Losing PCs in Network Neighbourhood

[ribster]

Hi, I'm about to go mad, so can anyone help with this?

Windows 98 PC:
Client for Microsoft Networks
Novell Netware 3.3 Client (primary network login)
Microsoft File and Print sharing
TCP/IP
Browse Master is set to automatic and LMHOSTS is configured as follows:
10.0.0.16 controller1 #PRE #DOM:"domainname"
10.0.0.16 "domainname \0x1d" #PRE
This machine is also the Primary WINS server.

The BDC on the network is configured as the Master Browser, with entries in the registry for IsDomainMaster=TRUE and MaintainServerList=Yes (The BDC is configured rather than the PDC due to network configuration).

There is a batch file on the Windows 98 PC that is scheduled to run periodically, that copies certain files to/from a Windows 2000 server.

The problem is that sometimes when this batch file runs, a Network error 53 is returned - on looking in Network Neighbourhood, all but the netware servers have disappeared!
This is solved by a reboot, but is a pain in the ass.

Is something fundamentally wrong here, anyone got any ideas or advice - would be most appreciated!

Cheers, Steve.

[meese]

Is this a on a NT4 domain? Can you expand on your lan topography?

[ribster]

This is on a netware network, which as I mentioned is the primary logon. There is also a PDC and BDC, authenticating users on the windows side of things (PDC is exchange server).
As I mentioned, there is also a 2000 server just running accounts software.

Need anything else?

Cheers, Steve.

[meese]

You may want to look in this forum, its more focused on networking, although mostly windows, I think someone may be able to help you.

http://x220.minasi.com/forum/

[DVNT1]

First, I would Disable Browse Master on this Win98 PC.

When you have this problem, do you still get a ping reply from the W2K server?

Last, does this computer use Power saving features like hibernation?

[ribster]

I have disabled browse master on the win98 pc before and it had no effect. Yes, I can still ping all computers on the network. No, this PC does not use any power saving features.

Cheers, Steve.

[DVNT1]

Leaving the Master Broswer disabled should only help in this situation.

I haven't significantly supported Win9x in a long time. What I would do though, is have the batch remap the drive every time it is ran.

When you have the problem situation, do you get an error message when trying to map a drive?

When in this problem situation, can you access a shared resource on the problem computer from another computer?

[ribster]

I did have the job running the net use command to connect to a drive and then deleting after the files were copied.
I then created a permanent mapping to the drive in question, rather than have the batch file map each time.
I'm pretty sure you can't map a drive when the problem situation occurs, although I'm not sure about connecting to the 98 PC from another PC to access shares - I will try that, next time the problem crops up.

Cheers, Steve.

[ribster]

I'm not really any closer to solving this one, but it does appear that it is not possible to access shares on this pc from another pc when this problem occurs.

Cheers, Steve.