Can somebody please point me to some step by step instructions for connecting windows 7 clients to a windows lan network. We have a small office which uses Windows server 2008 to host our shared app files and it is also the gateway to our internet access. All of the computers that have been connected for some time work just fine. Recently I tried to connect a new Windows 7 client and although I can see all of the other clients, the server (everything) and I can access files from the server and access the internet, The person that uses this computer is constantly having her Quickbooks session abort, her Outlook mail sometimes will not send mail(stores it in the outbox) and occasionally, she get kicked off the website she is an admin on. I know I at least configured it to the point that she has to log in to the network and like I said, I can access stuff from the server. sorry, I'm more of a software developer and I don't really know networking much. Any help is appreciated. Mike

Is your 2008 Server setup to run Active Directory? How do the other computers connect to the network? Sounds like you might have a network card issue...since it is affecting the network connectivity in certain applications. I would check the system log for network events, as you'll see if the network adapter becomes disabled and enabled... John John Wildes | Senior Enterprise Architect | United Airlines | Desktop Engineering

Yes 2008 Server uses active directory. all clients connect to the server via lan adapters in same office. Do I need to tell the client the servers local ip address? I thought maybe the proceedure I used to connect the client might not be right. I tried to create an account on the server for the new Computer, Then when I tried to access it from the windows 7 client I kept getting message that the computer already existed, so I deleted the computer from the server, and attempted to re connect the client as a domain network. I was able to successfully log into the company network and to my surprise, the computers account was automatically added to the server. So something tells me I may have overlooked something. Sometimes the computer will work fine and can access all the network files but then other times, it aborts its connection. Mike

No...you have it correctly. When you attach the computer to the domain it creates the computer account on the server. This is fine...this establishes the trust relationship between the computer and the domain allowing all users on the domain to authenticate into the workstation. What I think is happening is your network connection is getting dropped...either there is something physically wrong with your cable...your network card, or some piece of software other than windows in the system that is disconnecting your access to the network, and then reestablishing it. IP addresses sound like their being automatically assigned via DHCP which is normal...and if you can authenticate on the workstation then you are properly connected to the network. What I'd like you to do is look in the SYSTEM event log on the computer in question, look for any ERRORS and WARNING (red or yellow symbols) and see if they relate to network connectivity. The system event type should be NETWORK but not always. r/ johnJohn Wildes | Senior Enterprise Architect | United Airlines | Desktop Engineering

I created a simple notepad file on the server and I'm keeping it open on the client to see if there are any problems with aborting. The client is having problems with Office Outlook not sending from the out box at times, Quickbooks multiuser (main file stored on the server) sometimes aborts and the site she admins sometimes times her out prematurely. Just today I started looking into whether Kaspersky 6.0 for Workstations is blocking the lan. That may be the problem. as soon as I disabled the mail anti_virus, Outlook started functioning more efficiently. The problem might be in the Kaspersky firewall settings. I'll have to get an update from the user later today. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it very much.