Mapped network drive limitation

[Sue Henderson]

Hi, I have to administer a small peer to peer network of 10 PC's 1 of those
acst as a central file server. All PC's are running XP home. I discovered
only a couple of weeks ago that XP Home limits the number of direct
connections to a PC to 5 or something like that. so when all the PC's are
fired up in the morning only the first 5 get a mapped drive while the others
get nothing. First come first served.

Without going into too much detail, these mapped network drives are needed
to access a file on the server only once a day. But of course once they have
their file the mapped drive stays connected. I know its simple to just
unmount the mapped drive but some of the users are not particularly bright
and I don't want them going their.

I thought I might try a different approach. I thought I might try to get the
server, via a batch file of some sort, to update each pc with the required
file. Something like:

map \\PC1\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC1\foldername X

map \\PC2\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC2\foldername X

map \\PC3\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC3\foldername X

etc..........
This batch file would be run once a day from the server

Could someone assist me with a suggestion as to the content of what this
batch file might look like, or indeed if what I am trying to do can be done.

Thanks in advance,

Sue.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

net use X: \\servername\sharename
copy (whatever you're copying)
net use X: /d

Rinse. Repeat as necessary.

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Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
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[Michael W. Ryder]

net use X: \\servername\sharename
copy (whatever you're copying)
net use X: /d

Rinse. Repeat as necessary.

Wouldn't it be simpler to simply have each PC use a batch file saying:
copy \\servername\sharename\filename ? That way you don't have to map
or unmap the drives. I use something similar to have 40 PCs access
files on a Windows 2000 workstation. They just copy the files they need
as they need them.

 

[Sue Henderson]

Wow, that sounds so simple, I am embarresed I didnt think of it myself.
Thank you Michael and Richard for your responses. I will try thae latter
first.

Thanks again,

Sue

 

[Richard G. Harper]

The OP was having problems with too many connections to a resource at once.
An explicit disconnect of the drive would be needed to resolve that problem.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[Bob Willard]

Hi, I have to administer a small peer to peer network of 10 PC's 1 of those
acst as a central file server. All PC's are running XP home. I discovered
only a couple of weeks ago that XP Home limits the number of direct
connections to a PC to 5 or something like that. so when all the PC's are
fired up in the morning only the first 5 get a mapped drive while the others
get nothing. First come first served.

Without going into too much detail, these mapped network drives are needed
to access a file on the server only once a day. But of course once they have
their file the mapped drive stays connected. I know its simple to just
unmount the mapped drive but some of the users are not particularly bright
and I don't want them going their.

I thought I might try a different approach. I thought I might try to get the
server, via a batch file of some sort, to update each pc with the required
file. Something like:

map \\PC1\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC1\foldername X

map \\PC2\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC2\foldername X

map \\PC3\foldername\ X
copy filename X:
unmount \\PC3\foldername X

etc..........
This batch file would be run once a day from the server

Could someone assist me with a suggestion as to the content of what this
batch file might look like, or indeed if what I am trying to do can be done.

Thanks in advance,

Sue.

The limit is on concurrent inbound connections (to the pseudo-server);
there is no limit on outbound connections. So a different approach is to
create a map from the server to each of the clients and copy from the server
to each client every morning, via some batch file on the server.

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

The OP was having problems with too many connections to a resource at once.
An explicit disconnect of the drive would be needed to resolve that problem.

The OP wanted to simply copy a file to another PC. Why map the drive
and then release the mapping when a simple copy will do the same thing?

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Because then the session would not disconnect as soon as the transfer is
done. This is the problem the OP was having - too many connections due to
too many computers copying files. By explicitly disconnecting the session
when complete you don't bump into the connection limit.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

Because then the session would not disconnect as soon as the transfer is
done. This is the problem the OP was having - too many connections due to
too many computers copying files. By explicitly disconnecting the session
when complete you don't bump into the connection limit.

I have never run into this problem even with 40 people getting files
from a single Windows 2000 workstation. I thought that as soon as the
command session ended so did any connections it may have made.