDM or IP...so it
looks like the MS names are still working(?)

All systems member of same workgroup?
Yes

Are the IP addresses of all of these systems fixed, provided by DHCP from some
source like a router or a server (if server, the one with the shares?), or a
mix?

DHCP from a router, although the leases are long and they don't change
(certainly not while working). The server has a fixed IP assigned by
DHCP based on MAC.

You are connecting to the server via RDP as an admin or as a TS user?
You have what kinds of accounts on the server / local workstation?

I'm not sure I understand the difference in RDP - you might have to
help me. The account I am connecting to on the server is an admin
there and I am an admin on the Vista client. The accounts match on
username and password. Are you asking a different question?

Worst-case scenario, as in you you have no admin rights to fix general
issues / make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is working everywhere,

How to I get through the Vista friendly layer to see the actual
network software configuration? How do I test NetBIOS?

you could
just creat your mapped drives using the IP address instead of the server
name.

I can try that and see if it helps.

If that's not satisfactory, maybe you could post back with an outline
with more information about the general network environment infrastructure
and your working relationship to it. That might provide enough information
for someone here to give more concrete suggestions.

Network is very simple as described above. Let me know what specific
info you need.

FYI - none of this is a problem with and of the XP or win2000 network
clients. The only oddity I have is that both XP and Vista have had an
issue re-establishing drive connections when returning from a long
term "lock workstation" state. The connections most always drop and
are difficult to re-establish without a reboot.

 

[LeftFoot]

I don't know if that's it... I'm no MS networking guru, but when I use
RDC I am using the server's MS network name, not a FQDM or IP...so it
looks like the MS names are still working(?)

Oh, okay. Sorry. I was guilty of making an ASSumtion that you were using the
server's IP address when connecting by RDC. I normally do that to multiple
domains via VPN so only use IP addresses with RDC most of the time.

Oh, and I'm not networking guru of any kind, either. I just plod along
trying to herd the thing along, you know? I sometimes get the feeling that
there are a lot of us on this particular prairie.

DHCP from a router, although the leases are long and they don't change
(certainly not while working). The server has a fixed IP assigned by
DHCP based on MAC.

So, it also sounds as though they're all on the same subnet. No complications
from that angle.

I'm not sure I understand the difference in RDP - you might have to
help me. The account I am connecting to on the server is an admin
there and I am an admin on the Vista client. The accounts match on
username and password. Are you asking a different question?

Yes, I should have stated my real question plainly. I wondered if the TS
connection was being made in admin mode (max. of 2 connections permitted) or
if
the server was running in terminal services mode. I was also wondering if you
had admin privs everywhere. Sounds like you do.

How to I get through the Vista friendly layer to see the actual
network software configuration? How do I test NetBIOS?

As a first step you can just go into the Advanced properties dialog for IPv4
to
see what NetBIOS setting it is using. From Network and Sharing Center click on
"Manage network connections" in the left pane. Right-click on your network
connection, and choose Properties. Double-click on the IPv4 protocol in the
list. Click on the Advanced button. On the WINS tab, look at the NetBIOS
setting.

I can try that and see if it helps.

Please let me know how that works out. But, now that I (think/hope) I am
clearer on your situation, I don't really think name resolution was the
problem after all.

Network is very simple as described above. Let me know what specific
info you need.

I think I may have almost everything I need to grasp the situation. See
below.

FYI - none of this is a problem with and of the XP or win2000 network
clients. The only oddity I have is that both XP and Vista have had an
issue re-establishing drive connections when returning from a long
term "lock workstation" state. The connections most always drop and
are difficult to re-establish without a reboot.

I'm not quite clear on what you're saying here with respect to whether or not
XP systems are affected. But it appears that a new element of information has
been added. From your first post I had assumed that the failure of the mapped
drive was happening while you were actively using the system, but this info
here has me wondering if this is only happening after the workstation has
been locked or has been sitting idle for a while. If that's the case, you may
need to check the power saving settings of the network interface on the
systems
which have the problem. Later versions of Windows clients have very aggressive
power saving functionality, and the interaction of this zealous green behavior
with some NIC drivers has unfortunate consequences. You might want to go into
the NIC's driver dialog and tell the driver to NEVER, EVER let Windows do
ANYTHING to save power with respect to that NIC. (Unfortunately, there's very
little standardization of the language used by vendors on this matter, so you
may have to do a little research with the manufacturer of the NIC to learn
your best bet for these settings.

Forgive me if I'm going off on a tangent here and this isn't the problem.

 

[+Bob+]

I'm not quite clear on what you're saying here with respect to whether or not
XP systems are affected. But it appears that a new element of information has
been added. From your first post I had assumed that the failure of the mapped
drive was happening while you were actively using the system, but this info
here has me wondering if this is only happening after the workstation has
been locked or has been sitting idle for a while. If that's the case, you may
need to check the power saving settings of the network interface on the
systems
which have the problem. Later versions of Windows clients have very aggressive
power saving functionality, and the interaction of this zealous green behavior
with some NIC drivers has unfortunate consequences. You might want to go into
the NIC's driver dialog and tell the driver to NEVER, EVER let Windows do
ANYTHING to save power with respect to that NIC. (Unfortunately, there's very
little standardization of the language used by vendors on this matter, so you
may have to do a little research with the manufacturer of the NIC to learn
your best bet for these settings.

Forgive me if I'm going off on a tangent here and this isn't the problem.

Thanks, NETBIOS was a the "default" setting which might have left it
inoperative in some conditions. I have forced it to Enable mode to see
if that helps.

