win 8 clients can only map drives via fqdn until a reboot

[xSauronx]

this is really odd to me.
we have a vmware host, and last week the motherboard was replaced.
it runs 3 vms - a 2008r2 DC, a 2012r2 sql server, and a 2003 TS server

when i powered vmware on after the board replacement, i told it i moved the vms. maybe i should have clicked copied *shrug*

anyway, everything works EXCEPT: windows 8 clients cannot map drives to the 2008r2 DC after a cold start.
-windows 7 clients always work, all the time.

on a cold boot, windows 8 clients can see the host via nslookup just fine, they can ping it by short name just fine. they can only browse network shares if using the FQDN \\sitedc.company.com works, but not \\sitedc

until they restart, after a restart, it works fine...for a while. eventually, the drives randomly disconnect, they reboot, the drives work again. its sort of nuts. a net use or net view \\sitedc gives me an error

System error 53 has occurred. The network path was not found.

there is also a log even errors for SMBCLIENT on the windows 8 machines

he network connection failed.
Error: The transport connection attempt was refused by the remote system.

but that doesnt make sense: a reboot of the windows 8 client fixes it, and the server definitely isnt having any changes made to it.

i thought it might be a tcp/ip issue on the clients, since at first it seemed like a netsh int ip reset and a restart helped, but its just the restart that does it, really. it doesnt appear to be a dns problem since pinging and rdp works with the shortname, but not smb shares sometimes.

many of the windows 8 clients also map a drive to the 2012r2 server with the short name, that works fine

2 or 3 map a drive to the 2003 server with the short name, that also works fine

but i am getting nowhere in finding out why the windows 8 clients are having issues with the short name of the 2008r2 dc sometimes.

anyone seen anything like this?
im going nuts over this.

 

[xSauronx]

id just like to let all the lookers-on know that i have found many people with this problem in some way, just not the way ive seen it
suggestions ive seen and tried:
clear windows credentials in the credential manager
disable WINS and netbios over TCP/IP
use something else as dns servers [our domain has 6, changing to two others didnt help]
renaming the pc*
removing/rejoin client to the domain*
try different profiles
flush dns cache
reset winsock and tcp ip

* - it acts very much like dns is the issue. on a cold boot the drives do not map, on a reboot they map. BUT, even if they remap, renaming the pc or leaving/joining the domain was iffy. i got a "network path not found" error and just kept clicking until it worked.

this would be easier if windows 7 clients, or only all clients only on one switch or something had the issue. but its just windows 8 clients, which are all over the place mixed in with windows 7 clients.

grr.

sometimes trying to map when the drives didnt initially map gives: error code 0x80004005

 

[Ketchup]

I hate to sound simplistic, but is "reconnect at logon" still selected on these shares?

I had an issue similar to this when I started using Server 2008 on my home network with no Internet. But I had to turn sharing back on for even Windows 7 computers to connect. That was related to my Network Location Awareness settings, and sounds different than your issue.

 

[xSauronx]

thats not the issue. it is weirder. i dont have to manually map the drives ever. cold boot: no map, reboot after that: automatic map. its nuts. :-/

fyi

its a gpo calling the login script
the login script maps 1 drive to the local DC, that is failing.
the login script maps 1 drive to another DC, that works fine very time
the AD profile designates the home directory on the local DC, that is also failing.

thanks though

 

[xSauronx]

can this get moved to networking? maybe someone can make sense of what i see in packet captures between the server and a device

packet captures between a client and the sitedc show that traffic between the clients works for non smb/port 445 traffic
based on the windows diagnostics, sometimes it seems like the server is ignoring or refusing the SMB/port 445 requests sometimes, only for windows 8 clients. im not really sure the right way to look at it or word it.

if i select a test source and sitedc destination and look at port 445 traffic, then follow TCP stream, the conversation is... 0 bytes. im looking at captures taken on the server AND on the client, and seeing this.

some tcp traffic between the server and a win8 pc appears to go fine, but i see spurious retransmissions when trying to map a drive, and following the tcp streams shows 0 bytes in the conversation :-/

 

[Ketchup]

Just wondering if you got anywhere with this.

I was wondering if a firewall setting on the clients might be causing this?