Hey everyone! I'm really hoping to get some help with a frustrating issue we've been experiencing. For the past few months, about 20 users out of 300 have been having intermittent access problems with shared drives. Sometimes, after a restart, the drives just disappear, and other times they keep getting this error: "An error occurred while reconnecting U: to \\corpserver\sharedfolder. Microsoft Windows Network: the local device name is already in use. This connection has not been restored."
I've checked that the affected devices can ping the servers and confirmed DNS is working. I've tried remapping the drives, doing GP updates and restarts, and even restarting the "Workstation" service, which seemingly helps temporarily. I've also turned on file sharing, disabled IPv6, and have been trying to access shares manually, but it still gives errors. I'm seeing error 1058 for GP and 8018 for DNS in the event viewer. Despite confirming permissions for the GP, I'm at my wit's end. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
Are the workstations on the local network or are they remote through a VPN? If they're remote, their client networks might be using the same IP range as your corporate servers, which could cause conflicts. Just a thought!
I had a similar issue with a laptop where it couldn't authenticate with the domain. Even after replacing the drive and doing a fresh install, nothing changed. It keeps giving the same error! We've got to figure that out eventually. If it helps, at least you're not the only one dealing with this kind of headache!
Check your SMB Client logs as well. I had a similar experience where the PCs were trying to communicate to the share servers via NetBIOS instead of the correct port. Disabling NetBIOS stopped my intermittent issues entirely. I noticed this started happening after a Windows update with specific network adapters. Sometimes just switching to a USB ethernet adapter fixed my shares too. Might be worth looking into!
It sounds like you've got quite the puzzle on your hands! Here are some possible causes to consider:
1. Sometimes rogue DHCP devices can mess things up.
2. Check for clock discrepancies caused by drifting NTP or a clock source issue.
3. If the systems have both WiFi and LAN connections, make sure users aren't hooked up to a guest network via WiFi.
4. One of your domain controllers might have issues serving GPOs or need to test access to SYSVOL.
5. A local machine might have lost domain trust, which can happen if its token expires.
6. Verify that your subnets are correctly configured in Sites and Services.
7. Make sure your DHCP server is including Option 15 for domain.
8. Lastly, a firewall on your DCs could block SMB traffic and cause negotiation failures. Good luck!
One thing to check: Make sure your GPO settings for drive mapping are set to 'Update' instead of 'Replace.' If it's set to 'Replace', it can delete existing maps and sometimes fail to recreate them. This could lead to problems when users try to access drives, especially if they're being deleted while in use. Hope this helps!
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