As for the "lock workstation" issue, I did already do a little digging
with respect to the network card issue. I set the "user level" setting
in power management to never power down the network card but I will
also look for the sort of setting you mentioned in the driver area to
prevent power down. The bad news is that in XP it just dropped the
drives... in Vista it effectively hangs the OS.

Thanks,

 

[LeftFoot]

Thanks, NETBIOS was a the "default" setting which might have left it

inoperative in some conditions. I have forced it to Enable mode to see
if that helps.

As for the "lock workstation" issue, I did already do a little digging
with respect to the network card issue. I set the "user level" setting
in power management to never power down the network card but I will
also look for the sort of setting you mentioned in the driver area to
prevent power down. The bad news is that in XP it just dropped the
drives... in Vista it effectively hangs the OS.

Oh, that's just nasty. I hate that helpless feeling, which I've had in all
Windows versions, of having Explorer just bring everything to a standstill
while it tries to decide whether or not it can (or will) read a folder.

Please post back with what you learn. I can tell you for certain that the
user level power settings in XP and Vista are definitely not enough to keep
the NIC alive if it was primed to power down when "not being used". And the
OS will wait and wait and wait for response from hardware (or its driver).

Here's hoping!

 

[+Bob+]

Please post back with what you learn. I can tell you for certain that the
user level power settings in XP and Vista are definitely not enough to keep
the NIC alive if it was primed to power down when "not being used". And the
OS will wait and wait and wait for response from hardware (or its driver).

Here's hoping!

Solved it! I want to post my thanks for your pointer to the net card
power settings. I had already set the Power Settings for windows to
Maximize performance of the net card. This was based on a KB I found
at MS regarding using Vista connected to a router which might not
understand the "latest" power protocols (something to do with packets
being queued and/or sent while the net card has gone idle).

Despite the fact that the KB indicated that changing this setting
would cure the problem (the inference being that the card would stay
alive), it doesn't do the trick. However, going into device manager
and manually telling the card it isn't allowed to power down does
apparently cure it.

I don't know if it's a hardware issue (card ignoring the Vista
setting) or a software issue (Vista setting not working), but direct
access to the driver settings does fix it! I still get a slight delay
after sign-on when the icons go blank, but now it recovers.

It's worth noting that I did make the same change in XP and it never
cured the problem but at least XP didn't do a system hang.

Thanks again,

 

[LeftFoot]

Solved it! I want to post my thanks for your pointer to the net card
power settings. I had already set the Power Settings for windows to
Maximize performance of the net card. This was based on a KB I found
at MS regarding using Vista connected to a router which might not
understand the "latest" power protocols (something to do with packets
being queued and/or sent while the net card has gone idle).

Despite the fact that the KB indicated that changing this setting
would cure the problem (the inference being that the card would stay
alive), it doesn't do the trick. However, going into device manager
and manually telling the card it isn't allowed to power down does
apparently cure it.

I don't know if it's a hardware issue (card ignoring the Vista
setting) or a software issue (Vista setting not working), but direct
access to the driver settings does fix it! I still get a slight delay
after sign-on when the icons go blank, but now it recovers.

It's worth noting that I did make the same change in XP and it never
cured the problem but at least XP didn't do a system hang.

Thanks again,

I'm very glad to read this.

I think that Microsoft with Vista, and even XP, have done a pretty good job
of trying to deal with issues like this. I suspect that it's the drivers from
some vendors that fall short. I never see this sort of issue with recent
drivers / hardware from Intel, for instance. With other vendors it seems to
be a model by model thing. Some work, and some don't.

I'm glad you got some satisfaction on the issue.

 

[+Bob+]

I'm very glad to read this.

I think that Microsoft with Vista, and even XP, have done a pretty good job
of trying to deal with issues like this. I suspect that it's the drivers from
some vendors that fall short. I never see this sort of issue with recent
drivers / hardware from Intel, for instance. With other vendors it seems to
be a model by model thing. Some work, and some don't.

I'm glad you got some satisfaction on the issue.

I agree that it might be the drivers - but Vista, even worse than
earlier versions of Windows, hangs too often. For example, if you do
something like disable your wireless and enable your hardwire
ethernet, most any Vista system it will hang and you will end up doing
a hard boot. Or, try hooking up to a network, going to standby (close
cover) and then travel with your laptop to a new physical locations
(e.g. Starbucks). When you restart, it's again hard-boot time. You can
get into the same dilemma when a share you are connected to goes down.

It's not unreasonable that Vista has issues with physical network
changes, but it is unreasonable that it hangs in these situations.
There should be timeouts built in that prevent these system hangs.
While this has always been a problem in Windows, Vista seems to be
much worse than earlier OS's.

 

[BkStCrawler]

I agree that it might be the drivers - but Vista, even worse than
earlier versions of Windows, hangs too often. For example, if you do
something like disable your wireless and enable your hardwire
ethernet, most any Vista system it will hang and you will end up doing
a hard boot. Or, try hooking up to a network, going to standby (close
cover) and then travel with your laptop to a new physical locations
(e.g. Starbucks). When you restart, it's again hard-boot time. You can
get into the same dilemma when a share you are connected to goes down.

It's not unreasonable that Vista has issues with physical network
changes, but it is unreasonable that it hangs in these situations.
There should be timeouts built in that prevent these system hangs.
While this has always been a problem in Windows, Vista seems to be
much worse than earlier OS's.

Thanks for starting this thread, as your mention of the nic power settings
might indeed be the cause. I don't have a server setup, just a; 1 vista, 3
xp & 1 linux p to p configuration. I am only having the problem from the
vista machine. I periodically lose connection to the xp machine which has my
printers connected.

David