gpwalk
asked on
windows server 2000 disconnects XP workstations overnight
Windows 2000 domain controller disconnects logged in user overnight, every night, requireing a re login, or reboot. How maintain the connections. Conections are established at login using a net use statement with peristence turned on.
Hypercat (Deb)
Is it actually logging the user off, or are the network connections merely being dropped? IOW, if you leave a user logged on overnight, when he/she comes back in the morning are they logged off? If they are, then it's probably a setting in the users' domain account options that is limiting the hours during which they can be logged on to their computers. Or possibly a third party application that runs on the server that is causing this to happen.
ASKER
They are still logged on, but have lost all of their mapped drives, including drives on the domain server and two other application servers. They can reconnect by logging off and signing in again, or-booting. Several users are on call at all hours and reley on go-to-my-pc and a desktop that can reach all the applications. There is nothing I can find in any of their accounts that would limit login time or connect time.
Unfortunately, I think this is going to be one of those issues that is hard to identify.
Are there any processes running overnight on the server, such as an antivirus scan, backups or database maintenance, that take up a large amount of resources? Are there any error messages in the event logs either on the server or on the workstations indicating what might be causing this?
It could also possibly be a hardware problem with a switch on the network that is misbehaving and causing these disconnections (or the cleaning staff is bumping the electrical cord and disconnecting the switch... ;-) Or a hardware issue with the server itself. Are you certain that the server isn't restarting due to a bug check of some kind?
Are there any processes running overnight on the server, such as an antivirus scan, backups or database maintenance, that take up a large amount of resources? Are there any error messages in the event logs either on the server or on the workstations indicating what might be causing this?
It could also possibly be a hardware problem with a switch on the network that is misbehaving and causing these disconnections (or the cleaning staff is bumping the electrical cord and disconnecting the switch... ;-) Or a hardware issue with the server itself. Are you certain that the server isn't restarting due to a bug check of some kind?
ASKER
There are zero physical problems like connections or cables.
Nothing in the server(s) event logs.
Antivirus does run at night. I change the schedule just incase.
Server is not rebooting.
You are correct that this is a difficult issue. I have been playing with it for almost a year.
They all retain connection to the internet and to an off-sitee email exchange server,
Nothing in the server(s) event logs.
Antivirus does run at night. I change the schedule just incase.
Server is not rebooting.
You are correct that this is a difficult issue. I have been playing with it for almost a year.
They all retain connection to the internet and to an off-sitee email exchange server,
ASKER
If it was an easy problem to solve, I would not be posting the question.
I;m open to any and all suggestions.
I;m open to any and all suggestions.
I've just reread this post and it struck me (which should have struck me before) that this is normal behavior for a Windows 2000 domain. I apologize for not paying enough attention to that when I first read your post. What I would really recommend is to tell your users that they have to log off when they leave the office for the day or weekend.
Allowing users to stayed logged on when they're not using their computers is a security issue, and forcing them to log off would also be the solution to your problem. That's been my practice for many years, because mapped drives would regularly get disconnected when users stayed logged on for extended periods of time under older server OS's. These days, with Windows 2003 and particularly 2008, and newer workstations OS's like Vista and Windows 7, the drives will still get disconnected, but as soon as you click on the drive letter it will automatically re-connect. This is probably not happening to your users though, because of Windows 2000.
Here's an article that you should read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684#appliesto
Down toward the end of the article it does refer to a setting to turn off autodisconnect, which you might want to try if your users insist on staying logged on all the time:
>>To turn off the autodisconnect feature, open a command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER:
net config server /autodisconnect:-1
>>
Allowing users to stayed logged on when they're not using their computers is a security issue, and forcing them to log off would also be the solution to your problem. That's been my practice for many years, because mapped drives would regularly get disconnected when users stayed logged on for extended periods of time under older server OS's. These days, with Windows 2003 and particularly 2008, and newer workstations OS's like Vista and Windows 7, the drives will still get disconnected, but as soon as you click on the drive letter it will automatically re-connect. This is probably not happening to your users though, because of Windows 2000.
Here's an article that you should read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684#appliesto
Down toward the end of the article it does refer to a setting to turn off autodisconnect, which you might want to try if your users insist on staying logged on all the time:
>>To turn off the autodisconnect feature, open a command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER:
net config server /autodisconnect:-1
>>
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I supplied the article link and information to gpwalk that resolved the issue. I should be awarded the points.
ASKER
About a week now and no conplaints of disconnet from any networ clients.