# Windows XP Offline Files thinks server is disconnecting



## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

I've got a customer with about 10 Windows XP Pro machines connecting to a Windows 2003 Small Business Server. They're all notebooks and use Offline Files to let them take their work with them. The problem is that while they're connected at the office (wired, not wireless), their computers periodically show the "bubble" indicating that they've been disconnected from the server and are now working offline. If they click on the bubble and click OK on the Offline Files window, it suddenly reconnects and synchronizes again. I'm told that this happens several times a week, and sometimes several times within a day. It seems to happen to all of the computers, which makes me think it's something with the server or network, but I've done a little bit of testing and I don't lose pings or the Exchange connection when Offline Files kicks in. Thanks for any ideas! 

Edit: I should also mention that their old tech put a second NIC in this server to try to fix the problem, but it hasn't helped, and I just updated to the latest Intel drivers. They're also all up to date on Windows Updates.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Are all computers using a link speed of 100Full, or Autodetect? I've seen a non-Autodetect setting cause many different network problems.

It could also be a bad cable from the router to the server.

Does this happen to all users at the same time, or are different users affected at different times of the day?


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

They're all set for autodetect, although I've considered changing the server to manual just to see what happens. If it were abad cable to the server, I'd expect other services (like Exchange and ping) to die as well, but I wouldn't completely discount the possibility. Good question about timing -- I'll see what I can find out!


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## BigJdaTech (May 14, 2007)

I'm currently having the same problem at work with 3 workstations. 2 desktops and 1 laptop. I spoke to the network department and the server is fine. The desktop computers are on 100 Full and the laptop is on Auto since the user travels alot. I'm gonna try some more stuff and see what I can find out also


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

Thanks for the reply. I still haven't managed to track anything down, but will be spending some more time at this client's site in the near future, so hopefully I'll get to play around a bit. It's strange that all users don't experience the problem at the same time. One will get disconnected and the rest will be fine... for a while. I just can't put my finger on what would cause such a strange issue. Out of curiosity, what antivirus / firewall / etc are those workstations using? I believe this client is using Norton Corporate. I'm not sure it's at all related, but I'm really beginning to think it's on the workstation end.


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## Simmetje (Jun 26, 2007)

Hi, I have the same problems on a SBS 2003 R2 server with XP SP2 clients.
Did anyone find a solution yet?
I was thinking of fixing the speed of the XP machines to Fixed 1 Gbps. But I am not sure nic speed is the real problem. IT suspect MS offline files & folders technology.

Rob.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I can't imagine the NIC speed being the issue. I wonder if you configured one of them to NOT use off-line files, would that workstation still experience disconnects?


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## rhynes (Aug 14, 2006)

Are you getting any mrxsmb warnings on the workstations? 

I'm having the same problem with a client I just installed a server for. Someone else upgraded their workstations from xp home and have been dealing with this ever since. 

i'm wondering if it's an update from microsoft that's causing this. I'll be troubleshooting tomorrow, if I find the answer, i'll let you know.


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

I didn't notice any mrxsmb warnings. I actually don't remember seeing any warnings or errors at all. Let me know if you figured anything out, as I'm likely to be on this mystery again in about a week.


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## Vince22 (Jul 10, 2007)

Hi,

I have the same error's. Clients all on XP Pro SP2 get "you are no longer connected to server" and are working offline. Has anyone found a solution? When they click on the "icon" it connects to the server and syncronizes the offline files. Also, they for that brief moment do lose connection to the network shares. 

The server is a Dell 1900 with SBS 2003 R-2.

Please let me know if anyone finds a solution to this very frustrating problem.

Thanks,
Vince


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## rhynes (Aug 14, 2006)

Took a more than a bloody week to find my problem ffs... Turns out it was the wireless router upstairs causing all the problems. I tried everything on the workstations to fix this but nothing worked. I had set the wireless router up to act as a switch, dhcp disabled and router was statically assigned. Seems like it was a packet storm or something. Unplugging it made all the problems go away, they haven't dropped off since.

The mrxsmb warnings were only a small part of it but the drops off the network and loss of "offline files" were wreaking havoc.

Do you have any other switches or routers on your network by chance?


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## Vince22 (Jul 10, 2007)

Hi. I have a sonic wall tz170, dhcp disabled and a dell 2416 power connect switch.


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

We have a SonicWall of some kind as well (not sure the model off hand) as well as a simple switch and some kind of wireless access point. I'll have to research these devices further!


