[asuh]

Our network consists of the following:

1x Windows Server 2003
5x Windows XP Home
1x Windows Vista Home x64

I have mapped drives from each of the desktops to a folder on the server. Everytime a PC is shut off then booted again, upon booting into Windows the mapped connection is lost. I have to go to each PC and manually reconnect to the server using the username and password.

I'm not sure why these connections are breaking when someone reboots the computer.

I checked the event log on the server and I'm getting an error that might be related:

Error 1054
Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (An unexpected network error occurred. ). Group Policy processing aborted.

Help me!

[Squashman]

I guess I will ask the obvious.
How did you map the drives?
If you did it thru the Windows Explorer GUI did you check the box to Reconnect at login?
If a batch file did you use the persistent and save credentials switches?

[asuh]

I mapped the drives using the Windows Explorer GUI as you guessed. I am not sure I remember seeing any Reconnect at Login checkbox when I originally mapped these drives.

Knowing that I missed this, must I break and remap these drives and enabling this Reconnect at Login checkbox?

If I go back to find out that there is no Reconnect at login checkbox, what should I do?

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by asuh

If I go back to find out that there is no Reconnect at login checkbox, what should I do?

Trust me. It is there on XP and Vista.

[JohnWill]

Originally Posted by Squashman

Trust me. It is there on XP and Vista.

And even with Windows 7.

[asuh]

Okay, I have an update.

When mapping drives in XP, the reconnect at login checkbox is already enabled by default. So, all of the mapped drives that I have created and will create all have this box checked by default.

So, having double checked this problem and confirmed that I am indeed doing it correctly, what other solutions can you provide?

[JohnWill]

Did you try it with the NET USE command?

[asuh]

JohnWill, I did not use the net use command. What's the full command I should use?

[JohnWill]

NET USE d: \\<network_path> /USER:<user_name> <password> /PERSIST:YES

d: - Local drive letter for mapping.
<network_path> - The full network path to the shared resource.
<user_name> - The user name on the remote server.
<password> - The user password on the remote server.

[asuh]

Is this command doing anything different than the Windows Explorer GUI or is it just the line command version?

[JohnWill]

The GUI should work, it's always worked for me.

I just figure if something odd is going on, we could see if this works properly.

[Squashman]

You should only have to use credentials if the username and password are different from the workstation to the server. You may want to add the /savecred switch as well.

[asuh]

Alright, thanks. I'll give it a shot and report back.

FYI, I should have included this in the beginning, even if it might be obvious, that these computers are not in a domain, only connected to the wired network. The Windows Home desktops are in the same workgroup and the server is in it's own domain.

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by asuh

FYI, I should have included this in the beginning, even if it might be obvious, that these computers are not in a domain, only connected to the wired network. The Windows Home desktops are in the same workgroup and the server is in it's own domain.

That was plain obvious from your first post. XP Home and Vista Home cannot be joined to a domain.

[asuh]

Originally Posted by Squashman

That was plain obvious from your first post. XP Home and Vista Home cannot be joined to a domain.

haha, okay. You never know who would quickly overlook this fact so I thought plainly stating it would be good.