here is the situation, i just upgraded 2 of my computers to xp pro. when i first turn them on, i can see both on each machine, but after they have sat for awhike, say 1 hour, i cant get to the other machine from either machine. i have run the small lan setup on each machine choosing the setup for computers connected to a hub. any ideas? i had no probs with win2k pro doing this.:frown:
Networking XP Pro
- Thread starter contra53
- Start date
Is either one going into standby, or hibernation?
Maybe the hub is dropping one or both of them. If a reboot connects them again, I think the problem is the hub settings.
Maybe the hub is dropping one or both of them. If a reboot connects them again, I think the problem is the hub settings.
did what everyone said and now i still have pretty much the same problem, i can see the other computer but when i click on it, it says that i dont have permission. i do have permission and this only happens about 15min into a session, when both computers are freshly booted, no probs. 
Make sure both are in the same workgroup and you have the same username in both machines with the same type of permissions.
Ryan
Ryan
This might be a funny little problem with autodisconnect that I've seen from time to time in WinNT, Win2K, but not yet in WinXP. I just checked in my registry, and I see that same entry with the same default setting (15) that has caused the occasional user a problem. There are a lot of reasons why some machines do, and others don't, just automatically re-establish the connection when it's required again. I've suspected that the power management features of some NICs are such that they don't recover well from a disconnect in one OS or another, but also there are security settings which would affect the ability to reconnect.
If you look at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
for a REG_DWORD named "autodisconnect" you'll probably see that it has a hex value of "f" ("15" decimal). If you set it to "-1", that should prevent autodisconnect from occurring. That atleast should help you learn whether or not this is actually your problem. To tell you the truth, I'm not certain whether or not this should require a reboot to become effective. I think not, but it couldn't hurt to do it anyway.
There is another way to accomplish setting of autodisconnect from the CMD prompt, but it has other ramifications. It used to disable system autotuning in NT4 and Win2K. I'm not sure about WinXP, but I wouldn't risk it. Just for the record, though, the command is
net config server /autodisconnect
with the time interval desired entered immediately after autodisconnect (with no space intervening). In NT4 this would cause the registry value to be set to the upper limit, rather than to -1. Weird, huh? Effectively the same for the purpose of this one parameter since the time span would be quite long. But, like I said, this really isn't the best way to do this.
The registry is your best bet -- IF this is actually your problem. Can't hurt to give it a try. You can always change the setting back later if you decide that your issues are caused by something else.
- Collin
Just an additional note: The reason I mention power management features in NICs is that some power management features in at least some NICs are enabled regardless of the OS power management settings. Some have power management features that are controllable through driver utilities, and some are just on all the time regardless of what you do. I've especially seen this in PC Card NICS and some of the mini-card NICs found in notebook computers.
If you look at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
for a REG_DWORD named "autodisconnect" you'll probably see that it has a hex value of "f" ("15" decimal). If you set it to "-1", that should prevent autodisconnect from occurring. That atleast should help you learn whether or not this is actually your problem. To tell you the truth, I'm not certain whether or not this should require a reboot to become effective. I think not, but it couldn't hurt to do it anyway.
There is another way to accomplish setting of autodisconnect from the CMD prompt, but it has other ramifications. It used to disable system autotuning in NT4 and Win2K. I'm not sure about WinXP, but I wouldn't risk it. Just for the record, though, the command is
net config server /autodisconnect
with the time interval desired entered immediately after autodisconnect (with no space intervening). In NT4 this would cause the registry value to be set to the upper limit, rather than to -1. Weird, huh? Effectively the same for the purpose of this one parameter since the time span would be quite long. But, like I said, this really isn't the best way to do this.
The registry is your best bet -- IF this is actually your problem. Can't hurt to give it a try. You can always change the setting back later if you decide that your issues are caused by something else.
