Network Connection just dropps.

Captain Pooka

Daemon Poster
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Hey, I'm at work right now and I'm trying to come up with a list of possible issues before I request anything be done.

There are two people randomly losing network connection. Physically, they are on either side of a wall:

Comp1 ||wall|| Comp2

It's two different drops, I talked to the guy that put them in. However, they're both having the same issue.

When trying to move an email (on outlook) from their inbox to a folder (that's effictively mapped to the network) an error comes up and says it can't move the email.

This would be a hard thing to test because it only happens every once and a while, but I went ahead and mapped a drive on their computer and told them when it happened again see if there's a big X next to the mapped drive. And there was. SO.. they're losing network connection.

What I don't know is what it is. It's only happening to those two people and, as I said, they're on two different drops (supposedly). I was initially thinking it was the drop that was bad, but what are the chances it's happening to two different ones?

Please help!!

-Q

By the way, it's simply a "Cannot move file to ... blah blah" "Network Path Not Found" error.

They have to restart their computer in order to gain access again. I've tried an ipconfig /release and renew, and that doesn't work. It's really becoming a problem.

The internet still works though. Wonder why they have to restart to fix Outlook and the network access?

I don't know if the computer is DHCP or not.. it's a very big stretch for us to be out of DHCP addresses >< But I can check that out tomorrow. That's all I can think of!

------

Ok, Ipconfig release and renew did work, she just had to close outlook and reopen it. What does that tell is? Tells me I better look if that computer is DHCP.

I've made one or two batch files in my days, but they were stupid and I was young. I forgot what I'm doing. Can someone whip me up a few lines to run release/renew? That way I can have a quick fix for them at a double click!
 
A quick google search came up with this:
@echo off
ipconfig /release
echo
echo The IP address has been released. Waiting to renew…
echo
ipconfig /renew
echo The IP address has been renewed

(Save to a new text file and rename the extension to “.bat”. )

Of course you can skip the echo parts and just use the commands but it might be nice for them to see what is happening.
Some ideas:
Give static IP's to both comptuers and see if it still happens.
Make sure they're not named the same.
Move their folders to the local hard drive (if possible).
Make sure the have full access to the network drive (and that it doesn't want to ask them for their username/password in order to connect).
 
Yeah, thanks for that batch man. That will work for now!
One computer runs Vista, one runs Windows 7. The one with Vista I have access too and the one with Windows 7 I can't touch. I talked with a friend last night and he came across this:

Mapped Drive Connection to Network Share May Be Lost

That was very interesting. Vista times out after 15 minutes. Seems like it should just come right back up if that were the case (not to mention the other computer has WIndows 7 on it) so.. M$ had a FixIt file I ran for that. We'll see if that's the case or not.

Interesting fact: Today I learned that she has to release and renew in order to get back in outlook (Or she can restart the computer). It's NOT just as simple as reopening it if she hasn't renewed.

The computers have two separate names. The Vista computer is DHCP, I don't know about the W7 one. Looks like all of the computers around here are DHCP.. so it probably is.

I can work on the static IP part.

Edit*

Alright. I have a free IP lined up and we'll see what happens.
 
The network may not be to blame. If they're on the same side of a wall, what does their hardware look like? I've had onboard NICs fail repeatedly that exhibit this same behavior, and if both of those systems use the same motherboard (or even the same family of motherboard) then it could be a result of a system going out.

Also, until you isolate them on the drop, you can't be 100% sure it's a network only issue.

NICs that are failing will work fine for light loads, but the minute you try and load them up with lots of data, that's when they fail. The reason the restart is the only way you'll get a connection because is because you're re-initializing the hardware, which causes them to refresh their hardware states, and why they work again after a restart.
 
Yeah, I just assumed that's all been checked out. I just started on this project and it's a month or two old. I'm going to go ahead and check all of the first things I would do out.

Quick question. How would I test out the NIC? Other than seeing if it happens to another computer... Would something like netsh diag g show me if the nic was starting to fail? It's a Dell board, I'm going to see if they have some diagnostic tools for it in the mean time.

I don't have an extra card on hand either :p I checked that before lunch!
 
Alright, another issue. I believe this is causing all of the issues though...

"Cannot display the folder. Microsoft Office Outlook cannot access the specified folder location. The file \\(On the network)\ \ \Outlook.pst cannot be accessed because another workstation has modified it. Close and then restart all mail-enabled application. You might need to restart your computer."

I've googled it. It might be Kaspersky? I don't know what can be "Modifying" the file.
 
They don't share the file do they? Does each person have their own Outlook.pst file? Does anyone share computer login names?
 
No, no one shares the files. Everyone has a separate folder on the network designated to them, but they're not password protected (not how I would have it). Everyone has their own folder within their personal folder on outlook that as "Personal Folders.pst"

I don't believe anyone else is accessing it, but there's no way of me knowing. That's why this is a strange issue! I'm going to remake one of their personal folders and copy the folder structure. See if that does anything...
 
Is there any kind of backup/archiving software on the server? It may be archiving during the time when your users are trying to access their mail.
 
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