SCENARIO: A Vista server (Home Edition 32-bit), 3 XP clients and other 5 Vista clients joined together on a Workgroup. Twice a day, we have to restart the Vista server as the XP machine lost connection when trying to access a file from the Vista server and XP clients give the following errors:
- when opening My Network Places = Error: Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Network name is no longer available.
- when opening shared/mapped folder = Error: %Share% is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Access Denied.
I searched for those errors and tried solutions below but none fixed the issue. Please note that when I refer to client computer - it refers to XP machine, and Vista as the server.
- Client & Server: Enable Simple File Sharing from the client and server. Made the Guest account password blank on both server and client.
- Client & Server: Uninstall 3rd part Anti-virus & Firewall.
- Disable Computer Browser service in all of the computers, just left it enable at the server and 1 Vista client.
- Server: Added username and password of all XP computers onto the server.
- Server: Changed LAN Manager Authentication Level to send LM and NTLM responses or LmCompatibilityLevel=1
- Server: KB928233 - Turn DHCP Broadcast Flag Off
- Server: Enable restrictanonymous on registry
- Client: Remove KB885250 patch.
- Client: Scan for threadspy virus.
- Client: Enable/Install LLTD on all XP clients.
- Client: Added KeepConn equivalent to ffffffff on registry
- Client: Enable NetBios.
The only fix that made XP connection stable is by disabling SMB2 on the server. Please note, you have to disable SMB2 on all Vista clients to prevent errors. Edit the registry at your own risk. Always back up the registry before making any changes. If you do not feel comfortable editing the registry, do not attempt these instructions.
- Run regedit on the server.
- Expand and locate the sub-tree as follows.
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
- Add a new REG_DWORD key with the name of Smb2
Value name: Smb2
Value type: REG_DWORD
0 = disabled
1 = enabled - Set the value to 0 to disable SMB 2.0, or set it to 1 to re-enable SMB 2.0.
- Reboot the server.
To read more about SMB, you can check this link http://www.petri.co.il/how-to-disable-smb-2-on-windows-vista-or-server-2008.htm