"The specified network name is no longer available

[SteveI]

I am getting this error when transferring a large number of files to/from one particular machine. This machine has no problems getting online. And it is baffling me.

First occured with putting this machine in its current location. Previous box was running 10baseT. This one is 100baseTX, like the rest of the network. The cable is a CAT5.... can a defective CAT5 run fine at 10baseT and cause this at 100? I forced the nic to run at 10mbps, and I still got the error.

First occurred on Win98.. then tried WinME, then WinXP. I thought XP fixed it, but a couple of days later, I started seeing the error again. It is not consistent, but the odds of seeing it are good it I move lots of files. I have firewall disabled while I troubleshoot. I am running peer-to-peer with mostly WinXP (1 NT4) on a router w/ 4port switch DHCP, using TCI/IP only.

I'd swap out cables but I had a hell-of-a-time fishing it through to it's current location, and all of my machines fold 24/7. I don't want to dismantle and move the machine to my PC room, if the cable isn't the cause.

Any Ideas?

[mookydooky]

Maybe the NIC is bad.

[Áedán]

I've seen this a couple of times on a Win2K network. I'm not sure what causes it, or what the solution is. However, in my case, I changed the network card, and the problem seems to have gone away. I could provoke the error about 30% of the time by copying a 1GB file across the network.

Defective CAT5 can run fine at 10Meg and have problems at 100Meg. I'd look at the network card however...

[nullCRC]

Are the cards set to autosense? Are they at 100 half or full? What about NIC driver updates? What kind of NIC's are they? Any collisions occurring on either NIC?

You said it's peer to peer. Make sure only ONE of the PC's is set to be a browser master.

[SteveI]

Thanks, I'll try swapping out the nic first. It gave me the same problems when I forced it to run at 10mbps. Hopefully, I'll have time it give it a shot tonight. The HW hasn't changed since it worked fine... the only physical change was the location and the CAT5. (I guess this is my first nic card gone bad.)

I am not sure what 'browser master' is. I am running all PCs 100 full, and it was autosense, and then I forced it to 100full, 100half, and 10full.... all same results. Tried original drivers (in Win98&ME) updated, XP drivers on CD, and updated in XP as well.

I've tried Win98se, upgr to WinME, upgr to WinXP, clean WinXP.
So it's hard to believe I have the same "bad" network settings every time.

If a replacement nic does not work, I'll try the CAT5... then ..

[nullCRC]

Is full duplex supported by your router? I think most routers only support half duplex 100mb, but I may be wrong. What router is it? Try setting both cards manually to 100mb half duplex.


Try this, this supposedly worked for some people. Blow away the workgroup names on both PC's, reboot, and make a new workgroup name.

Using netbeui at all?

In the event viewer on both machines, anything relating to the error?

You could try FTP'g from machine to machine and see if that suceeds.

Are you using ICS at all (I doubt it)?

[SteveI]

Linksys BEFS41 (I think). I think it supports 100full.
No NetBeui, no ics.
Currently 4 PCs.. 2 using linksys 100BaseTX, 1 sis9000 100BaseTx, 1 notebook running 10baseT(intel). I need more ports, lol.

The only problems can be isolated to 1 machine (w/ linksys card). All others communicate with each other fine. The 1 problem machine has problems with large file transfers with any other machine. I have run sisoft lan benches, and the scores are awesome for each connection. I could not get it to give me an error at all.

I am not at my machines, so I am working from memory.

[SteveI]

I swapped nics... I thought it worked, then the connection went down. Only comes back on reboot.

Then tried replacing cable... thought that did it. I copied over a gig of mp3s on one shot back and forth a couple times. Then I fished the cat5 wire through the wall, set it up, and a few hours later, the machine lost the lan connection again.

I found a button un network neighborhood that says "repair connection", tried it a few times, but I have no idea what it does. At the moment it is working, but I am really skeptical. This problem has psych'd me out too many times.

DANG!!
Any other ideas?

[cloasters]

Any luck in finding a solution, SteveI?

[nullCRC]

***bump***

[SteveI]

There's good news and bad news.

The good news is that it seems to be working fine now. The bad news is I have no idea. In networking, I putzed with a bunch of different XP settings, including services. I have no idea what made it work. I was so PO'd I was one step away from throwing the box out the window.

It wasn't hw related, I think. replacing cat5 and nic didn't solve it. It doesn't make sense. I've now clean installed OS's 3 times, upgrade installed at least as many. And this dumn tinkering seems to have worked. I have 6 machines on my network, and this is the only one that gave me problems. Well, I am so relieved (for now) that I don't want to try to retrace my steps, for fear of undoing whatever I did to make it work.

Thanks for caring guys.