XP Pro machine loses connection when navigating to a particular folder

[jbraly]

One of the oddest things ive experienced on my network before...

quick glance at my network:

300 machines, 90% are XP Pro, remaining 10% is a mix of 98 SE and 2000.

NOT on active directory yet, Still using a PDC (I work for a private
school, money is always tight).

User has a one year old Dell XP Pro machine. No connection problems
ever. The user has a mapped network drive to one of our servers. She is
the PR director, so she often has to navigate to a folder with many
pictures on it. Odd thing is that her computer runs fine until she
navigates to this folder full of pictures, then we get the ballon
saying that a network cable is unplugged, and the computer is off the
network for the next minute or so.

Closing this mapped folder makes the problem go away eventually.

This folder is also navigated to by about 12 other users on my network,
with identical computers, with no problems at all.

the server that hosts these pictures is a windows 2000 server.

but like I said, no one reports problems when going to this folder
except this one user.

thanks in advance
Jazz Mann

 

[jbraly]

just replaced cat5 cables on both ends (just to be sure)
and tested the machine...
upone further testing, it turns out that any time this computer tries
to access a photo file from a network computer/server, it drops from
the network (pinged an ip address with the -t switch... all wasy fine
until i tried to view a photo on a server. destination host not
available, i close the open window, and after about a minute it goes
back to pinging...)

this is so odd... where to start?

thanks in advance
jazz mann

 

[Eli Coten]

Perhaps the computer has adware, spyware or some kind of other malware. This
often accounts for strange occurences such as these. This kind of malware
can hide itself very well, and when it does, this kind of clue can often be
the only one you get. Its worth a check. If not, and if you are sure its a
computer specific issue, test the computer for other abnormalities, perhaps
open windows explorer to [lots of] other folders including at least one from
each hard drive and each server in your network.

Failing that, try contacting Dell.

 

[jbraly]

thanks for the advice!
Ran Ad-Aware, latest version, with all the updates... nothing
ran CWShredder... nothing
ran HijackThis... nothing
ran Search and Destory... nothing
ran Latest build of Stinger... nothing

about the cleanest computer on my network!
so, having done this, what on earth could be the issue? Ive switched
ports on the switch to no avail....
thanks in advance...
Jazz Mann

Perhaps the computer has adware, spyware or some kind of other malware. This
often accounts for strange occurences such as these. This kind of malware
can hide itself very well, and when it does, this kind of clue can often be
the only one you get. Its worth a check. If not, and if you are sure its a
computer specific issue, test the computer for other abnormalities, perhaps
open windows explorer to [lots of] other folders including at least one from
each hard drive and each server in your network.

Failing that, try contacting Dell.

just replaced cat5 cables on both ends (just to be sure)
and tested the machine...
upone further testing, it turns out that any time this computer tries
to access a photo file from a network computer/server, it drops from
the network (pinged an ip address with the -t switch... all wasy fine
until i tried to view a photo on a server. destination host not
available, i close the open window, and after about a minute it goes
back to pinging...)

this is so odd... where to start?

thanks in advance
jazz mann

She
is

 

[jbraly]

problem solved, users PC was hooked into what I now discovered was a
10mb hub, plugged it into a 10/100 cisco switch and all is well... must
be a bad hub

thanks for the advice!
Ran Ad-Aware, latest version, with all the updates... nothing
ran CWShredder... nothing
ran HijackThis... nothing
ran Search and Destory... nothing
ran Latest build of Stinger... nothing

about the cleanest computer on my network!
so, having done this, what on earth could be the issue? Ive switched
ports on the switch to no avail....
thanks in advance...
Jazz Mann

Perhaps the computer has adware, spyware or some kind of other malware. This
often accounts for strange occurences such as these. This kind of malware
can hide itself very well, and when it does, this kind of clue can often be
the only one you get. Its worth a check. If not, and if you are

sure
its a

computer specific issue, test the computer for other abnormalities, perhaps
open windows explorer to [lots of] other folders including at least one from
each hard drive and each server in your network.

Failing that, try contacting Dell.

just replaced cat5 cables on both ends (just to be sure)
and tested the machine...
upone further testing, it turns out that any time this computer tries
to access a photo file from a network computer/server, it drops from
the network (pinged an ip address with the -t switch... all wasy fine
until i tried to view a photo on a server. destination host not
available, i close the open window, and after about a minute it goes
back to pinging...)

this is so odd... where to start?

thanks in advance
jazz mann

(e-mail address removed) wrote:
One of the oddest things ive experienced on my network before...

quick glance at my network:

300 machines, 90% are XP Pro, remaining 10% is a mix of 98 SE and
2000.

NOT on active directory yet, Still using a PDC (I work for a private
school, money is always tight).

User has a one year old Dell XP Pro machine. No connection problems
ever. The user has a mapped network drive to one of our servers. She
is
the PR director, so she often has to navigate to a folder with many
pictures on it. Odd thing is that her computer runs fine until she
navigates to this folder full of pictures, then we get the ballon
saying that a network cable is unplugged, and the computer is

off

the