- Collin
Just an additional note: The reason I mention power management features in NICs is that some power management features in at least some NICs are enabled regardless of the OS power management settings. Some have power management features that are controllable through driver utilities, and some are just on all the time regardless of what you do. I've especially seen this in PC Card NICS and some of the mini-card NICs found in notebook computers.
thanks again for the input, am in the process of doing what <FONT face=Verdana size=1>c0rv1d43 suggested, will let you know how it goes. i have narrowed it down to the one machine that is doing it, that machine also loses it internet connection at the same time that i can't connect to it.</FONT>
the registry wont let me enter "-1" (i have selected the decimal option), what else could i put in there? can i delete the autodisconnect?
Yikes, no!!!
Don't delete the REG_DWORD. I'm not quite sure just what that would do. Oftentimes in Windows, deleting a default of this type will just cause the default to be enforced. But it might also have unforseen effects, and we don't want any of those.
Okay, I just looked in regedit, and you're quite right in saying that -1 is not allowed. (It was allowed at least in NT4, and I believe it was also allowed in Win2K.) Obviously my information on this is a little outdated since things have changed in WinXP. Why not simply try a higher setting to see what happens? The old maximum allowed was 65535 (decimal). I don't know if the top end allowable has changed, but I did just type in 65535 with the decimal radio button enabled, and that was accepted.
We should really be checking in the MSKB to see if any info is available on this that precisely defines how this is handled in WinXP, but this little manipulation should be safe to try insofar as it goes. Just keep a record of what you're doing so that you can reverse it later if you wish to do so.
Please let me know how it goes. Remember that this is only one possible cause of the behavior you're seeing, though it's also the most likely -- AFAIK.
- Collin
Don't delete the REG_DWORD. I'm not quite sure just what that would do. Oftentimes in Windows, deleting a default of this type will just cause the default to be enforced. But it might also have unforseen effects, and we don't want any of those.
Okay, I just looked in regedit, and you're quite right in saying that -1 is not allowed. (It was allowed at least in NT4, and I believe it was also allowed in Win2K.) Obviously my information on this is a little outdated since things have changed in WinXP. Why not simply try a higher setting to see what happens? The old maximum allowed was 65535 (decimal). I don't know if the top end allowable has changed, but I did just type in 65535 with the decimal radio button enabled, and that was accepted.
We should really be checking in the MSKB to see if any info is available on this that precisely defines how this is handled in WinXP, but this little manipulation should be safe to try insofar as it goes. Just keep a record of what you're doing so that you can reverse it later if you wish to do so.
Please let me know how it goes. Remember that this is only one possible cause of the behavior you're seeing, though it's also the most likely -- AFAIK.
- Collin
i just set it to 65535 and it took it, just rebooted and it is still set as i left it, will let you know how it works. thanks for the assistance so far...
- Mar 4, 2000
- 27,370
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I had a similar problem, but knew the cause so I fixed it. XP's nteworking capability is built around TCP/IP . . . on purpose because it is more scure. Most small networks under 98 and ME were built using NetBEUI. Microsoft has abandoned it, but still provides it on the XP Pro CD (\VALUEADD\MSFET\NET\NETBEUI).
\NETBEUI has two files, nbf.sys and netnbf.inf in it. Copy nbf.sys to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, and netnbf.inf to \WINDOWS\INF folder. Then open Network Connections and right click to get Properties, then Install. Add the NetBEUI protocol just like you have always done and your network should come alive like it used to be.
I have it on my 3 station home LAN and XP Pro is on 2 of the 3 systems, and the LAN is perfect with NetBEUI.
\NETBEUI has two files, nbf.sys and netnbf.inf in it. Copy nbf.sys to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, and netnbf.inf to \WINDOWS\INF folder. Then open Network Connections and right click to get Properties, then Install. Add the NetBEUI protocol just like you have always done and your network should come alive like it used to be.
I have it on my 3 station home LAN and XP Pro is on 2 of the 3 systems, and the LAN is perfect with NetBEUI.
