Here's my scenario for the tech-minded folks here at EA:

I was attempting to set up routing & remote access on the windows-based server at my office. This process somehow disconnected the other 2 people in my office from the server (they had static ip's). I was unable to get the client computers to accept DHCP addresses from the server. Not sure why. So, after re-removing these services, the client computers could connect to the internet again, and they can ping the server, but they can no longer see the network drive, or their private folders, both stored on the server.

This scenario is bizarre to me, as I have set all this up at home and encountered no problems like this. I am very new to this office (as well as to server 2k3).

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this? Any possible solutions?

You might just save my job...

Rights, maybe? Are you using AD?

Rights, maybe? Are you using AD?

Hey, thanks for the response.

Yes, AD is installed - I checked the permissions, and all the groups are still listed. I even went so far as to add my workstation/username as an additional user on top of the group I was in, but to no avail.

I've thought about just unsharing, and resharing the the folders, then remapping them as network drives as they were before. I doubt it will work, but my brain can't come up with anything better.

I have an idea:
go back to Win 2K.

2003 server is hell to work with. locked down like fort knox and difficult to crack.

better yet, get a mac.

To be a little more specific as to this continuing problem:

AD is running, the domain is listed in Microsoft Windows Network - however, NONE of the AD shares are appearing there, or in My Network Places.

Does this help at all?

Hm, I've never seen that one. I administer 13 Windows servers at my office, a mix of 2k and 2k3. I set up remote access for our dial-in users about 2 years ago when we upgraded that server to 2003, but I don't remember anything particularly weird about the installation.

Try removing and re-adding the machines from the domain. i.e. put them in a workgroup named "test", reboot. Then delete their computers' names from the domain controller using AD Users and Computers. Then rejoin the computers to the domain. This has saved my ass on numerous occasions.

Not to sound like a dick, but type every different variation of the problem you can think of into google. With Windows servers there is almost always someone who's been in the same pickle and frantically posted to a message board with good results. Microsoft's Knowledgebase is pretty good also, but their search sucks, so sometimes you're better off trying to find things on google first that point to the actual knowledgebase articles than trying to search Microsoft's site directly.

If you PM me more details I might be able to help further.

dre wrote:Hm, I've never seen that one. I administer 13 Windows servers at my office, a mix of 2k and 2k3. I set up remote access for our dial-in users about 2 years ago when we upgraded that server to 2003, but I don't remember anything particularly weird about the installation.

Try removing and re-adding the machines from the domain. i.e. put them in a workgroup named "test", reboot. Then delete their computers' names from the domain controller using AD Users and Computers. Then rejoin the computers to the domain. This has saved my ass on numerous occasions.

Not to sound like a dick, but type every different variation of the problem you can think of into google. With Windows servers there is almost always someone who's been in the same pickle and frantically posted to a message board with good results. Microsoft's Knowledgebase is pretty good also, but their search sucks, so sometimes you're better off trying to find things on google first that point to the actual knowledgebase articles than trying to search Microsoft's site directly.

If you PM me more details I might be able to help further.

Dre - thanks for the advice about readding the computers. I actually figured out the issue before I read this - it was a dns problem. I just listed the 2k3 server as the primary dns server on the clients and problem solved! I had messed with some of those settings yesterday when I was trying to install DHCP. So anyway, disaster avoided for now.

And I didn't think you sounded like a dick when mentioning google. That has saved me on many occasions!

take care.