strange network problem - netgear

andyp · 28 Feb 2009 at 21:27

Hi folks,

I've currently got a Netgear WGT624v4 router (updated to latest firmware) with 4 machines hooked up to it.

I have my file server running XP with a 4x500gb raid 0+1 array. This has a shared folder in the c: root with 800gb or so of stuff on it. This machine is left running 24/7.

I have my FS9 machine with Vista Ultimate 32bit with a 3x74gb raid0 array. This machine doesn't get used very often, although when it's on it'll be left on for hours and hours at a time. I have the shared folder on the server mapped to E: drive with no problems.

Both the above machines are wired up to the router with cat5e.

Recently we've got 2 Samsung NC10's, one for me and one for the missus. I've used WPA2-PSK[AES] with a 22-character password to connect wirelessly to the router on both NC10's.

I've mapped the shared folder to a spare drive letter on both NC10's and along we went fine, streaming is good over the network and the connection is solid, never drops below excellent.

However a problem began occurring, the connection to the shared folder on the server would be lost. Clicking on the drive letter will bring a "D: is not accessible" error box up. Sometimes just repairing the wireless connection solves the situation, sometimes restarting the NC10 (either or, sometimes both machines can't access, sometimes just 1 and sometimes neither) will bring the share back.

Doing a remote desktop into the server from the affected NC10 will immediately bring the share back but as soon as the remote desktop is closed down, access will drop out again.

I've noticed too that in the 'attached devices' page in 192.168.1.1 when an NC10 loses the share it doesn't show up - just the file server on 192.168.1.2.

Would this have anything to do with putting the laptops into standby and resuming windows, leading to a dropped IP address that can't be resolved? However net access runs perfectly fine at all times (VM cable line).

Or is there something else i'm completely missing here?

Any thoughts welcome - hope I've explained myself well enough

encephalopathy · 2 Mar 2009 at 15:35

i had a similar problem and ended up making a batch file that is run a few seconds after startup using startupdelayer. i think what was happening is that windows was trying to map the drive before the wireless connection had been reestablished after i had restarted/reawoken my nc10.

net use [drive letter]: \\[member-servername]\[sharename]
password /user:[domainname]\[domain-username] /persistent:YES

i will try and dig out the actual syntax for mine later when i get home if that helps

andyp · 2 Mar 2009 at 17:51

encephalopathy said:
i had a similar problem and ended up making a batch file that is run a few seconds after startup using startupdelayer. i think what was happening is that windows was trying to map the drive before the wireless connection had been reestablished after i had restarted/reawoken my nc10.

net use [drive letter]: \\[member-servername]\[sharename]
password /user:[domainname]\[domain-username] /persistent:YES

i will try and dig out the actual syntax for mine later when i get home if that helps

If you could do that for me it'd be mich appreciated

I thought it could be an issue similar to this - it makes sense if it can't map the drive before the wireless gets chance to connect it'll just not bother trying to reconnect and leave the share dead.

Skidilliplop · 3 Mar 2009 at 12:50

There's sometimes an option in the driver utilities to remain connected after logoff. Sometimes this has the side effect of the connection process starting at system startup not user logon. This might mean your wifi connects before the drive starts to map.

another option would be to use a vb logon script to map the drive and use the wscript.sleep command to make the script wait a set time before continuing to map the drive.

andyp · 3 Mar 2009 at 19:56

Skidilliplop said:
another option would be to use a vb logon script to map the drive and use the wscript.sleep command to make the script wait a set time before continuing to map the drive.

This sounds good.

If only I knew how to do it

Any ideas?

Skidilliplop · 4 Mar 2009 at 10:12

Google should yeild loads of examples.

Here's one i've cobbled together. Not tested tho so it might need a tweak. Also 500 = 500ms so half a second, this might not be long enough for wifi to connect, so you might have to up this to a few seconds.

=================================================
ON ERROR RESUME NEXT

Dim WSHShell, WSHNetwork, objDomain, DomainString, UserString, UserObj, Path

Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WSHNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
WSHNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive "W:", True, True
'rinse and repeat for all drives
wscript.sleep 500
WSHNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "S:", "\\xx-svr\departments"
WSHNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "U:", "\\xx-svr\HomeDirectories\" & UserString,True
WSHNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "W:", "\\xx-db\winpath"

next

set WSHSHell = Nothing
set WSHNetwork = Nothing
'cleans up the memory used
wscript.quit
=====================================================

encephalopathy · 8 Mar 2009 at 22:26

sorry for the delay - used notepad and saved it as map.bat, then used startupdelayer to delay it by 30 secs when starting up and it means the batch file runs after the wifi link is re-established

***** = my passwords

and there is a space between **** and /persistent:yes

NET USE Z: \\192.168.0.5\torrents /USER:RAPTOR\gcs3 ***** /persistent:yes
NET USE W: \\192.168.0.5\media /USER:RAPTOR\gcs3 ***** /persistent:yes
NET USE X: \\192.168.0.13\interlaken /USER:RAPTOR\Admin ***** /persistent:yes
NET USE V: \\192.168.0.13\wengen /USER:RAPTOR\Admin ***** /persistent:yes
NET USE Y: \\DS106\public /USER:RAPTOR\gcs3 ***** /persistent:yes
NET USE U: \\A110\share /USER:RAPTOR\nmt 1234 /persistent:yes

andyp · 8 Mar 2009 at 22:48

Great stuff - thank you fellas