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## Vince22 (Jul 10, 2007)

Thanks. This problem is frustrating. I unplugged the sonicwall tz170 (firewall) and we still had the problem of the clients (all XP Pro SP2) getting the offline errors. So I dont think the firewall is the issue.

I appreciate your thoughts on this. I noticed alot of people have the same problem, has anyone found the solution or are they just living with it?

Vince


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## rhynes (Aug 14, 2006)

Well Vince, there's a whole slew of issues that can cause this, just to name a few... Incorrect termination of cabling (568 standards), viruses, bad drivers, switch/router crossconnect, bad network card etc.


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## Vince22 (Jul 10, 2007)

Hi,

Has anyone solved the problem with "offline" errors? I still have not found what is causing this.

Thanks for any help.

Vince


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Try holding CTRL as you right-click the outlook icon in the task tray, and go to Connection Status (this option won't appear unless you are holding down the CTRL key).

Check the Reg/Fail column for anything after the / other than 0 - meaning something is failing. If something is constantly failing, then you may have something blocking the connection to the exchange server (such as a firewall, or such).


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

Who said anything about Outlook? I'm pretty sure we're all talking about Offline Files.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

My bad...


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## PCDTeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I have two sites with the same problem. Windows SBS 2003 servers and Windows XP clients working happily but with pop up bubbles telling them that their offline files are now working offline. Outlook and file shares to the server all continue to work fine.

I have updated NIC drivers on servers and clients. Windows updates are also right up to date. Even replaced the Gigabit switch at one of the sites. 

Interesting to note that some of the other sites report using Sonicwall firewalls. So do both of these sites. However, we have installed in excess of fifty Sonicwall firewalls and have had great success and great reliability from them. 


Thanks, Paul.


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## gunney1969 (Aug 7, 2007)

I had a user with this exact same issue. It was disconnecting (actually thinking it was disconnected) several times a day.

Re-initializing the offline files cache seems to have fixed it. Instructions for re-initializing the cache are at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230738 Make sure that a sync is performed prior to re-initializing or offline changes might be lost.

Hope this helps


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## dr_db (Aug 29, 2007)

The clue that led me to a solution (at least for me) was the fact that the network drives would should up as disconnected periodically. Turns out that server will autodisconnect what it considers idle clients. There is no way to actually turn that behavior off, but

net config server /autodisconnect:-1

on the server sets the time period to something like 8100 years, so effectively it's off. Perhaps I will find a version to upgrade to in that time ;-)

Doing that disables autotuning on the server, pay a visit to http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=0186 to deal with that.


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

Thanks for the suggestion! I just tried applying that to my customer's server this afternoon. I'll keep my fingers crossed!


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## vallostech (Oct 15, 2007)

I have ran into the same problems here, have 10 desktops, and about 10 laptops, and it has been nothing but a pain in the a** dealing with offline files. All Windows XP, up to date updates, and Server 2003 all up to date also. Cisco 3500xl switch, with spanning-tree portfast enabled on all ports. So...this is supposed to make the admins life easier, ha. Network drives come up as disconnected out of no where, users get disconnected from all network resources, untill they click on the little offline files icon in the tasktray, and click ok to sync. Problems happens when they click ok, another box comes up and says..."Close Open Files...Reconnecting to the network causes a synchronization to occur. In order to begin synchronizing, all of your files and folders must be closed. Please close all of your files and folders then press ok. Any remaining open files will be forcibly closed by windows." None of my users read popups, they just click. So this has messed up a few times, when they were in the middle of a word doc. and lost changes. Disconnected from printers, and can not reconnect until they sync. i have just applied the "net config server /autodisconnect:-1" I will follow up in a few days to see if this has changed anything for me. Please advise if you have found a solution to the problem, or know of a work around other than the /autodisconnect. Thanks


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## PCDTeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I found out what was causing my problem. The PCs effected are notebooks and they all have the Sonicwall VPN client installed on them. Turns out its a known problem with the Global VPN client. Sonicwall released a beta update to the GVPN client which supports Windows Vista. I uninstalled and rebooted, installed the beta version (which often errors on installation, but you just ignore and reinstall straight away) and I have happy users which no longer lose connection to the server or have the offline files "Offline" message pop up. It might be a similar problem with other versions of VPN client. Hope this helps.
Paul.


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## hek (Nov 7, 2007)

Hello there,

having the same issue as you are and can't find any solution yet. 4 users with laptops on WinXP SP2 are using offline files through a wireless 802.11g connection. It keeps disconnecting a couple of times per day, even per hour sometimes! Very bugging for users since they have to resync each time. The server where is the file share is a Windows Server 2003 R2. I tried the switch "net config server /autodisconnect:-1" and it did not help. There's not timeout to configure in the Linksys access point, and there's no issue when using the wired network (but they has to be on the wireless network!). Please let me know if someone finally found a solution.

