Windows 7 not connecting to W2003SR2 Shares but allowing login

We have an older network set up with a Windows 2003 SR2 AD Domain Controller. There is another AD Controller at another facility (this would have been the PDC back in the day) with this one here on another subnet being a backup and allowing users at the remote facility to participate in the domain.

We ended up having to Add window 7 64 workstations to this domain as an application required it. Adding the computer to the domain was never an issue, just went through the steps and addded them Start > Computer > Properties > Change setting and then added the workstation with the Administrators username and password for the domain.

Everything was working fine till about two days ago, and now all the Windows 7 PCs are not connecting to shares. The login script is supposed to map out drives for the user, it maps drives to the other DC in the other facility (via VPN through the Internet) but when it tries to map the drives for the DC right here in its own subnet, it just times out and says it was unable to find the host.

If I try and ping the DC in the same subnet, all pings fail.
If I try and do a DIR listing to the ip: dir \\192.168.1.10\share the network path was not found.

I can ping other computers in the subnet, just not that DC.

For the computer that started experiencing this, I had to restore to an earlier point and then thinks "kind" of work - but not 100% they still are not able to access shares (like their home folder which slows everything down) or other folders that should be mapped out for them. It is very frustrating but I am almost to the point of just dumping the domain entirely and having the users just work off a Workgroup in this remote facility.

I don't think I should have to upgrade my server to windows 2008 or 2012 just to connect a Windows 7 pro computer to it, but it is kind of feeling that way. I have a gut feeling that is has something to do with security settings, but I dont get that either - the user can Log into the Domain, connect to other share at the other facility, just not shares on this DC. Is there some way to have the Main DC at the other facility refresh the security on this remote one? Any suggestions or help with this matter is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Well this has got me completely buggered. I am sure there is some thing wrong with the security between the W7 PC/s and this AD DC. There are also some other weird network things going on so for this PC, I am restoring it to factory defaults and seeing what effect that will have on the issue.

Still does not fix my 4 other W7 PC's that are sitting in the same boat and starting to experience the same issues, so if anyone has any info about these matter(s) or even remotely has some things I can check out I would really appreciate it.

Oh and if there is any more information I can provide that may help, please let me know what you need provided and I will provided it.

Have you tried working with the lanman server perimeters in the GPO of the Windows 7 machines? In order for Windows 7 to work with older servers you usually need to adjust the lanman server security settings.

I can't figure out why it would work for two days then just stop working.

The following settings may work.

Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy

Local Policies - Security Options

Network security: LAN Manager authentication level
Set to Send LM & NTLM responses only

Set the Minimum session security for NTLM SSP
Disable Require 128-bit encryption

I will certainly give those a shot for the other W7 PC's. This one PC has gotten even deeper now! This whole mess originally started because this user could not print to his printer. (Its a network printer - straight to IP - I can ping it no problem with my Linux Toughbook). And while I was trying to update its driver, I ran into these other issues with the Network and learned that these users have been experiencing the in-ability to connect to the network shares (most did not really even notice the issues).

Any way after dinking around with things for most of the morning, as I stated earlier, I was just going to factory restore this pc and see where that got me (setting the other Domain/Network issues aside for the time being). After wiping the drive and completely reinstalling back to factory, I ping the gateway - no problem. Ping the printer to begin setting it up Request Time out (all the while I am still pinging it from my laptop)!

So even after rebuilding this users PC back to factory, I still cannot ping the printer. Just testing, it looks like all I can ping from this @#(@#&*@)) computer is the gateway! WTFGives!

This is truly about to drive me knockers. It looks like - sometimes, intermittently - if I run the command prompt as administrator, I can ping. Have disabled the Windows Firewall (disabled the service) - why on earth would a com test like ping need to be run as admin?

Ok! So after my meltdown yesterday, apparently I have stumbled onto a pretty common thing with w7 and its weird networking. We still have quite a few Xp computers running that just don't have issues. Well ok let's be honest - they all have issues. I have just been not experiencing w7 as we have not needed to. My biggest dread is that I do have other w7 PC's spread out throughout the network and have a real gut feeling about see more of this. I just cannot seem to get why the basic networking tools like ping needed to be messed with - I was seriously getting ready to call the mfg fearing nic issues.

So I still have my share issue, and now there is the ping issues - are there any tricks to making windows 7 networking act like it normally should.

DAXQ said:

Ok! So after my meltdown yesterday, apparently I have stumbled onto a pretty common thing with w7 and its weird networking. We still have quite a few Xp computers running that just don't have issues. Well ok let's be honest - they all have issues. I have just been not experiencing w7 as we have not needed to. My biggest dread is that I do have other w7 PC's spread out throughout the network and have a real gut feeling about see more of this. I just cannot seem to get why the basic networking tools like ping needed to be messed with - I was seriously getting ready to call the mfg fearing nic issues.

So I still have my share issue, and now there is the ping issues - are there any tricks to making windows 7 networking act like it normally should.

You might try the following registry adjustment.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters\size
Your choices for this registry key are 1,2 and 3.
1 = Minimize Memory Used
2 = Balance
3 = Maximize Throughput for File Sharing and Maximize Throughput for Network Applications

Be sure to set this to (3). By default it is configured to 1.

windows 7 stops sharing files
System error 64 - the specified network name is no longer available

Will give it a whirl! Just out of curiosity am I alone in thinking this is really kinda goofy? How in a windows 2003 domain it is easier for me to get my Ubuntu laptop talking to the domain server and other devices on the LAN than windows 7?

DAXQ said:

Will give it a whirl! Just out of curiosity am I alone in thinking this is really kinda goofy? How in a windows 2003 domain it is easier for me to get my Ubuntu laptop talking to the domain server and other devices on the LAN than windows 7?

I can't figure out why Microsoft set things up this way but between the endless security settings and the lame power saving features it seems that Microsoft has shot itself in the foot because I see similar complaints all the time.

When you get to the point that you need to let everyone be an administrator to get things done, have you really changed or fixed anything?