I'm setting up a Windows 2008 Server to take the place of a Windows 2000 Server in a small network.Both are now up and running. The 2008 Active Directory extension were put on the 2000. The 2000 is the Operations Master. Both are configured as DNS, DHCP,and domain servers. I set up a shared drive on the 2008. The workstations are XP Pro machines. I can see the shared drive in the XP Network Places. The link lasts for an hour or so but then I lose it and can no longer see the 2008 server in Network Places. Sometimes a reboot of the 2008 server reconnects it but not with a discernable pattern.I can always see the 2008 server share in the 2008's Network from its Windows Explorer. Any thoughts on what is causing this and how to solve it?ThanksAndyAndy

Hi Andy,try this command on the windows 2008 server:NET CONFIG SERVER /AUTODISCONNECT:timetime is the number of minutes before disconnection occurs (idle time).Dany

Thanks, That makes sense, I'll give it a try. I set the disconnect time to 65535 minutes ( the maximum) in the registry. It was set to 15HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSete\Services\Lanmanserver\Parameters\autodisconnect65535 is about 45 days which is plenty for testing.There is a knowledgebase article that describes this support.microsoft.com/kb/951037You can set the autodisconnectoff using the command line net config server /autodisconnect:-1However, the article says this adds two additional registry keys anndelta and announce to the registry that may cause problems with mapped drives.I'll stay with the max value of 65535 and avoid these mapped drive problems.Again thanks for the tip.AndyAndy

Unfortunately, the Autodisconnect time setting didn't work. To clarify, I don't lose the shared files, I lose the entire name of the server in My Network Places. The server is named "Server03" and it is missing from the last. I can ping the server and the mapped server drives are still active. I just can't browse the server. Incidentally the 2000 server has its autodisconnect time set to 15 minutes and it never has had a problem.I'm not running netbios on the 2008 server as I understand it is not needed. I understand that the browsing is done through DNS. I'm thinking to look somewhere in the DNS settings or the computer browerser settings, but can't see any set up problems.Any thoughtsAndyPS. Sorry I didn't get back earlier. I spend all day eradicating an "antivirus XP 2008" attack on one of my computers. Nasty thing.Andy

Hello Andy, 1. Please check if the Computer Browser service is set to automatic and started on all the Windows Server 2008 based computer. Note: Computer Browser service operates by exchanging a set of NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) broadcast and unicast messages. If NetBT is disabled, the Computer Browser service can no longer operate. Appendix C Computer Browser Servicehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726989.aspx 2. Please enable "NetBIOS over TCP/IP" in the Network connection advanced properties on the client. Control Panel -> Network Connections -> right-click on the connection object -> Properties -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties -> Advanced -> WINS -> NetBIOS setting -> Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP 3. you may try to boot the problematic client into Safe mode with Networking to monitor if the issue still exists. Hope it helps.David Shen - MSFT

I'm having the same issue - the server may run for up to 3 weeks (sometimes much less) and then suddenly, every workstation on the network loses network shares. The server is up, you can ping it, even use remote desktop to get to it but you can't map a drive to the shares, you can't save the file from the network drive you were just working on, you can't even manually map a drive to a network share. There is nothing in the event viewer.We have all the latest 2008 patches on our x64 server running Exchange 2007It isa standalone 2008 server (we cannot afford to put in any backup DCs)It runs auto update every morning at 3AM but we often lose our shares anywhere from 11AM til 6PMThe event viewer shows no events at the time people lose their drives or in the hour befor itThe server is a DHCP server and people are able to get new IPs at the time as well as ping it and TS to the server. We have an unmanaged switch so it can't block any ports. I can ping the server by name and by IP.The server points to itself for DNS and WINSThe network drivers are up to dateThe server has 3 partitions - the smallest partition has 50 GB free on it.I reboot the server and everyone is fine againThis has happened ever since we put in the server in November.PS - I read that people were having problems like this due to SEP - so I removed it completely - even ran cleanwipe. The issue still occurs.

I am having the same problem with one server 2008. I had the problem on another Windows 2008 Standard server. The setup was the following: Dell poweredge server with broadcom NIC. Windows 2008 server Standard - Updated to the latest patches Three Windows xp Professional - updated to the latest Symantec Endpoint Protection on all computers The workstations would lose connection to the shares every 2 or 3 days. I would reboot the server and it would work fine. I removed Symantec endpoint protection from the server and the problem was solved. -------- Now to the second server. I don't have Symantec Endpoint protection on this server and I get the same problem. The setup on this one is the following: Dell Poweredge server (Quadcore, plenty of space, file server only) Windows 2008 standard - Updated to the latest patches 2 Vista Home Premium x64 and 2 Xp Professional. The vista computers do notexhibitany problems. The xp computers lose the connection to the shares almost at random. There were times that I had to reboot the server twice a day. Rebooting the server fixes the problem. I recently updated all Broadcom NIC drivers to the latest release. Update: The problem seems to be solved. On this network we have an HP 2840 Color Laserjet Printer-Scanner. This problem would happen every time the user would scan a document directly into a mapped drive (on the server). Once she started scanning to her local drive instead of the mapped drive, the server shares behave normally. ----------------------------------- My Solutions on two different servers with the same problem: Server 1: Uninstalled Symantec Endpoint Protection (last time I checked Symantec is still working on this problem) Server 2: Stopped scanning directly to a mapped drive on the server ( We were using HP director to scan from the network to a mapped drive. Right after doing this, all Shares would become unresponsive from XP desktops. Rebooting the server would fix it. The user Scans to her local drive instead of a mapped drive)