Unable to map network drive

Posted on February 28, 2007

I don’t normally blog about work for various reasons, usually having to do with HIPAA, privacy, and the fact that it’s mostly dull. Anyway, there are two aspects to my job. On the one hand I am a secretary to a couple of ophthalmologists and have a variety of tasks associated with that. Since last summer, I have also been the department’s computer tech a/k/a LSP (Local Support Provider). Basically if there is a computer problem, I’m the one to fix it.

My background in computers is mostly through building my own. At home I use Linux and at work everybody uses Windows XP. On my own personal computers, I haven’t run any form of Windows since Windows 98, so when I took over as LSP, I had to teach myself a bit more about Windows XP and Active Directory. Active Directory, or ADS as we call it on campus, is sort of hard to explain, but it is a way to manage many Windows computers: security policies, updates, adding printers, etc. ADS is a pretty neat system. I’m not a big Microsoft fan, but ADS is pretty clever (though I’m pretty sure MS didn’t originate the idea). However, until I became LSP, I never really dealt with ADS other than using it to login to computers. I had no idea about the ins and outs of it. I still have a lot to learn about that.

Since a lot of our people do research and stuff, and since many people are prone to forget about backing up their data (myself included), the previous LSP came up with a simple solution. The School of Medicine has several servers to back up data. We have a contract with them to back up our data. Each user in our group has their own personal space on the server, and the previous LSP set it so the user’s My Documents folder would automatically be on the server. The idea is no matter which computer a person logs into, as log as they use ADS to log in, they will have access to their own My Documents. The School of Medicine charges us by how many gigabytes we use, so they are only supposed to use My Documents for work related stuff like spreadsheets, documents, study data, and so on. If they want to have MP3s to listen to at work, that’s fine, but that is supposed to be stored locally, not on the network. In order for the My Documents backup to work, I have to make sure the network drive is mapped. This tells the PC where it is supposed to store stuff on the network.

Late last week, I got a call from a secretary for one of the doctors. The doctor bought a new machine for work (the doctors provide their own) last year and hasn’t had much trouble with it. The previous LSP set it up, installed the right network software, got it connected to ADS, mapped the network drive, and installed anti-virus. No major problems until late last week. The doctor noticed he didn’t have his network drive anymore. I thought it was strange, but since it was late Friday and wasn’t needed immediately, I told her to have him wait until Monday to see if it solved itself over the weekend. If it didn’t they could call me on Monday. Monday morning, I got a call that it still wasn’t working. I went to the doctor’s office and he was still logged in, though he had gone to the clinic. I tried to map the network drive, but got an error about the network path not being found. Odd, I thought. I opened up the web browser and was able to surf the web, so I knew it wasn’t a network issue or a hardware issue.

I logged him out and logged in under my own username with ADS. Since I didn’t see any network drives, I tried to map one for me, but came up with the same issue. I rebooted the machine and logged in again, but came up with the same problem. I told his secretary that I hadn’t fixed it yet, but I would try to come up with something. I went down to my office and found the number of the Sysadmin for the School of Medicine server. He said they were having some issues with the server and were planning on rebooting the server early on Tuesday morning. Rebooting a server isn’t a small undertaking, especially since hundreds or thousands of people might be connected to it at any given moment during the day. By rebooting it when few people are on, there is less chance of disruption. The sysadmin told me to tell the doctor to try again late on Tuesday. I told the doctor’s secretary to have him try on Wednesday, just to be on the safe side. Since today is Wednesday, it wasn’t much of a surprise I got called again.

At first I figured since they rebooted the server, I would just need to map the network drive and everything would be set. I tried that and didn’t have any luck. I took his PC down to my office to see if it would work there. It didn’t. I had the exact same problem, which reinforced the idea that it wasn’t a network problem or a hardware problem. It told me it wasn’t an issue with his account, since I was having the same problem using my username on his machine. I uninstalled ADS, which is to say, I set the PC to use a workgroup instead of a domain. ADS is a domain. I rebooted the PC and logged in and the admin. Since I got rid of ADS, I couldn’t use my own username, but the PC still had an administrator account. I logged in as admin and opened up the web browser. I was able to surf the web still, so the network connection was still working, it just wasn’t connected to ADS. Using one of my other PCs in the office (running Windows 2003 Server) I deleted the entry for his PC from ADS. ADS takes a little while to refresh, so I put his PC off to the side for a little while while I worked on a PC with a bad power supply.

