TCP/IP and Ping

[Stuart Farr]

Hi Guys

We have a small problem which is causing great problems for us. We have a situation on a few of our 9x machines (not all) where we can go to a command line and Ping an address. However, if at that very command line we then try to Net Use to the computer to a valid share, it is then unable to find the computer!? We have copied a valid Host and Lmhost file to the affected computers without any effect, we have also set up the afected to use our WINS server, still no fix. We are able to go to a run prompt and type \servername and this will work fine, at which point our Net Use prompt will also start working.

We need the Net Use to work for our login scripts to function properly.


Any ideas?

Many thanks


Stuart

[Ed Molinari]

Hi Stuart,
Very interesting problem. I am guessing that you are net using a NetBios name so I will concentrate on the NetBios side of the house. At the risk of stating the obvious, I would troubleshoot this by pinging first the server IP, then the server name. I would then check the NetBios cache to see what the TTL for the server is. I might then add the #PRE tag in the LMHOSTS to make the server name a permanent entry. At that point you should be able to ping the server name.
As to why WINS resolution won't work, this too is indeed puzzling. I would check that routing is OK between my clients and WINS boxes and then look at stats for my WINS servers to see what percentage are resolving and failing. I would also examine my WINS db to check that I have proper static entries for my server.
If none of the above helps, I would reinstall the network setups on the clients.
I have seen similar behavior on a subnetted LAN that was real SLOWWWWWW. Name resolutions constantly timed out. The fix in this case was changing a registry setting on the clients to allow a greater timeout period. You can look at MS online for the article, I don't remember it exactly.
If all else fails, run the NET USE to the IP address!

HTH,
Ed Molinari, MCSE, CCNA
Emerald Solutions


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Stuart Farr at 8/16/99 4:25:44 AM

Hi Guys

We have a small problem which is causing great problems for us. We have a situation on a few of our 9x machines (not all) where we can go to a command line and Ping an address. However, if at that very command line we then try to Net Use to the computer to a valid share, it is then unable to find the computer!? We have copied a valid Host and Lmhost file to the affected computers without any effect, we have also set up the afected to use our WINS server, still no fix. We are able to go to a run prompt and type \servername and this will work fine, at which point our Net Use prompt will also start working.

We need the Net Use to work for our login scripts to function properly.


Any ideas?

Many thanks


Stuart