hi there. really hope someone can help me because this problem is driving me insane.

Just a very quick bit of b.info

Very small network

1 server - WINDOWS NT4.0

6pc's - 3 WINDOWS XP 2 WINDOWS 98SE 1 - WIN2K all networked

Heres the problem.......

I have data all 6 computers need access too stored in a folder on the C: drive of the server. Simple you would think. However when all the XP/WIN2k machines are accessing this data then the two windows 98 machines wont connect to the server at all, an error message is displayed when logging in saying "there is no server availible to validate your username and password".

However if you then reboot the server with all the pcs in windows then as soon as the server is back online again they all access the data no problem?

All the passwords and usernames are correct, the sharing permissions on the server are set to allow access to everyone, and also the number of users allowed to access the folder is "maximum allowed".

I have tried everything I can think of to fix it, even installed windows xp on the 98 machines and still no joy.

Any help would be absolutely fantastic as im really stuck here.

Thanks

Look at event viewer logs and see what they say as to errors relating to access. Check your licensing. How many NT server client access licenses are showing on the server?

When was the last time you defragged the server? NT does not come with a defragger and if you are running NTFS you can be headed for the dumper.

How much memory does the NT server have?

Are your pcs logging in to the domain or are you just doing peer to peer?

When you get the message from the 98 boxes can you ping the server from them?

I think your onto something with the license thing. I think I read a long time ago on the NT4 box that it came with 5 client access licenses.

If that is the problem where can I get more licenses and how much does it cost???

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it.

that should be enough licenses to not cause the access problem you describe.

I suspect you have a failing hardware or system saturation problem.

*Review Event viewer logs
*Run chkdsk /r on the drives
*DEFRAG [if you have not defragged you are in big trouble]
*Run a boot disk diagnostic of the nic card.
*If connected to a managed switch check the port stats of the server for errors.
*it never hurts to reapply service pack 6a.
*review your security settings on the share. Perhaps even recreate from scratch.
*review what load you are putting on the server. Sounds like you do not have a BDC and the server is too busy to authenicate. A 486 can make a excellent bdc.

Oh about licenses. I go thru a company called Softchoice. but any var like cdw can sell you w2k or 03 server cals. they are downward compatable. This means you can use a 03 cal for a NT server cal. I get charity pricing so I can't tell you what retail is. $50 per cal?

thanks for all your help.

i have done everything in your list and still no joy. i keep everything really tidy with regular defrag, hardware tests etc etc.

I checked the event viewer and read the application log. it has a huge list of "stop" entries from the "license service"

when i opened one of the errors i found the following message :

No license was available for user WESTWARD\MALCOLMA using product SMBServer 4.0

This surely confirms the license theory :

So I can buy licenses seperately, may go for a pack of 5 client licenses because we are thinking of expanding soon.

Thanks alot for your help.

:-) start by disabling the license service in services. See if your problem goes away.

5pac is as small as they come that I am aware of.