Windows – Cannot view or map drives by host shortname

mappeddriveserver-message-blockwindows

Why can I not view/use/map a drive from a machine using its short hostname if the short hostname is proven resolvable by DNS?

I have a machine (the client in this example) running Windows Server 2008r2 Standard.

I cannot view, use, or map network drives from my fileserver onto this machines, using the short hostname.

I can do all that, eg net view myfileserver.example.com if I use the fully qualified domain name as shown, or if use the IP address.

I can ping the machine using the short name, and nslookup returns the proper IP address if I use the short name.

I could map a network drive on a machine in another domain using either the FQDN or the short name, eg: net use \\otherfileserver\IPC$ /u:"otherdomain\mylogin" "mypassword" /persistent:no

A real head scratcher (to me).

Note also that many other client machines are mapping network drives from the same fileserver.

EDIT:
Ok, I awarded the bounty to Sum1sAdmin. I think he was on to something with the whole Browser thing. The problem is not DNS, no way no how it could be. Shortnames, longnames, skinny names, fat names, fully qualified names- they were all resolvable. It was NetBios (props to Noor Khaldi for being the first to bring it up, btw).

But it was Sum1sAdmin that pushed me to look at browsing in general. And because of that, I found that I had two Linux machines that were acting as the Masters for my domain. That was not good, because I have a mixed Linux/Windows environment and as it says in the smb.conf file: "Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser…Don't use this if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job…" which I do. In any event, I don't trust Samba to play well with Windows. If I can't call Microsoft Tech Support and say, "Yeah I have this browsing issue and by the way the master is a CentOS 5.3 machine running Samba," and they say, "Ok, cool!" then I'm not comfortable. I want my Windows-y things to live in Windows, and Linux be the client- only.

That said, I removed Samba's ability to be the domain master. This totally broke my browsing and made any net view command return an error 53, "The network path was not found." on all hosts for a while. Then after a while I got a new error instead: system error 6118, "The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available." Waiting further, I suddenly started to see some machines. Using Scottie's handy dandy script (http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/), I then started to see machines and new Windows masters.

All that said, the original machine is still broken. And now, some 10 minutes later, my domain has again broke with system error 6118. If you check my conversation with Sum1sAdmin, you will see that my domain is kind of screwy. This is good, because now I know that the issue was never just random. If it's broke, and I know where it's broke, I can fix it. And right now NetBios is all kinds of broke because it was never set up correctly in the first place, which started with me figuring out that Linux was involved. (Which actually may not have caused a problem but regardless, I want to remove that wildcard from the environment and let Windows be Windows).

Anyway, thanks for all the responses. I'm going to keep futzing with this system until it works.

Best Answer

I think this is pointing to your 'master computer browser' service on the emulated PDC - possibly it's stopped, you have proved that netbios over tcp is working, so we can rule that out - it's not DNS or domain suffix configuration on your interface, as 1) it works with FQDN 2) we don't want to use FQDN. So I would venture that 'Computer Browser Server' is where the issue is. It's possibly stopped as the result of an election process and is now running on different 'Master' a machine which thinks it's master and forces and election.

Browser Elections, Browser elections occur to select a new master browse server under the following circumstances: When a computer cannot locate a master browse server.

When a preferred master browse server comes online.

When a Windows-based domain controller starts.

When a back-up browse server cannot contact the master browse server to obtain updates to the browse list.

troubleshooting why the browser service was stopped is referenced in this common causes kb article https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/kb/135404

what is this service?

Browser service or Computer Browser Service is a feature of Microsoft Windows to let users easily browse and locate shared resources in neighboring computers. This is done by aggregating the information in a single computer "Browse Master" (or "Master Browser").

If you have recently upgraded a straggling Windows server 2003 box then it's worth quoting: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726965.aspx

Computer Browser Service Windows Server 2008 sets the startup state of the Computer Browser service to disabled by default for a new installation of Windows Server and when upgrading an existing server to Windows Server 2008. The Computer Browser service helps maintain an updated list of domains, workgroups, and server computers on the network and supplies this list to client computers upon request. For detailed information about Computer Browser service operation, see Appendix C - Computer Browser Service. The default startup state of the Computer Browser service on computers running Windows Server 2008 can cause problems for a domain controller in the primary domain controller flexible single master operations (PDC FSMO) role. For computer browsing, a computer in the PDC FSMO role centrally collects and distributes information about domains, workgroups, and computers for multi-subnet networks. If the computer in the PDC FSMO role is not running the Computer Browser service, computer browse lists across the network will contain only domains, workgroups, and computers on the local subnet. To prevent this problem, configure the startup type for the Computer Browser service for Automatic on the computer in the PDC FSMO role and then start Computer Browser service. You can do this from the Services snap-in or at an elevated command prompt with the following commands: sc config browser start= auto sc start browser Because the Computer Browser service relies on file and printer sharing, you will also need to turn on File and Printer Sharing in the Network and Sharing Center. Alternatively, move the PDC FSMO role to another domain controller that has the Computer Browser service started and configured for automatic startup and File and Printer Sharing turned on in the Network and Sharing Center. Additionally, if the only server computer on a subnet is running Windows Server 2008, client computers will become the local browse server on the subnets. As client computers are started and are shut down, the role of the local browse server will pass from one client computer to another, possibly resulting in an inconsistent display of domains, workgroups, and computers. To prevent this problem, on the computer running Windows Server 2008, turn on file and printer sharing, configure the startup type for the Computer Browser service for Automatic, and then start the Computer Browser service.

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