a1454
asked on
UNC path fail to work when server is on fixed IP address
Hello,
I'm currently encountering a strange problem in my office, I have a main server running on Windows Small Business Server 2003 and two other servers, a Terminal Server and a File Server both running on Windows Server 2003.
We used to have the terminal server and file server's IP address set to dynamic, but I find it just a better practice to set them to static since they are servers.
Our DHCP server on SBS 2003 is set to exclude the range from 192.168.1.1~10, and SBS2003's local network is on 192.168.1.3
We used to be able to connect to share drives on all the server by typing //fserver/sharename$
After I set our file server's IP address to 192.168.1.5, the UNC path failed to work.
but if I type in the IP of the server directly \\192.168.1.5\sharename it will work just fine.
I first thought it was a DNS issue so I flushed out all the cached DNS record from SBS 2003. Also on one of the client machine I ran nslookup on fserver.domain.lan and it finds the proper IP address for file server, also I tried to ping that IP address as well as its UNC path, both is working just fine.
But when I tried to type the UNC path into explorer window, it just stuck for about 5 minutes and says "Windows cannot find \\fserver\tool$, check the spelling and try again."
I'm just totally puzzled by this issue as the DNS resolve is correct and I just don't see what's the difference between typing in IP directly or using UNC path since they will get resolved to the same thing anyway.
I'm currently encountering a strange problem in my office, I have a main server running on Windows Small Business Server 2003 and two other servers, a Terminal Server and a File Server both running on Windows Server 2003.
We used to have the terminal server and file server's IP address set to dynamic, but I find it just a better practice to set them to static since they are servers.
Our DHCP server on SBS 2003 is set to exclude the range from 192.168.1.1~10, and SBS2003's local network is on 192.168.1.3
We used to be able to connect to share drives on all the server by typing //fserver/sharename$
After I set our file server's IP address to 192.168.1.5, the UNC path failed to work.
but if I type in the IP of the server directly \\192.168.1.5\sharename it will work just fine.
I first thought it was a DNS issue so I flushed out all the cached DNS record from SBS 2003. Also on one of the client machine I ran nslookup on fserver.domain.lan and it finds the proper IP address for file server, also I tried to ping that IP address as well as its UNC path, both is working just fine.
But when I tried to type the UNC path into explorer window, it just stuck for about 5 minutes and says "Windows cannot find \\fserver\tool$, check the spelling and try again."
I'm just totally puzzled by this issue as the DNS resolve is correct and I just don't see what's the difference between typing in IP directly or using UNC path since they will get resolved to the same thing anyway.
Hello a1454,
Please try to disable the Windows Firewall service on \\192.168.1.5.
I am not recommending this as a solution, just to test to isolate any firewall issues. Please Stop or Disable the Windows Firewall Service, and then once again on the client machine, try the UNC path.
Please try to disable the Windows Firewall service on \\192.168.1.5.
I am not recommending this as a solution, just to test to isolate any firewall issues. Please Stop or Disable the Windows Firewall Service, and then once again on the client machine, try the UNC path.
Not just windows firewall but any firewall running and the antivirus (just for testing)
ASKER
Thanks for all the comments.
Windows Firewall on File Server is already off, also there are nothing else that will control network traffic on that machine, it has a Symantec Client Security running on it and that's about it.
I get the exactly same ping result no matter if ping the IP address or the server name, as I've said earlier, nslookup is able to resolve the name to the proper IP address.
There is only one domain controller in our network, SBS 2003 will not allow another DC in the same network. (one forest only, that is)
The part that really have my puzzled is why I'm able to get to the share drive immediately if I type in \\192.168.1.5\share$ in explorer window while typing \\fserver\share$ won't.
Again thanks for all the comments, really appreciate the help
Windows Firewall on File Server is already off, also there are nothing else that will control network traffic on that machine, it has a Symantec Client Security running on it and that's about it.
I get the exactly same ping result no matter if ping the IP address or the server name, as I've said earlier, nslookup is able to resolve the name to the proper IP address.
There is only one domain controller in our network, SBS 2003 will not allow another DC in the same network. (one forest only, that is)
The part that really have my puzzled is why I'm able to get to the share drive immediately if I type in \\192.168.1.5\share$ in explorer window while typing \\fserver\share$ won't.
Again thanks for all the comments, really appreciate the help
Did you try using the FQDN with your file share? \\fserver.mydomain.whoread
ASKER
Matthew,
I was testing just that and when I'm ready to come back and post update on the issue, I saw your comment!...lol
This just puzzles me even more, now with the fixed IP on the server, using FQDN worked!
\\fserver.ykamerica.lan\sh
But I'd still like to know why \\fserver itself won't work while it used to work.
I was testing just that and when I'm ready to come back and post update on the issue, I saw your comment!...lol
This just puzzles me even more, now with the fixed IP on the server, using FQDN worked!
\\fserver.ykamerica.lan\sh
But I'd still like to know why \\fserver itself won't work while it used to work.
Possible reasons.
You don't have the search domain set.
You have a wins server running(I can't remember if thats a standard sbs thing) which hasn't updated its database.(or even a local name cache)
If you do have wins running trying typing nbtstat -RR on the file server. But probably just check the wins server to see what the name points to.
You don't have the search domain set.
You have a wins server running(I can't remember if thats a standard sbs thing) which hasn't updated its database.(or even a local name cache)
If you do have wins running trying typing nbtstat -RR on the file server. But probably just check the wins server to see what the name points to.
It is, as DJ Relentless said, most likely a WINS issue. The short name is your NetBIOS name, which uses LMHosts / WINS vs. FQDN or IP using DNS / Hosts.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739282.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739282.aspx
ASKER
Sorry I haven't respond to the thread for the past two days, I was performing a server restore over the weekend and was just exhausted from that.
Thanks for the comments, I think I'm getting really close to find out the cause for this.
Here is an update, I've tested and find out one thing, NOT every client machine have the same issue.
Some client machine can still use \\fserver\share$ without problem, but some client machine just won't work with UNC.
I actually don't know too much about WINS Server, I thought that's something belong to the Windows 2000 family?
But I think its very likely a local name cache issue, as some machine will work and some won't, so in that case how do I manually have a client machine purge its local name cache?
Again, thanks for all the comment, really appreciated!!
Thanks for the comments, I think I'm getting really close to find out the cause for this.
Here is an update, I've tested and find out one thing, NOT every client machine have the same issue.
Some client machine can still use \\fserver\share$ without problem, but some client machine just won't work with UNC.
I actually don't know too much about WINS Server, I thought that's something belong to the Windows 2000 family?
But I think its very likely a local name cache issue, as some machine will work and some won't, so in that case how do I manually have a client machine purge its local name cache?
Again, thanks for all the comment, really appreciated!!
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ASKER
ipconfig /flushdns worked, thanks a whole bunch!! :)
Also thanks for everyone who answered, its been a great help!!
Also thanks for everyone who answered, its been a great help!!
How long has it been since you changed the IP address to static? Even in a small network if you have multiple domain controllers, there might be replication issues requiring at least 30 minutes.