Group Policy Never Go Offline, Static Ip addresses, Linksys Router

They shouldnt go offline if the ISP connection  drops, as they are all still connected to the LAN internally......

Not normal behaviour....

Try this registry fix.....

Will not lose thier connections even if offline....

Forced silent auto reconnection
When a server has been unavailable (offline mode) and then becomes available again for connection, Offline Files Client Side Caching tries to transition that server to online mode if all the following conditions are true:
There are no offline changes for that server on the local computer.
There are no open file handles for that server on the local computer.
The server is accessed over a fast link. You can adjust the definition of slow and fast by using the SlowLinkSpeed Offline Files policy.
With this hotfix, you can configure Offline Files Client Side Caching to ignore these conditions and transition the server to online mode regardless of whether these conditions exist. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.
Locate and click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache
Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type SilentForcedAutoReconnect, and then press ENTER to name the value.
Double-click SilentForcedAutoReconnect.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

From Here......

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811660

I get frequent users say they're working offline but have a connection to the router.  When I click synchronize offline files it usually fixes the problems.  Why would certain instances make some files or folders cause the system to go offline.  There's no group policy option that will stop them from going offline, without having to start off with registry editing first.

From http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811660

Forced silent auto reconnection
When a server has been unavailable (offline mode) and then becomes available again for connection, Offline Files Client Side Caching tries to transition that server to online mode if all the following conditions are true:
There are no offline changes for that server on the local computer.
There are no open file handles for that server on the local computer.
The server is accessed over a fast link. You can adjust the definition of slow and fast by using the SlowLinkSpeed Offline Files policy.
With this hotfix, you can configure Offline Files Client Side Caching to ignore these conditions and transition the server to online mode regardless of whether these conditions exist. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.
Locate and click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache
Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type SilentForcedAutoReconnect, and then press ENTER to name the value.
Double-click SilentForcedAutoReconnect.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

Thats a workaround to prevent them from losing thier access to the shared resources when they go offline, but it doesnt solve the Offline problem itself.....

Are you Wired into this Linksys, wireless? Is it up to date with the recent FW vesrion?

Depending on the version of the linksys, you might be able to enable logging on it to see if it has any blips in it's LAN connection.... That would throw them offline if it loses connectivity....

Yes, we're wired into the Linksys router.  With 3 gigabyte dell switches.  Wireless is disabled.  I just checked on the firmware and it does need to be updated.  My router is a WRT300N version 1.

Silly question, but if your'e wired in, why the Offline Files?

Secondly, did you get a chance to look at the log in the Linksys for any drops? Should be under the Administration Tab.......

Thirdly, you might want to make a "ping -t LINKSYSIP >c:\ping.txt" from several workstations, to compare the results, if it loses the abiolity to ping..... You can hit CTRL+C to stop the ping, and then review the .txt file...

Not a silly question at all.  This is what I'm trying to resolve.  I'm not sure if this would be a group policy issue or the router.  

Well, Offline Files is of course GPO, but I am just trying to help determins if you are getting small drops on teh LAN connection..... Thats hat causes you to go Offline. If you are working with Workstations, and not laptops, personally, IMHO, I would go for not using Offline Files.

By turning off the offline files on group policy, even if the router drops the connection the users would still remain online just no internet connection?

Yes, but the PC's will recover. By design, Offline Files will NOT reconnect , because it thinks that your server is offline. Stays that way until you reconnect, by synchronising, and returning the the network....

I also have folder redirection on the server, will this be an issue if i turn off offline files?    This will stop them from having to sync their files when the router drops? When the router drops it throws them into that offline file mode correct?   This has caused me a lot of grief and confusion for the past few months.  If the router drops the users go right into that offline mode.  After this happens i have to go to each pc and sync offline files.  A few times it synced the wrong data and I had to restore files.  


And by turning this off,  will allow them to work locally until the connection is back up? This is how come I asked about the static ip addresses.  Because if the router drops some pcs are trying to renew there ip addresses.  

"When the router drops it throws them into that offline file mode correct?"

yes.

"And by turning this off,  will allow them to work locally until the connection is back up? This is how come I asked about the static ip addresses.  Because if the router drops some pcs are trying to renew there ip addresses.  "

Yes, youll still be offline until the recovery, but I dont think that the static IP's will save you more than about 10-15 seconds tops....

"I also have folder redirection on the server, will this be an issue if i turn off offline files?    This will stop them from having to sync their files when the router drops?"

As long as they arent laptops that leave the office, then Offline files is not needed. Redirection still shows them thier Live Data....

"youll still be offline until the recovery"  What happens to users profiles and files if the router suddenly drops?  They lose their ip addresses, but are you saying that they will still be locally connected to their files?

What about the never go offline option?  Would this prevent the users from not going offline even if the router was down, I've used this on a few of the pcs that had shared resources.  I had to put them in group policy to never go offline because they were putting users in offline mode if the pc they were connecting to would go offline.  

And what's your honest opinion on the router.  Do you think I should purchase something more reliable?
I'm sorry for bombarding you with all these questions.

Profile should still be cached locally....... As long as no login/logoffs occur at the time it is down....

Never go offline should also help......

And actually, I was going suggest a new router.... Routers shouldnt drop like that.........35 users or so, might be too much for this model, or maybe there are some tweaks in the settins you can do.....

Sonicwall/Juniper/Cisco etc... Great for Small Offices....

So the option to Allow or Disallow use of the Offline Files Feature should be disabled?

The  Non-default server disconnect actions should be set to 1 for the server?


Any other suggestions?


Currently I have Remove "Make available offline" set to enabled
Prohibit user configuration of offline files set to enabled.
And my non default server disconnects actions for other network resources not associated with the server.

Action on server disconnect?