Finished with that (ordered a new power supply as replacement) I turned back to the doctor’s computer. I rebooted it again, and logged in as admin. I reinstalled ADS by setting the PC to use the ads.iu.edu domain instead of the workgroup I had it temporarily using. I rebooted and logged in with my ADS username. I tried to map the network drive, but came up with the same error. I called the sysadmin again and gave him a rundown on what was going on. I asked if he had heard of any similar problems. He said he didn’t. He did some checks to see if maybe there was an issue with the server’s firewall (like a blocked IP address range), but that turned up fine (FWIW, I guessed that because 1. I moved his PC to a new jack, so it would get a new IP address and 2. if the IP address range was blocked, I likely would have heard from other people having the same problem.)

He had me surf to a website on their server that allowed him to take control of the PC (and now I am very envious of this capability – it’s not Windows Remote Desktop or Windows Remote Assistance, but something else entirely). He took control of the PC and tried a few different things on it. We were able to determine the PC was on ADS. The PC could search Active Directory (I pointed that out to him, since I had only discovered the ability a few minutes before). Using other machines, we were both able to see the machine on ADS, but for some reason we still could not map the network drive. He even tried it using his own username. He more or less gave up, but suggested I call one of the desktop support people tomorrow. I thanked him for his time, even as he apologized for not being able figure it out. In a way, it’s good for me to know that I’m not the only one who couldn’t figure this out. I’m just a part-time LSP. He works with computers all the time and it was beyond him, but he is more of a server/network guy, which is why he suggested desktop support.

I grabbed an older PC I had in the office (for just such an occassion) and brought it up to the doctor’s office. I hooked it up and started it up. I had an issue with the keyboard and mouse (USB vs. PS2), but got that taken care of quickly. I logged in with my username and the network drive was already mapped. I logged out and got the doctor’s secretary and got her to login with the doctor’s username and password (she knows it for just such an occassion). I took a quick look and saw the network drive was already mapped. I opened his My Documents folder and saw all his data was available. Some people don’t pay attention to the idea of putting work data in My Documents, but he did, so now he can work. He is out of town for the next few days, but since he has a lecture to give on Monday, he will work on the computer on Sunday, which is why he needed access to his network drive. So at least there is a temporary solution.

After that was done, it was late in the day when I got the bright idea to do a System Restore on the PC. His computer is setup so that once a day Windows takes a benchmark so to speak, of the system settings. This is used on a lot of Windows PCs. It takes up a fair amount of memory, but this PC has a 300+ GB hard drive, so there is plenty of room to spare. The thing is you have to start Windows in Safe Mode to get access use System Restore. I rebooted the computer and while it was doing that, I unplugged it. I plugged it back in and started it up and it gives me the option of starting normally or starting in Safe Mode. I start in Safe Mode and login as admin, then opted for System Restore. Since his problem apparently started on Friday, I selected Thursday as the restore point. Theoretically, any system changes made after that will be undone.

Restore, reboot, login, map drive, and fuck. The same problem. End of day, time to go.

Tomorrow, I guess I will spend some more time going through the system logs to see what happened when. I’m thinking the doctor noticed the problem on Friday, but it might have been going on for a little bit longer. We tend not to notice problems like this until we try to do something and can’t even though the problem may have been going on for a while. I guess an analogy might be if you have a car, but don’t drive everyday, you might not notice you have a flat tire until you try to drive. In this case, I’m guessing I will have to find something changed last week. I hope.

