Drive mapping question

[Andy Stout]

I have a user that's using an HP nx9600 - I have a customized login script just for him. He's able to access ALL of his drives EXCEPT his "I" (home user directory) drive while connecting via Sonicwall VPN. He connects to the "I" drive just fine while in the building but it's the only one he can't access while coming in via VPN. I tried going to his machine and doing a MAP NETWORK DRIVE from Win Explorer - set it to reconnect...

I put the /persistent:yes after the net use commnand in his login script - that doesn't work either. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

I think that you have a firewall that is preventing the access, in or in front the windows machine.

Do you connect to a VPN server that is not the server who shares the resource right?

[Andy Stout]

Correct - it's simply a firewall "appliance" the strange thing is - it worked a couple of weeks ago just fine, but now it doesn't even show up in his My Computer when he browses - yet all the other drives on the same server do.....

[Ivan Ferreira]

Is the client Windows XP SP2, remember the SP2 firewall.

Verify the ports open in your firewall:


The SMB (Server Message Block) protocol is used among other things for file sharing in Windows NT/2000/XP. In Windows NT it ran on top of NetBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP), which used the famous ports 137, 138 (UDP) and 139 (TCP). In Windows 2000/XP/2003, Microsoft added the possibility to run SMB directly over TCP/IP, without the extra layer of NetBT. For this they use TCP port 445.

[Jon Finley]

Any error messages on either the server, or locally in event viewer?

If you issue a "net use" command from the CMD prompt, does the mapped drive show there?

Is it possible that He renamed the drive on the other system?

Jon

[Andy Stout]

The strange thing is that it works fine while he's in the office. I even made a shortcut to: \\fs1\blahblah$\blahblah and it works but the freakin "I" drive disappears until he comes back into the office. I assume my VPN client just isn't running the script as it's supposed to - but why do 3 out of 4 drives show up? It must have something to do with the fact that it designated as his "home" directory under his profile in users/groups.

[Jon Finley]

From what I can find out on the Web, the problem lies with how the firewall is handling a hidden share.

Jon

[Andy Stout]

Thanks again all! I gave you all 10s since you all pretty much told me the same thing! I'm going to look into the firewall, but for the time being I'll just make a desktop shortcut to the \\fs1 share.