SBS 2003 losing netbios resolution

We're seeing a strange problem .... SBS 2003 r2 approx 10 XP Pro clients.
They have applications that look at Netbios names to run... eg. sage etc.
they look for \\sbs .

They work fine for hours and then all of a sudden they stop, and if you do
\\sbs to see the shares all it shows is the offline redirected my documents.
If you do \\sbs.domain.local then the shares all appear fine, however because
the apps use just \\sbs they don't work.

It takes a reboot of the server AND the workstations to get everything
working again.

Have run dcdiag and netdiag and it passes all tests.

I've tried an entry for the server in the hosts file but that doesn't help.

Clients are all dhcp node type 0x8 which I believe is hybrid. WINS/NBNS and
DNS Server ip's are handed out over dhcp too.

This is causing major pain for my customer so any help is greatly appreciated.

kj
Wed May 07 09:51:31 PDT 2008

Dave Austin wrote:
> We're seeing a strange problem .... SBS 2003 r2 approx 10 XP Pro
> clients. They have applications that look at Netbios names to run...
> eg. sage etc. they look for \\sbs .
>
> They work fine for hours and then all of a sudden they stop, and if
> you do \\sbs to see the shares all it shows is the offline redirected
> my documents. If you do \\sbs.domain.local then the shares all appear
> fine, however because the apps use just \\sbs they don't work.
>
> It takes a reboot of the server AND the workstations to get everything
> working again.
>
> Have run dcdiag and netdiag and it passes all tests.
>
> I've tried an entry for the server in the hosts file but that doesn't
> help.
>
> Clients are all dhcp node type 0x8 which I believe is hybrid.
> WINS/NBNS and DNS Server ip's are handed out over dhcp too.
>
> This is causing major pain for my customer so any help is greatly
> appreciated.

Do you have a WINS sevrer configured.

Try this (from a workstations) when everything is working and again when
it's not - post both.

nbtstat -a sbs


--
/kj

DaveAustin
Wed May 07 10:38:33 PDT 2008

Hi KJ,

Thanks for the quick response....

We do have a WINS server configured, and restarting the WINS service has no
effect when we have this problem

I will do the nbtstat when I can get onto a workstation. I did try one
earlier today and it all looked fine. In Ethereal MS Browser requests are
replied to by the server announcing the correct services etc.

One thing I would add .... whether this has any bearing on it .... sometimes
when I VPN in to this particular customer, which I have been doing to monitor
an ethereal network trace all day, I get an ip address and when I ping the
server it replies 6 or 7 times and then continually times out... so I
reconnect the vpn, pick up a different ip and it pings ok for another 10
times, then times out again. Other times the vpn connection will stay up for
hours.

I don't think this is a problem my end as I've vpn'd into several other
customers today without any issues whatsoever.

Thanks once again for your help

Dave

kj
Wed May 07 10:49:58 PDT 2008

Dave Austin wrote:
> Hi KJ,

Hmmm. Well, standard TS applies. Event logs? SP2 recently applied, Broadcom
NIC?

Problems just started? Recent server config changes or sw added or updated?



>
> Thanks for the quick response....
>
> We do have a WINS server configured, and restarting the WINS service
> has no effect when we have this problem
>
> I will do the nbtstat when I can get onto a workstation. I did try one
> earlier today and it all looked fine. In Ethereal MS Browser requests
> are replied to by the server announcing the correct services etc.
>
> One thing I would add .... whether this has any bearing on it ....
> sometimes when I VPN in to this particular customer, which I have
> been doing to monitor an ethereal network trace all day, I get an ip
> address and when I ping the server it replies 6 or 7 times and then
> continually times out... so I reconnect the vpn, pick up a different
> ip and it pings ok for another 10 times, then times out again. Other
> times the vpn connection will stay up for hours.
>
> I don't think this is a problem my end as I've vpn'd into several
> other customers today without any issues whatsoever.
>
> Thanks once again for your help
>
> Dave

--
/kj

Cliff
Wed May 07 11:03:03 PDT 2008

Very strange! Bad NIC/drivers?

-Cliff


"Dave Austin" <DaveAustin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BFD8553F-8AD9-4CCE-B941-422AC4C5E84B@microsoft.com...
> Hi KJ,
>
> Thanks for the quick response....
>
> We do have a WINS server configured, and restarting the WINS service has
> no
> effect when we have this problem
>
> I will do the nbtstat when I can get onto a workstation. I did try one
> earlier today and it all looked fine. In Ethereal MS Browser requests are
> replied to by the server announcing the correct services etc.
>
> One thing I would add .... whether this has any bearing on it ....
> sometimes
> when I VPN in to this particular customer, which I have been doing to
> monitor
> an ethereal network trace all day, I get an ip address and when I ping the
> server it replies 6 or 7 times and then continually times out... so I
> reconnect the vpn, pick up a different ip and it pings ok for another 10
> times, then times out again. Other times the vpn connection will stay up
> for
> hours.
>
> I don't think this is a problem my end as I've vpn'd into several other
> customers today without any issues whatsoever.
>
> Thanks once again for your help
>
> Dave

SuperGumby
Wed May 07 14:27:54 PDT 2008

single or dual NIC SBS?

If 2 NIC check that NetBIOS is not bound to the 'external' NIC.

"Dave Austin" <Dave Austin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A3D235B3-EE23-4521-A7B0-CD2028A518D0@microsoft.com...
> We're seeing a strange problem .... SBS 2003 r2 approx 10 XP Pro clients.
> They have applications that look at Netbios names to run... eg. sage etc.
> they look for \\sbs .
>
> They work fine for hours and then all of a sudden they stop, and if you do
> \\sbs to see the shares all it shows is the offline redirected my
> documents.
> If you do \\sbs.domain.local then the shares all appear fine, however
> because
> the apps use just \\sbs they don't work.
>
> It takes a reboot of the server AND the workstations to get everything
> working again.
>
> Have run dcdiag and netdiag and it passes all tests.
>
> I've tried an entry for the server in the hosts file but that doesn't
> help.
>
> Clients are all dhcp node type 0x8 which I believe is hybrid. WINS/NBNS
> and
> DNS Server ip's are handed out over dhcp too.
>
> This is causing major pain for my customer so any help is greatly
> appreciated.

DaveAustin
Wed May 14 07:51:01 PDT 2008

Follow up on this...

Last week we fitted a new NIC and it was ok until this morning... about 6
days.... then the problem reappeared....

What we're also seeing now is that even trying \\sbs.domain.local , ie. dns
name is not finding the shares either. However if you ping with \\sbs or
\\sbs.domain.local it finds the ip and responds.

It does sound very similar to

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/01/30/sbs-clients-lose-access-to-shares-and-or-cannot-get-dhcp-addresses.aspx

but the Symantec s/w is DEFINATELY NOT installed, so its not that, though
the problem seems very similar.

The NBTSTAT -A is the same from a client when it's all fine AND when they
have the problem.

Thanks once again for all your help.

Dave