Can't access a network drive... driving me batcrap crazy.
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg wrote:
Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow.
What is the /24 network at home and at work?
charlieg wrote:
But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere.
I have no idea about SVN, does it use direct IP or some other magic like HTTP that may take the IP out of the equation?
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
There's a firewall on the VPN entry point that allows HTTP but is blocking the SMB/CIFs protocol; that might be part of the organizational DMZ internal access point. You'll need to coordinate with the organization's NOC to figure out how to get that drive mapping to work through the VPN, or use a cloud service accessible from both networks.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
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charlieg wrote:
Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow.
What is the /24 network at home and at work?
charlieg wrote:
But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere.
I have no idea about SVN, does it use direct IP or some other magic like HTTP that may take the IP out of the equation?
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
My understanding is that svn leverages the html / web api. I don't think there is anything "special" it does....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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There's a firewall on the VPN entry point that allows HTTP but is blocking the SMB/CIFs protocol; that might be part of the organizational DMZ internal access point. You'll need to coordinate with the organization's NOC to figure out how to get that drive mapping to work through the VPN, or use a cloud service accessible from both networks.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
I sort of understood that. However, I wonder why it would work some of the time? The wildcard in this equation is that 99.99% of the users of this VPN are employees and members of the domain. No problems reported by them.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I sort of understood that. However, I wonder why it would work some of the time? The wildcard in this equation is that 99.99% of the users of this VPN are employees and members of the domain. No problems reported by them.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Ah, it sounds like it entirely depends on how your credentials are handled, your description doesn't mean much on that light unfortunately. Regardless, there is definitely a firewall between you and the internal network that you don't have to contend with while on site. I suspect it will boil down to how authentication is handled. If possible, I've found the easiest solution is to use a jump box or terminal server to work from on premises.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Hmmm, I'd begin debugging by doing:
route print
(This is probably your problem) On both networks and making sure you have a route to the SwServer. You are probably on a different IP address range while connected to the VPN and have a different route or no route at all. You might be able to add a route to SwServer by doing:
route ADD [network] MASK [mask] [gateway]
Keep in mind it could also be a firewall rule on the company network so you may want to get the Systems Administrator involved. Some additional thoughts: Make sure the NETBIOS name 'SwServer' resolves to an IP by doing:
nslookup SwServer
If SwServer resolves to an IP address... try manually mapping the drive:
net use N: \\SwServer\Development
charlieg wrote:
The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Many Systems Admins sit in their office and poke buttons and change network security/patch things every day while consuming large amounts of coffee. It's a repeating pattern of fixing 90% of everything and breaking the other 10% of users. Rise and repeat. Best Wishes, -David Delaune
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Guys, I really appreciate the suggestions. Since some times I can connect instantly and other times (like right now) it takes 10s of minutes, I don't think it's a firewall. A firewall issue would just say, "no, hell no" and never let me in... ever. That's according to my logic, so I'm ready to be corrected. For a credential issue, I would think that would play in the same manner as a firewall. I don't think it would be hit or miss? The routing issue passes the sniff test, and I'll have to dig in to that. I have seen some weird stuff in that area, and just because my client is a $5B company doesn't mean the net admins know what they are doing. Admittedly, I'm not high on their radar. I have another client that uses different VPN software, and in a BFO I wondered if the two vpn packages were interfering with each other. Sadly, no. And after 5 min of typing... I can access the network drive... :) I'll keep plugging. This is interesting.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Still debugging this issue. This morning, the VPN was completely non-functional. Doing a tracert to the server as well as the route print, I just saw lots of junk - things that made me go hmm... So, I re-installed the VPN software - no joy. Step 2 was remote the USB connection I have to a hub full of devices (I do embedded development and use some additional usb to ethernet to talk to local hardware). Still nothing. Final step was to power down the laptop, reboot my cable modem start the connection process all over again. Instant success. The tracert output to the server shows 8 hops- it have been 50+, leading me to believe that perhaps the routing table had been hosed. Or my cablemodem was just in the weeds. Will monitor
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Maybe one of you have encountered this and fixed it or perhaps some sage advice is out there. My laptop is Windows 10 Pro, and I have full admin rights. I travel between my home office and my customer location. At the customer location, I have a networked drive mapped to our development server file storage area: N drive mapped to \\SwServer\Development This server also hosts our SVN repositories, which will come into this story in a bit. My laptop is mine, and as a consultant, I am not allowed to be a member of the domain (nor do I want to be). My credentials are entered, saved, and I can access this drive as you would expect. Now I go home to my corporate office ;) and I'm attempting to access the network drive using the customer supplied VPN software (global protect if it matters). Once connected (no error messages in the log), I cannot see the network drives. If I ping the server, I get timeouts. Okay, the network is screwed up somehow. But here comes the weird part - our svn server is hosted on SwServer behind an Apache web server (standard SVN setup). I can access my svn repositories just fine. So, somehow the path from my laptop to the SwServer exists somewhere. Something is screwed up. Any suggestions as to what to look for? The odd thing is that I can go a week and things will work flawlessly, then it all comes off the rails....
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Just to close this out - it's my gateway. I have AT&T internet service that looks like this: street -> cable -> gateway -> Amplifi router -> users the gateway includes a wireless router and a 4 port gigabit hub. I normally plug directly into the gateway so I don't share bandwidth with the kids in the house. When I cannot connect, I re-boot the gateway and it works for a while, but sooner or later it goes insane. But, if I connect to the amplifi router, it works 100%. Enough time lost...
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759