Hello,
I have a peer-to-peer network with 25 WinXP Pro computers. I have built a Linux (SuSE) server for the purpose of backing up My Documents, PST files and favourites. Each user has their own folder containing the sync'd files. Each folder is password protected. I have configured each users machine with a mapped 'S' drive, which is the sync'd data folder on the Linux computer. All of the computers seem to end up with a "disconnected network drive" status after either logging out for the day or after some time has elapsed. Some will connect with a double click but others prompt for a password. I have tried mapping the drive using the option "Connect using a different user name", which is fine until the user logs out and back in again. I use SyncToy as a scheduled task, but can't connect to these mapped drives automatically, so the sync process will not work unattended.

thank you
willy_gn

"Map Network Drive" also has a checkbox to make the mapping persistent after log-out (or re-boot).

Internally, all it does is execute the "net use" command (which has options to specify user account, /PERSISTENT option to make
it persist after logout, etc).

Go to command prompt, and use to find out more.

Hi

I have a similar problem with my windows network. When all the boxes were win98se everything stayed 'alive'. Now that the boxes are winxp sp3 the network drive connections 'die' but can be revived by double clicking them in explorer.

I put it down to microsoft 'progress'.

John

In my limited understanding, that's partly because of the way the Samba (SMB) protocol works (in addition to being Windows'fault).
Unlike NFS, the client-server connection is not expected to be kept up all the time (e.g. NFS links will block until they come back up; Samba is more "lazy").

The "net use" command can be used from command line to establish mapped drives (e.g. you could disconnect - reconnect with username/password).
It works on the windows command prompt, so it can be automated (wsh script, .bat file,...).

If the drive is already mapped and is just temporarily de-activated (after an idle period), I suppose you could also write a .bat file that would change to the drive, cd to a folder and do a "dir" (ls-like) command just to resurrect it, no?

The requirement to put in the username/password shouldn't happen, unless you logoff/logon or reboot - and in both these case a logon script that calls "net use" would be an automated solution.

I use SyncToy as well, but mainly to back-up some network drive files on my local drive to continue working at home. I run it manually, as I dislike automated backups when I logoff (in which case the standard backup soft may be a better choice). So I guess it can depend on the sync strategy you're after...