This company has 3 networks in 3 cities, connected with T1 lines. The central site uses DNS, Active Directory, etc, and the natives are happy. The other cities use Peer to Peer, have single person support staffs and are also happy. A new SQL server has been developed, storing reports online. All users have been given a program that looks up by index the reports they want, and then lets them open a PDF containing the data they need. The domain users are still happy. The Peer to Peer crowd not so much. When the P2P users connect, they get nothing back. Putting the server address in the HOSTS file on their windows xp machines did not fix the problem. The solution found was to select START then RUN and then enter the server's share name (which is in the HOSTS file) in: \\shareme The system then asks for user id and password. Entering a valid pair opens IE with all of the server's shares displayed. User then closes the window, and has all the report displays they can consume... until they reboot. Is there a script or batch that can be run at boot on a P2P machine that will log them in as happens with the START RUN \\shareme option just discussed? The natives are not dim, but are VERY lazy and hate to make manual activity a part of their rituals. Thank you very much.

This company has 3 networks in 3 cities, connected with T1 lines Dedicated point-to-point links, or do they go through the general internet cloud over VPN's? The domain users are still happy. The Peer to Peer crowd not so much. When the P2P users connect, they get nothing back. Putting the server address in the HOSTS file on their windows xp machines did not fix the problem. The solution found was to select START then RUN and then enter the server's share name (which is in the HOSTS file) in: \\shareme The correct format to connect to a share is: \\servername\sharename If you're not connecting using that format, try it and see if that doesn't work correctly. Make sure you report back and let us know. If it doesn't work, we'll try something else.

The network is a dedicated T1 line between the cities, not the internet cloud. And I appreciate your pointer of the correct format for sharename and server. I was shortcutting for convenience, as putting in exact format and information adds nothing to the problem description. However, I have found the solution. Each station has to have someone login one time to the share. START / RUN / \\SERVER\SHAREME Enter the user ID / password pair, close the windows. Then using the steps START / RUN / cmd.exe enter the network information in the command box as: net use \\servername\shareme net use /persistent:yes No errors are displayed, no request for password or ID is asked. Then close the command window. Then reboots do not affect the network use after this setup. So to get the total functionality, only one login is ever done. No batch is needed, no script. Thanks for the help. Hope this can help someone else.

Oh, forgot to mention. In the shared server, no folder is ever entered, only the server ID \\server The SQL database advertises all the information necessary to work with the tables, so users do not have to be involved with storage formats.

Ok thanks for the info.......that'll help. Dedicated lines make life a lot easier. Why not write a batchfile to run the commands on bootup? You've already written except for the very first line: ***Begin batchfile**** @echo off net use \\servername\shareme net use /persistent:yes ***End batchfile*** Copy and paste that into notepad and save it into your C:\Windows folder and then drop a shortcut from it into the Startup folder on each PC needing it. Now the process is fully automated and users (and you) never have to do it again.

That would be the best solution, I agree. I had been unaware that password and ID could be included, but the syntax shows: net use \\servername\shareme password /user:domainname\username Then the statement: net use /persistent:yes Would not be needed, since the batch would execute on every boot. Thanks for the follow up. Hope this can be of help to others, too!

FYI but you never use the hosts file for establishing shares. \\server\share is an invalid entry in the hosts file. Make sure you remove these. Including password/account information in a logon script is a huge security hole into your network. I would suggest a better approach to your SQL server would have been to have used MS Access as a front end and use an ODBC link to the SQL server to get the reports. Connection to the server would have been at the system level not the user level. Might want to talk to your SQL programmers about this.