comp not seeing mapped drives

[ZippyDan]

3 computers on a network, all running WinXP Pro

i mapped network drive on 2 of them, which points to the 3rd

very often, the network drive will become 'unavailable' - a red x appears through the network drive icon

this is a problem because some programs rely on the network path. when the programs try to access the path, it says its unavailable. however, the computer is on and everything is fine. all i have to do is go to Windows Explorer, and click on the network drive icon... after a couple of seconds, it refreshes and realizes that the network drive really is up

how can i get Windows to do this automatically? it should refresh itself without me having to do it manually (im not even sure why it goes unavailable in the first place)

~Zippy!

 

[VictorLazlo]

That red X means you aren't connected to the share. When you click the icon, and the X goes away, that kind of like logging in. It also logs you out after a certian amout of inactivity. I believe they do this as a way of enforcing connection limits. For instance, if you only wanted 5 users to connect to a given share at any one time, and users were never logged out for inactivity, then your limit would be reached and stay that way indefinately.

If your programs are having trouble connecting to resources on a mapped drive, try using UNC format instead.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311079

 

[ZippyDan]

i dont think that UNC works with this program

~Zippy!

 

[ZippyDan]

help. i need suggestions to keep the network drive active all the time!

~Zippy!

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I've never had shares time out, but I suppose you could have some task access the drive using UNC to "refresh" the mapping.

 

[ZippyDan]

how would i go about writing a simple 'task'/'script'/'job' whatever the proper term it is that would run itself every x hours to keep mapped drives connected?

~Zippy!

 

[ZippyDan]

help 🙁 quick 🙁 plz thx

~Zippy!