This server is a file server and AD controller. I am having an issue where Windows XP SP2 machines who have a mapped drive to the server will randomly get Error 5 Access Denied. This has happened when the user does not use the mapped drive for a while and tries to browse the drive or it might happen after a user opens a file that is on the mapped drive (lets say Excel spreadsheet) and then tries to save the file. When it happens I run the net use command to see what drives are mapped and there has been instances where the same server and folder were mapped twice, however today it was only mapped once. Net use sees the connection as "OK". Other mapped drives continue to work fine including to other AD controllers. If I disconnect all instances of the mapped drive and remap everything is OK for a while. Some times it happens once a week, once a day or once a month. Only seems to happen to machines that are apart of the domain, but it does not matter if the user is logged on as local user or domain user. We have had (and continue to have) a problem with SMB signing causing issues where some machines cannot map a drive at all to this server, but the fix for that does not seem to affect the cause for this. Any suggestions appreciated! Philip

How are you mapping your drives? Is this process the reason? Maybe try using FQDN and not NetBIOS names when creating the connection. Maybe try mapping using the IP address of the server instead of the name.

When the workstation is in this state I cannot map with IP address or FQDN (such as foo.bar.local. I have not tried to map the drive initially with the FQDN. I will try this and see if the problem comes back. Thanks, Philip