Windows XP drive mapping persistence

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hog
  • Start date Start date
H

Hog

I've got a few PC's running XP Pro SP3. Workgroup (no Domain).

I'm having that oft discussed and seldom fixed problem that XP will not
retain login credentials to cload storage/Sharepoint and mapped drives (NAS
etc). Same damn issue for Outlook 2007 as well. The Manage Network Passwords
function doesn't help.

I've read some tech comments that it may even be designed that way. Retain
login name but not password. Some comments that it is a bug. I've tried a
couple of suggested reg changes to no avail.

Has anyone ever got to the bottom of it? I'm using WebDrive to maintain
Sharepoint mappings on my own but it's an expensive little tool and is only
useful for WebDav and the like.

I realise I could create a logon script but in reverse the Net Use command
doesn't like Sharepoint servers. Perhaps someone can suggest an App which
manages mappings and persistence.
 
Hog said:
I've got a few PC's running XP Pro SP3. Workgroup (no Domain).

I'm having that oft discussed and seldom fixed problem that XP will not
retain login credentials to cload storage/Sharepoint and mapped drives
(NAS
etc). Same damn issue for Outlook 2007 as well. The Manage Network
Passwords
function doesn't help.

I've read some tech comments that it may even be designed that way. Retain
login name but not password. Some comments that it is a bug. I've tried a
couple of suggested reg changes to no avail.

Has anyone ever got to the bottom of it? I'm using WebDrive to maintain
Sharepoint mappings on my own but it's an expensive little tool and is
only
useful for WebDav and the like.

I realise I could create a logon script but in reverse the Net Use command
doesn't like Sharepoint servers. Perhaps someone can suggest an App which
manages mappings and persistence.
Click to expand...

You can neatly sidestep the issue by creating an account/password on the
host machine for the shares that matches your current logon
account/password.
 
Pegasus said:
You can neatly sidestep the issue by creating an account/password on
the host machine for the shares that matches your current logon
account/password.
Click to expand...

Hello and thanks for picking this up. Few problems with that and mainly the
login on the sharepoint server is in the form of
(e-mail address removed) and of course one cannot create a login name
in that format. I can't change this as we use a shared service. Which is
where I came into this problem!

But I'm going that way on the NAS
 
Hog said:
I've got a few PC's running XP Pro SP3. Workgroup (no Domain).

I'm having that oft discussed and seldom fixed problem that XP will not
retain login credentials to cload storage/Sharepoint and mapped drives (NAS
etc). Same damn issue for Outlook 2007 as well. The Manage Network Passwords
function doesn't help.

I've read some tech comments that it may even be designed that way. Retain
login name but not password. Some comments that it is a bug. I've tried a
couple of suggested reg changes to no avail.

Has anyone ever got to the bottom of it? I'm using WebDrive to maintain
Sharepoint mappings on my own but it's an expensive little tool and is only
useful for WebDav and the like.

I realise I could create a logon script but in reverse the Net Use command
doesn't like Sharepoint servers. Perhaps someone can suggest an App which
manages mappings and persistence.
Click to expand...

The host (server) that is sharing its resource (i.e., a mapped drive on
your host making a connection to the share on the remote/networked host)
can specify an expiration on idle connections. That is, if the
connection hasn't been used in awhile, the server takes back its limited
resources to reuse for someone else's later connection. I haven't done
server admin - after all, you ARE asking in a workstation group and not
in a server group - but do know as a user of mapped drives that mapped
drives disappear (get disconnected) based on a server-side timeout.
That's why, when possible, I use UNC paths to the shared resource
instead of a mapped drive. That way the connection gets created new
each time I access the remote resource and I don't end up with dead
mappings.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684

You didn't mention what server OS is running on the NAS device. If it
is an embedded OS (i.e., it's hidden from you) then you'll have to see
if it has configuration options to specify the idle timeout on mappings
to shares. Or see if you can switch to using UNC paths to the share
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Uniform_Naming_Convention).

