Laptop User and Folder Redirection

Hello and thanks for reading,

A client has a SBS 2003 Premium network setup, fully configured and
running for almost 2 years & patched up to SP2. The directors of this
client all have laptops and spend a significant amount of time away
from the office on business, and use the 'Connect to Small Business
Server' VPN client in order to access a shared folder (Z:) on the SBS
server, and to synchronise their My Documents folder with the server
(Folder Redirection set up as per defaults via the Wizard).

A particular director has been having issues with his laptop where if
he is away from the network for any period of time his laptop
'forgets' the Folder Redirection policy and reverts the path to being
on his C: drive, with the contents of the folder being empty. He also
loses the 'Synchronize' option available on right-clicking on the My
Documents icon on the desktop and the 'Offline Files' tab under My
Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options is also missing. After this had
happened previously I came up with the workaround of creating a
shortcut on his desktop directly to his folder under \\SBS\Users so
that he was still able to access his documents, but this according to
him is very slow. I also set up a group policy for his laptop
disabling Slow Link Detection as I'd done a little research & it
seemed to be a factor in this issue occuring.

This occurred recently while he was abroad on business and I suggested
he try running 'gpupdate /force' and also 'mobsync /logon' from the
Command Prompt after first establishing a VPN connection to the
server. Neither of these resolved the issue. As soon as he returned
back to the office and connected via the internal LAN the Folder
Redirection re-established itself.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks,

Jonathan

Cliff
Tue Jun 24 08:57:22 PDT 2008

One of the small side-effects of using SBS's folder redirect wizard is it
also makes those folders available offline. That is why your user once had
a 'sync' option and why the shortcut to \\SBS\user is now slow...it was
actually accessing the cache instead of the offline copy. So the problem,
initially, sounds like an offline files issue, not a group policy issue...so
gpupdate /force won't fix the problem.

1) Check the event logs for offline files issues. They will help pinpoint
the problem.
2) Check the share permissions on the server. Make sure the files are
available offline and that he has the appropriate permissions to cache.
3) Reset the offline files cache on the laptop while on the LAN and then
initiate a full sync.

See if that helps find/pinpoint the problem (or resolves it....as clearing
the cache sometimes does...)

-Cliff

<jdseymour1978@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:c90f17fa-2e99-449c-8bc1-272e525142d2@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
> Hello and thanks for reading,
>
> A client has a SBS 2003 Premium network setup, fully configured and
> running for almost 2 years & patched up to SP2. The directors of this
> client all have laptops and spend a significant amount of time away
> from the office on business, and use the 'Connect to Small Business
> Server' VPN client in order to access a shared folder (Z:) on the SBS
> server, and to synchronise their My Documents folder with the server
> (Folder Redirection set up as per defaults via the Wizard).
>
> A particular director has been having issues with his laptop where if
> he is away from the network for any period of time his laptop
> 'forgets' the Folder Redirection policy and reverts the path to being
> on his C: drive, with the contents of the folder being empty. He also
> loses the 'Synchronize' option available on right-clicking on the My
> Documents icon on the desktop and the 'Offline Files' tab under My
> Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options is also missing. After this had
> happened previously I came up with the workaround of creating a
> shortcut on his desktop directly to his folder under \\SBS\Users so
> that he was still able to access his documents, but this according to
> him is very slow. I also set up a group policy for his laptop
> disabling Slow Link Detection as I'd done a little research & it
> seemed to be a factor in this issue occuring.
>
> This occurred recently while he was abroad on business and I suggested
> he try running 'gpupdate /force' and also 'mobsync /logon' from the
> Command Prompt after first establishing a VPN connection to the
> server. Neither of these resolved the issue. As soon as he returned
> back to the office and connected via the internal LAN the Folder
> Redirection re-established itself.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Jonathan