Regards,
Eric


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## kimhuff (Nov 10, 2007)

I have read through this thread and this does sound like the problem I am having but with a twist.

We recently purchased a server and some new desktops. Everything seems to work beautifully except MY offline files for my laptop. Throughout the day (at least once a day) I get the little balloon saying I have been disconnected from the server. Once this happens, I "usually" still have access to my files but I can never print or access the mapped drives until I sync again. Recently (in the last couple days), I have received error messages saying that there was an error writing to the drive and I have lost everything. This usually happens when I either lock up or my laptop thinks it is no longer connected to the server.

The weird thing is I am still on the internet and I believe my Outlook still thinks I am connected. Here is where it gets strange. Three times now I have got home, booted up my laptop only to find files either missing OR no files in my "My Doc" at all. I had to come back to work tonight so my laptop could sync so I could go back home and work. My computer has been syncing now for over an hour and a half and it is still not done.

It seems like to me that this wonderfully created offline files invention is having some major issues. The other weird thing is that I have not had any of the docs complain about this issue which leads me to believe it is my laptop. Granted, no one uses their computer as much as me and for the most part do not take their computers outside of the network. I am not sure if they are losing connection to the server because most of the time they are with patients. I do know that I am having a major issue and simply do not know what to do to fix it.

Your assistance to this matter is greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

Kim

Server: Intel Xeon 2ghz with 2gb RAM, Raid 5, 2 NICs
Laptop: Custom MSI laptop with AMD Turion 2ghz Duo Core, 2gb of RAM, 100 GB hard drive, connection wired.
Using a Linksys router that has been dummed to a access point and a 16 port switch.


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## tallmann (Jan 23, 2008)

I'm having the same problem.
Windows SBS2003 R2
2 XPMC (hacked to connect to domain)
1 XP Pro SP2.
The XP Pro keeps popping up the notification that it is disconnected from the server.
Someone earlier mentioned VPN software possibly causing the prob. I thought the same thing as this box has OpenVPN installed (it connects out to another network).

/me wonders if vpn going out on a client box is disrupting connection to a windows domain? If so, what's the fix?

Any thoughts?


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## kimhuff (Nov 10, 2007)

We are not using a VPN. It doesnt seem to happen as much for us now but I am having serious issues with OFFLINE FILES that I just cant figure out. I dont think it is related but the issue is a real pain.

Kim


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## PCDTeam (Aug 7, 2007)

As stated in an earlier post, I have fixed the offline files popup and the loss of comms to mapped server drive problems. In my case we had cable connections (no wifi) to the LAN but only notebooks were affected. This turned out to be because only the notebooks had the Sonicwall Global VPN client installed on them. Upgrading the VPN client software fixed the problem. Note: when the offline files lost connection to the server the mapped drive to the server would also fail. Outlook and Internet access continued to work fine. The vpn software was not connected when in the office (as it is only needed to connect to the LAN when out of the office) just installed was enough for it to cause problems. The vpn software seemed to install a new network card shown in Network Connections list. It appeared only to cause problems when the notebooks were connected to the domain and offline files where enabled. So I suspect there is some low level tcp/ip stack conflict with the software. But all fixed now with the newer version of the VPN software.

For people still having problems...
The person with wifi offline popup problems doesn't really surprise me as I think wifi can be very unreliable anyway. Other problems may also be related to LAN connection reliability issues. You could setup a continuous ping on your PC to the sever using:
ping (insert server IP address here) -t
which will continue to ping until you ^C it. If you have an offline files popup then check the ping to see if any packets have been dropped. Network cards should be updated to the latest driver versions as with Windows Update.
Good luck.


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## ryanissick (Jan 30, 2008)

Hello, I have the same issue, except I have some desktop users that do not have Sonicwall VPN client installed. Also, I have the most recent client in order to support my Vist ausers. This is a somewhat new problem, however. I will try net config server /autodisconnect:-1, and perhaps roll back the XP users to the older GVC to see if it helps.


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## bobaganoush (Apr 28, 2008)

I experienced this exact issue this past week, and actually find the solution on this message board. I was surprised no one followed up to report it, so I felt compelled to sign up.

gunney1969 (#21) suggests re-initializing the offline files cache... well, that did the trick!

Cheers.


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

Thanks for letting us know, bobaganoush! I hope you become a regular here.


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