You never mention WHICH service pack level is on the various Windows XP
hosts. Service Pack 2 included some fixes that resolved delays in
reconnecting to a mapped resource to Novell NetWare or UNIX NFS servers
which might apply since you didn't mention what OS runs on the remote
host, like the NAS device (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=814952).
SP2 also included a fix for client-side caching that caused "access
denied" problems (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=837917 and
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=840749). If you read SP2's
description (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811113), it lists several
fixes for mapped drive problems.

Since MS Sharepoint requires a *server* version of Windows, you may have
generated usability problems by running it on a workstation version of
Windows (indicated by "I've got a few PCs running XP Pro" which is
obviously not a server version). For one thing, the workstations have a
maximum of 10 connections so maybe you're hitting that limit that
requires dropping old connections to service the new ones or rejecting
the new connection requests because the queue is full.

With the excessive cross-posting for your message (4 newsgroups), was
there a reason why you didn't just post in a sharepoint newsgroup to ask
about its use? I wasn't sure if your primary concern was with the use
of Sharepoint or just in mapped drives and their loss but which is
totally independent hence irrelevant to Sharepoint.
 
VanguardLH said:
The host (server) that is sharing its resource (i.e., a mapped drive
on your host making a connection to the share on the remote/networked
host) can specify an expiration on idle connections. That is, if the
connection hasn't been used in awhile, the server takes back its
limited resources to reuse for someone else's later connection. I
haven't done server admin - after all, you ARE asking in a
workstation group and not in a server group - but do know as a user
of mapped drives that mapped drives disappear (get disconnected)
based on a server-side timeout. That's why, when possible, I use UNC
paths to the shared resource instead of a mapped drive. That way the
connection gets created new each time I access the remote resource
and I don't end up with dead mappings.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684

You didn't mention what server OS is running on the NAS device. If it
is an embedded OS (i.e., it's hidden from you) then you'll have to see
if it has configuration options to specify the idle timeout on
mappings to shares. Or see if you can switch to using UNC paths to
the share
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Uniform_Naming_Convention).

You never mention WHICH service pack level is on the various Windows
XP hosts. Service Pack 2 included some fixes that resolved delays in
reconnecting to a mapped resource to Novell NetWare or UNIX NFS
servers which might apply since you didn't mention what OS runs on
the remote host, like the NAS device
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=814952). SP2 also included a fix
for client-side caching that caused "access denied" problems
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=837917 and
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=840749). If you read SP2's
description (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811113), it lists
several fixes for mapped drive problems.

Since MS Sharepoint requires a *server* version of Windows, you may
have generated usability problems by running it on a workstation
version of Windows (indicated by "I've got a few PCs running XP Pro"
which is obviously not a server version). For one thing, the
workstations have a maximum of 10 connections so maybe you're hitting
that limit that requires dropping old connections to service the new
ones or rejecting the new connection requests because the queue is
full.

With the excessive cross-posting for your message (4 newsgroups), was
there a reason why you didn't just post in a sharepoint newsgroup to
ask about its use? I wasn't sure if your primary concern was with
the use of Sharepoint or just in mapped drives and their loss but
which is totally independent hence irrelevant to Sharepoint.
Click to expand...

Thanks but is seems to be an o/s problem. I did say SP3. Everything is right
up to date on all. It happens each time the workstation reboots. It includes
Outlook 2007, which will not retain the password (Exchange Server). Using
the OutlookAuto app works ok though.

It's an issue on the workstation o/s and specific to losing the stored
password, sometime name, on reboot. It is either a feature of the o/s. A
reg tweak that is needed. An o/s installation fault. Or something!
 
Email me for the fix. My email is valid.
Click to expand...


Not to accuse you of anything, but Hog would be foolhardy to do that,
whether it's you, me, or anyone else. He has no way of knowing whether
your fix would be correct, and he has no way of knowing whether you
would tell him to do something that could be very damaging.

If you have a fix for Hog, post it here, so we can all see it and make
sure that it's neither wrong nor dangerous.
 
Not to accuse you of anything, but Hog would be foolhardy to do that,
whether it's you, me, or anyone else. He has no way of knowing whether
your fix would be correct, and he has no way of knowing whether you
would tell him to do something that could be very damaging.

If you have a fix for Hog, post it here, so we can all see it and make
sure that it's neither wrong nor dangerous.
Click to expand...

It's ok but thanks. I just gave up and did something else
 
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