Beginning 2 nights ago workstations are experiencing random loss of connection to our data storage netware server. No changes, upgrades, updates, additions were made, it just started happening.
We have 2 Netware 6 SP5 Small Business servers one is primarily used for GroupWise and the other for Data storage. We haven't noticed any problems in GW or with that server, just the server that has our primary data on it.
Everyone logs in okay and the drives map correctly, but when you open Windows Explorer and try to browse the drive you get an error reading: "V:\ is not accessibly. The specified network name is no longer available"
Clicking OK and then trying to access the drive again will let the user browse and open files - essentially, everyone has to open the drive, get the error and then open it again to actually gain access.
After access is established, it seems to lose the connection after 5 - 10 minutes of no activity.
Problem is occurring on all systems XP Home and Pro and Vista, and with novell client 4.91 sp4 and sp5 and it doesn't seem to matter if the client is logging into the primary server (192.160.0.1) or the data server (192.168.0.16)
Also doesn't seem to matter if we use the server name or ip address when logging in.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
I will double-check to make sure they were installed with IP only and that the Windows firewall is turned off - not sure why the problem would start occurring now since no changes were made to the client or firewall.
We did recently start deploying Novell Client 4.91 SP5 to replace SP4, but the dropped connection issue is occurring on both.
A couple things in addition to PsiCop's stuff:
1) Windows XP Home is NOT a supported OS for a business network, by Novell OR Microsoft. You should replace them as soon as possible, preferably with Windows XP Pro. It doesn't matter if it works or not in your setup, it's not supported by any manufacturer or ISV, so you shouldn't use it. That's not germane to your Question, but it's a point that needs to be made, over and over.
2) If you've got a workstation-based antivirus product, it could have its own firewall which could be interfering with NCP. I know from experience that Trend Micro's OfficeScan client has that tendency.
Another thought - check your provider order. It's possible that Microsoft, in one of its frequent security-patch/bugfix updates, may have switched provider order on you, and the auto-disconnect "feature" of the Windows client is disconnecting you.
Novell doesn't do that to their customers. They do a "keep-alive" as opposed to an "auto disconnect." Novell wants your connection to stay active, because they're all about providing uninterrupted service; Microsoft wants to kill inactive connections as soon as possible because each connection it leaves open slows down the rest and highlights their inefficiencies.
On Monday I will check out whether it is only happening on the XP Home systems (we are gradually flushing them out of our environment and should have them all gone by February).
We are using Sophos AV in client/server mode with the server management on our Windows 2000 server and the client distribution files on our main Netware server (not the one we are losing connection to). We are not using the Sophos Firewall - not sure what ShineOn means by "interfering with NCP" (for us, NCP means Nursing Care Plan - which would only seem applicable in this instance if I don't get this resolved and it drives me into early retirement)
I will also be looking into:
Provider order
Windows Firewall settings
That the client is installed IP only
Thanks for your suggestions, I will post more info on Monday.
In a NetWare environment, NCP = NetWare Core Protocol. Port 524. It's the protocol used to "talk" to NetWare servers. Without NCP, you can't access any NetWare resources, specifically file services - unless you use a non-NetWare method like CIFS or FTP.
Here is what we have done to try and resolve our client/server connection issues:
Replaced most of the XP Home systems with XP Pro
Turned off Windows Firewall on all systems - this did not seem to be the problem, some systems with it turned on had problems and others did not.
Installed or reinstalled the Novell Client IP Only (version 4.91 SP5 with updated NWGINA and NWFS) (2 of the XP Home systems had Ip and IPX installed one of them was having problems the other wasn't)
Confirmed all NICs are using latest drivers and are working properly (only had to update the drivers on 3 systems, none of which were having the problems - did not find any defective NICs
Removed several small switches and hubs from individual offices and connected all devices directly to wall jacks leading to patch panels and then switches - this seems to have had the most impact on overall network performance, we are running much faster now, not sure if it was related to our losing connection issue.
Replaced the CAT 5 cables going from the patch panel ports to the switch ports (got a donation of 100 3 foot cables and decided what the heck - not sure if it had any impact)
Confirmed network provider order on all systems is: Netware Services MS Windows Network, MS Terminal Services, Web Client Network (no changes needed to be made, all systems had Netware first)
The problem with losing the connection to the Netware server seemed to be limited to XP Home systems, and we have replaced all but 4 of them, (the remaining ones are not having any issues at this time, but will be replaced soon).
Based on all this, I am not sure what caused the problem, but replacing the XP Home systems seems to have help solve the problems and ShineOn's advice was the motivation we needed to finally get rid of the Home systems, so I am awarding the points to ShineOn.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: PsiCopPosted on 2008-12-06 at 12:54:00ID: 23113584
Hmmm.... when the NetWare Client 32 was installed on the Winblows workstation, did you install it IP Only?
You're not using that laughable excuse for a firewall included in Winblows, are you?