I’m having a problem with workstations getting disconnected network drives after non-use. If the user double-clicks on the drive, it will open but take a very long time and will never show up as anything other than “disconnected network drive” until the workstation is rebooted. I found that Windows 2000 and 2003 servers will autodisconnect client network drives after 15 minutes by default. I found the Microsoft knowledge base articles describing the command line “net config server /autodisconnect:-1” to disable autodisconnection. The problem is that the same kb article also states:
“For a Windows 2000 Server in a Domain, running either as a domain controller or as a server, the maximum value is 65,535 (0xffff). Values set above this will be returned to 0xffff after policy refresh. Windows 2000 Servers in a workgroup may be set to any value as indicated.”
I have discovered that this is indeed true. Every Monday morning, our users again have disconnected network drives and the only fix we have it to reboot their workstations. Looking at the registry entry on the servers shows the setting was set back to 0x0000ffff rather than the 0xffffffff that I gave it previously. 0x0000ffff gives 18 hours of idle time before disconnecting. Unless they reboot every Monday morning, I don’t see a way to make this work.
We use a domain. With the number of workstations and sites we have, that’s the only way to do it. It is a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domain with Windows 2000 and 2003 servers and Windows 2000 and XP clients.
I’d appreciate any information I’ve missed or even a workaround that will fix this problem!
