Server 2000 can no longer see Samba Share.
 

We have an interesting problem.

We have a Windows 2000 Professional Server that normally connects to a Samba Share on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Kernel 2.6.9-42. It has connected to the Samba Share fine for many months. However, it can no longer connect to the Samba Share. My understanding is that the Samba Version 1.2.21 and there has never been a problem until now.

When trying to map to the Samba Share from the Windows 2000 server, it comes up with the following error:

"The mapped drive could not be created because the following error has occurred: The specified network name is no longer available."

The thing is:

1. Nothing has changed on the Windows 2000 Server.
2. Nothing has changed on the Samba Server.
3. No group policy changes have changed that would affect either of these servers.
4. No additional network changes, hardware or otherwise, have been made that would affect either of these servers.
5. From the Windows 2000 Server, you can map to shares on other servers--both Windows and Linux.
6. Other servers, including another Windows 2000 Server, can map to the Samba Share on the Samba Server in question.
7. The Windows 2000 Server did have access to browsing internet websites, but has since lost that ability too.
8. The Windows 2000 Server can still ping internet websites.
9. You can ping the Samba Server by both IP Address and NetBIOS Name.
10. You can ping the Windows 2000 Server by both IP Address and NetBIOS Name.
11. You can browse to the Windows 2000 Server.
12. Both the Windows 2000 Server and the Samba Server are registered in DNS--both by forward and reverse lookup.

This raises some interesting questions:

1. Why can other systems (including a different Windows 2000 Server) map to the same Samba Share that this particular Windows 2000 Server can no longer map to even though it was mapping to it fine previously?
2. Why can the Windows 2000 Server still map to shares on other servers (granted, they're Windows servers) but no longer to the Samba Server Share?
3. If the Windows 2000 Server can still map to shares on other servers, why can it also no longer browse internet websites even though it can still ping them?

The main question, though, is how do we fix this?

My first thought is a Windows 2000 problem...
Here are a couple things I would try if I were in your situation.

Try clearing DNS Cache: ipconfig /flushdns
Disconnect all network drives: net use * /delete
answer y to any connected drives

Try connecting to the SAMBA share again.

HELP!
 

Been there. Done all that, and more.

Still No Luck.
 

Still no luck in solving this issue.

The fact that you've simultaneously lost the ability to resolve web addresses on the Windows box does point to there being a DNS problem at the Windows end. Does it use one, or more, DNS servers - and are they identical to what the other Windows machines are using?

It is a long time since I used Windows 2000 servers, but I do remember strange things would happen to them if your secondary or tertiary DNS servers weren't resolving - even though the primary might be fine.

DNS
 

What's weird, is nothing has changed in DNS and no other machines are having this problem.