Mapped Network Drives

[Don Jones]

I have two different software programs on my work network which use mapped network drives to access the data located on another computer in the network. I can start all computers on the network(4) and once all are booted up and have connected to the network. When I start one of the programs(either one of them) which uses one of the mapped drives the program can not find the drive. I can go to my network connections and the drives are there(I can click on the drive and it displays the data files). Then I can restart the program and then it works fine. It is two completely different programs and the mapped drives are pointing to different computers on the network. I have contacted the software tech support and they say it is a Windows issue. I changed the router to the one it is currently using and it made work correctly 50 percent of the time. I have even tried installing another network card and disabling the one built into the motherboard(did nothing). Is there any way to make the thing automatically refresh these network drive connections? I have the "reconnect at logon" box checked on the network drives.
Any Ideas???

Windows XP
Linksys Firewall Router
Dell computers all less than a year old

Don

 

[SkyHog]

I suspect what is happening is that sometimes Windows is taking longer to resolve your network than other times. There are times at home when Windows will take more than a few minutes to completely find all the computers on the network.

I have no solution advice for ya, except to say that this may be normal.

 

[Greebo]

How long are you waiting between starting the computers and the drives becoming available?

Do you need to turn off the computers every night?

 

[Brian Austin]

Is this XP Home or Pro?

XP Home doesn't start the Server service by default, which announces shared drives and allows connections automatically. Go to Control Panel, Admistrative Tools (under Performance and Maintenance if you're using the new 'look' of Control Panel) and Services. Scroll down to Server and confirm that it's Started. Set it to Automatic if it's not.

 

[Don Jones]

Is this XP Home or Pro?

XP Home doesn't start the Server service by default, which announces shared drives and allows connections automatically. Go to Control Panel, Admistrative Tools (under Performance and Maintenance if you're using the new 'look' of Control Panel) and Services. Scroll down to Server and confirm that it's Started. Set it to Automatic if it's not.

Well I checked all of them and they are set to automatic. Any other ideas?
I could leave them on all the time, just did not really want to.
Don

 

[EdFred]

Spend some $$ and get a File Server that stays on 24/7. That's what I've done here. 1 file server, 5 computers, and the web/mail server.