Windows 7 / Server 2003 (SBS) Network Problem

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

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We've just added two new PCs to a network.

PC : HP Pro 3300, W7 Pro x86 SP1
Server : SBS 2003 (Server 2003 SP2, Exchange 2003 SP2)

I believe these are the first two Windows 7 PCs at this site and we're getting some grief from them:

  • Two important applications which access mapped drives keep crashing with errors that point to network problems (eg "Error : Can't access directory" - the directory being on a mapped drive)
  • Outlook 2010 will, at random intervals, write two events into the Application Log saying it has lost the connection to the Exchange Server, then when it reconnects a few seconds later
  • W7 NTP client sometimes reports it cannot set a domain peer to use as a time source because of a DNS resolution error

Fixes we've tried:

  • Updated the PC NIC drivers to the latest from Realtek
  • Disabled RSS, Autotuning and Taskoffload on the W7 client
  • Turned off Green Ethernet and Flow control on the W7 client NIC
  • Created static records in the hosts file on the W7 client - NTP messages haven't returned but the other problems persist

DHCP, DNS etc is all done by the SBS server. That's the only DC for the domain as well.

It's almost seems that if you don't use an application for a few minutes, sometime things out and then the app bombs. Anyone come across anything like this before?
 
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I support a large number of SBS clients and I can't say I've seen this problem with Win 7 on the remaining 2k3 ones that haven't upgraded yet. Could it be something unique to the HP win 7 boxes? Is the power management set to max performance?
 
Couple of suggestions, try using the full dns name ie server.domain.local as the mapped path instead of just server. A quick google suggests this may be a work around.

Also check licences in SBS server manager and check youve not run out of cals.
 
We have another customer running one of the app's which keeps flouncing out on the same model of HP PCs, running from drives mapped from Server 2003 and we've had zero problems with those sites. So we know the app is happy on W7P x86 (the ISV doesn't support x64) on the same hardware.

I did kill off VirusScan on the SBS server later on this afternoon and that might have helped. We've got somebody going to site in the morning to follow up - they've got some Intel PCIe NICs with them.
 
Can the programs not be set to UNC paths? Mapped drives are sketchy in all versions of windows. Also do those new PCs have any remote access software installed which could be turning the power saving back on?
 
R088ieS86 said:
Can the programs not be set to UNC paths? Mapped drives are sketchy in all versions of windows. Also do those new PCs have any remote access software installed which could be turning the power saving back on?
Click to expand...

Have to disagree with you there. In a properly set up environment, mapped drives work fine.

Why would remote access software which by its very nature wold depend on the client being available for remote access decide to switch on power saving features??
 
Try changing the port the client is connected to on the switch, had something similar and my pc was connected to a switch that only did 100mb, changed to a diff port tat supported 1000mb anf its been fine since. (after you try manually setting the port speed / duplex mode on the network card)
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

The app's don't support UNC (AFAIK), so it's mapped drives all the way.

One of the PCs has bombed this morning with an Intel NIC in it, so it's not the Realtek NIC. Going to try a different switch next.
 
#Chri5# said:
Thanks for the suggestions.

The app's don't support UNC (AFAIK), so it's mapped drives all the way.

One of the PCs has bombed this morning with an Intel NIC in it, so it's not the Realtek NIC. Going to try a different switch next.
Click to expand...

I'd also try setting a static ip and dns setting on the HP's as a test.
 
We've had to pull the PCs out for now, so we've set one up on our office LAN to see if Outlook throws any fits over the weekend.
 
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