<FONT face=Verdana size=1>c0rv1d43 - no go, it still stops responding after about 15-20 min, damn ! , i have 3com nics and have upgraded the drivers in both machines and one works beautifully and the other doesn't. any other ideas?
corky-g - i could try that but i upgraded from a perfectly functioning win2k pro network that was tcp/ip, never had a hiccup and i would leave the setup on for weeks at a time.
DAMN DAMN DAMN
computers can be so frustrating !</FONT>
any other ideas?corky-g - i could try that but i upgraded from a perfectly functioning win2k pro network that was tcp/ip, never had a hiccup and i would leave the setup on for weeks at a time.
DAMN DAMN DAMN
computers can be so frustrating !</FONT>
Aw rats! Well, I was hoping it would be something easy?
You say the 3Com NICs in the two machines are identical models / revisions? And all the network settings (and I do mean all of them) are identical for the two machines?
Any errors cropping up in the System or Applications logs of the Event Viewer?
That 15-20 minute time span before failures was what triggered me on the idea that this would turn out to be the autodisconnect parameter, since 15 minutes is the default setting. But this could still be some other setting, or even something outside of the operating system's control -- like a built-in power management feature of the NICs.
If the NICs are identical, or even if they aren't, it might be instructive to swap them between the machines to see if the same machine still has the problem, or if the problem migrates with the NIC. If the misbehaving machine remains the same, then this would have to be something intrinsic to that machine (duh) meaning a hardware / driver conflict (unfortunately, not all of which can be counted on to show up in Device Manager) or an OS / software setting. These can be devilishly difficult to track down because there are a LOT of settings, and your eye can get so used to flying over the same terrain that it fails to note a significant but tiny difference in the settings.
I'll keep thinking about this and will try to get back to the forum later today. Gotta go do other stuff for the time being.
- Collin
You say the 3Com NICs in the two machines are identical models / revisions? And all the network settings (and I do mean all of them) are identical for the two machines?
Any errors cropping up in the System or Applications logs of the Event Viewer?
That 15-20 minute time span before failures was what triggered me on the idea that this would turn out to be the autodisconnect parameter, since 15 minutes is the default setting. But this could still be some other setting, or even something outside of the operating system's control -- like a built-in power management feature of the NICs.
If the NICs are identical, or even if they aren't, it might be instructive to swap them between the machines to see if the same machine still has the problem, or if the problem migrates with the NIC. If the misbehaving machine remains the same, then this would have to be something intrinsic to that machine (duh) meaning a hardware / driver conflict (unfortunately, not all of which can be counted on to show up in Device Manager) or an OS / software setting. These can be devilishly difficult to track down because there are a LOT of settings, and your eye can get so used to flying over the same terrain that it fails to note a significant but tiny difference in the settings.
I'll keep thinking about this and will try to get back to the forum later today. Gotta go do other stuff for the time being.
- Collin
i just d/l the 3com drivers again and am going to reinstall them later, unfortunately i cant change the nics at the moment because i have a broken arm, but the nic was working perfectly when it was under win2k and yes the settings are identical and the nics are too. thanks a bunch for your help...
A broken arm? Whillikers! You're having a tough time of it, aren't you?
Well, I hope you'll mend quickly -- and that your computer will, too!
- Collin
Well, I hope you'll mend quickly -- and that your computer will, too!
- Collin
collin-
thanks for the help and get well wishes, i think i might just zero fill the drive the do a clean install, and if that doesnt work, i will put 2k back on it
thanks again for all the help
thanks for the help and get well wishes, i think i might just zero fill the drive the do a clean install, and if that doesnt work, i will put 2k back on it
thanks again for all the help
I don't know how much help I was, but you're certainly welcome to the effort. Just wish we could have figured it out!
Be well!!!
- Collin
Be well!!!
- Collin
Heh-heh! It would drive me nuts trying to figure out what had caused the behavior, but you're undoubtedly wiser just to proceed in this manner. I'm glad you've got a happy network again.
- Collin
- Collin
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