Intermittent Workgroup Problems

[qas]

I have a small workgroup network with a handful of machines, most are
W2K Pro and 1 is XP Pro. They are connected through a router (1 cabled,
others wireless) and each has a shared folder with permissions set for
“remote access” accounts that are different from the “local user”
accounts. e.g. userA on machineA can access the shared folder on
machineB by entering logon/password for remoteX.

Zone Alarm firewall on each machine has been configured to trust the subnet.

On a good day this all works as expected. UserA opens Network Places and
traverses to the workgroup, the machine and the share. Upon clicking on
the shared folder a prompt appears and with appropriate credentials (of
remoteX) access is granted.

On a bad day various scenarios may occur.
1) Network Places finds the Workgroup but not all the connected machines
2) Network Places finds the Workgroup and the connected machine but the
prompt does not appear. Instead an access denied message is returned.
3) Network Places finds the Workgroup but shows a machine that is no
longer connected
I have tried numerous things such as disabling the firewall,
synchronizing a single logon/password on all machines, rebooting etc.
None of these make any difference “on a bad day”.

I have resisted using “mapping network drive” since machines are often
offline. Past experience on corporate networks has shown that if any of
the mappings is inaccessible, simple functionality is negatively
impacted while the system waits to timeout.

How do I “force” Network Places to find all connected machines? (Open,
Explore, Expand, Search for Computers don’t solve the problem)

How do I refresh Network Places to remove machines that are not
currently connected?

How do I force a logon prompt to appear for the share?

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

q

 

[Phillip Windell]

I have a small workgroup network with a handful of machines, most are
W2K Pro and 1 is XP Pro. They are connected through a router (1 cabled,
others wireless) and each has a shared folder with permissions set for
“remote access” accounts that are different from the “local user”
accounts. e.g. userA on machineA can access the shared folder on
machineB by entering logon/password for remoteX.

Zone Alarm firewall on each machine has been configured to trust the

subnet.

Get rid of Zone Alarm,...uninstall it,...disabling isn't good enough. Your
machines are already protected by being behind the NAT Device,...therefore
they are not being exposed directly to the internet. ZA is serving no
purpose other than to create "bad days".

Once the "bad days" are gone and the network performs consistantly,...then
you can consider messing it up again by putting ZA back on them,...at least
you would then know without a doubt that ZA was the cause since it would
have been working fine before you put ZA back on.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Guidance
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2004.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2000.asp

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[qas]

Logical step, so I have uninstalled ZA.
Unfortunately, problems persist, so we are back to the original
questions noted below.

Suggestions welcome.

thanks

q

 

[Phillip Windell]

I have no idea. Maybe others will have ideas. But leave ZA off there until
this is solved.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Guidance
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2004.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2000.asp

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp

 

[qas]

I have no idea. Maybe others will have ideas. But leave ZA off there until
this is solved.

Stepping through the configuration:
Under TCP/IP / Advanced / WINs there are a number of options for
configuring NetBIOS

a)Enable NetBios over TCP/IP
b)Use NetBios setting from DHCP server
c)Disable NetBios over TCP/IP

Which is preferable for proper workgroup file and printer sharing: a or b?

thanks

q

 

[Phillip Windell]

Stepping through the configuration:
Under TCP/IP / Advanced / WINs there are a number of options for
configuring NetBIOS

a)Enable NetBios over TCP/IP
b)Use NetBios setting from DHCP server
c)Disable NetBios over TCP/IP

Which is preferable for proper workgroup file and printer sharing: a or

b?

Either one. If using "B" and DHCP doesn't supply the Netbios Setting,...it
will do "A" anyway.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Guidance
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2004.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2000.asp

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[Phillip Windell]

a)Enable NetBios over TCP/IP

b)Use NetBios setting from DHCP server
c)Disable NetBios over TCP/IP

With Win2000 I use "A".

With XP the selections are different. A and B have switched places. In XP
the default is DHCP ("b" in Win2k, "a" in XP), that is where I leave it. In
otherwords I never touch it in either OS, I just leave it at the Default in
each case.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Guidance
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2004.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2000.asp

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[qas]

With Win2000 I use "A".

With XP the selections are different. A and B have switched places. In XP
the default is DHCP ("b" in Win2k, "a" in XP), that is where I leave it. In
otherwords I never touch it in either OS, I just leave it at the Default in
each case.

thanks

Anything else I should check?

 

[qas]

I have a small workgroup network with a handful of machines, most are
W2K Pro and 1 is XP Pro. They are connected through a router (1 cabled,
others wireless) and each has a shared folder with permissions set for
“remote access” accounts that are different from the “local user”
accounts. e.g. userA on machineA can access the shared folder on
machineB by entering logon/password for remoteX.

Zone Alarm firewall on each machine has been configured to trust the
subnet.

On a good day this all works as expected. UserA opens Network Places and
traverses to the workgroup, the machine and the share. Upon clicking on
the shared folder a prompt appears and with appropriate credentials (of
remoteX) access is granted.

On a bad day various scenarios may occur.
1) Network Places finds the Workgroup but not all the connected machines
2) Network Places finds the Workgroup and the connected machine but
the prompt does not appear. Instead an access denied message is returned.
3) Network Places finds the Workgroup but shows a machine that is no
longer connected
I have tried numerous things such as disabling the firewall,
synchronizing a single logon/password on all machines, rebooting etc.
None of these make any difference “on a bad day”.

I have resisted using “mapping network drive” since machines are often
offline. Past experience on corporate networks has shown that if any of
the mappings is inaccessible, simple functionality is negatively
impacted while the system waits to timeout.

How do I “force” Network Places to find all connected machines? (Open,
Explore, Expand, Search for Computers don’t solve the problem)

How do I refresh Network Places to remove machines that are not
currently connected?

How do I force a logon prompt to appear for the share?

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

q

After some more experimentation, I have decided to "abandon" Network
Places. I have created simple mapping scripts for each user.

One of the "bad day" symptoms of Access Denied occurs if you double
click instead of single click and W2K automatically maps the drive
without asking for a userid/password. Since the userid/password are
inappropriate access is denied, but you have been (silently) mapped
anyway. Eventually you can find out that you need to disconnect and
start over but ... User error - bad design ?!?

The other quirks, NP does not find/refresh the workgroup or NP displays
connections that are no longer online just arent worth the effort.

NP is gone. Back to the DOS days of scripting.

The only real problem left is the inability of 1 W2K machine to print
to the shared printer. There have been allusions to MS patch problems in
other newsgroups.

thanks for the advice

q