Review Haiku – Bacchanales Sexuelles

Posted on February 28, 2007

House sit for cousin
Get drunk with lesbian friend
Add a cult for fun

Bacchanales Sexuelles at Rotten Tomatoes
Bacchanales Sexuelles at IMDB
Bacchanales Sexuelles at Amazon

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Review Haiku – Red Cherry

Posted on February 27, 2007

The horrors of war
A rough life made rougher still
Ink and a needle

Red Cherry at Rotten Tomatoes
Red Cherry at IMDB
Red Cherry at Amazon

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Review Haiku – Alphaville

Posted on February 26, 2007

Cyberpunk prescience
George Orwell meets Blade Runner
Sci-fi from Godard

Alphaville at Rotten Tomatoes
Alphaville at IMDB
Alphaville at Amazon

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Review Haiku – Bliss

Posted on February 25, 2007

Tantric exercise
Good sex is more than just sex
An epiphany

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Bliss at Amazon

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Flu 2

Posted on February 24, 2007

After a couple of hours of trying to get to sleep, I ended up taking the last done I had of the generic liquicaps. Fat lot of help that was. I felt drowsy, but the caps didn’t help my congestion that much and my sinuses were acting up. At most I got maybe an hour of sleep at a stretch before the congestion and sinus pain woke me up. I would be up for half an hour or so, then went back to bed and got another 30 – 60 minutes of semi-sleep. It was like this from 10:00 or so last night.

A little bit ago I got back from the convenience store, where I picked up some OTC meds. I was planning on going to the pharmacy, but it was about a mile away, while the conveniece store is only a few blocks. Normally a walk wouldn’t bother me, but being sick (the fever has come back) and the fact that the temps are half of what they were yesterday, I decided to take the shortest trip I could. The conveniece store didn’t have a great selection of meds, but they had what I needed. Needless to say, I’m not going into work today as I had hoped. OTOH, it’s Saturday, so it’s no big deal.

Flu bug

Posted on February 24, 2007

One of the occupational hazards you run across when you work in a hospital is the chance you might get sick. I don’t know that I got it from work (I also had a denatl appointment earlier this week), but Tuesday night I went to bed with a sore throat. Wednesday, I woke up with a sore throat and had a dry cough mots of the day. I went to work, but towards the end of the day I had an earache and felt congested. I skipped class after sending the prof an email saying I was out sick. I went home and took some generic Nyquil liquicaps and went to bed around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. Thursday, I woke up around 5:30 am with a fever and body aches. The sore throat was better, but I felt fatigued, congested, and not good in general. I sent an email to the powers-that-be at work letting them know I would be out for the day (I still got paged twice LOL) then sent one to the prof for my other class, which I also ended up skipping. Friday, I felt better (no fatigue or fever) so I went in an hour early and stayed the whole day.

Throughout the day on Friday I was drinking coffee, but I think I must have had a bit too much because when I took the generic Nyquil, I still wasn’t able to get to sleep. It also didn’t seem to help my congestion. Hence I’m up at nearly 1:00 am typing in my blog. The plan was (or is) to go into work on Saturday to get caught up on some work. I’ve got plenty of sick time I could use, but if I can I want to work it off. I thought about going in on Sunday, but it is supposed to be raining then.

While I had the day off on Thursday, when I wasn’t alseep, I took the time to look at what Wikipedia has to say about influenza and the common cold. Since I wasn’t nauseous, I wasn’t sure what I had. After a little investigation I figured I had the flu, with the key point being that I had a fever. I guess a fever isn’t something you get with the common cold.

I don’t really have any remedy other than waiting it out. At the moment, I feel more-or-less fine, other than some major congestion that’s preventing me from getting a good night’s sleep. It’s kind of funny, those liquicaps worked well the other day, but tonight they don’t seem to be doing much good. I’m debating on whether to take another dose. I probably won’t, but I don’t relish the thought of being awake all night either.

Review Haiku – Miranda

Posted on February 24, 2007

Wanton taverness
A new man for each season
Frolic in the fog

Miranda at Rotten Tomatoes
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Review Haiku – Never on Sunday

Posted on February 23, 2007

Greek Pygmalion
She’s not your after all that
Toss back an Ouzo

Never on Sunday at Rotten Tomatoes
Never on Sunday at IMDB
Never on Sunday at Amazon

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Review Haiku – Sunset Boulevard

Posted on February 22, 2007

Lights, camera, action!
She’s ready for her closeup
Film-noir at it’s best

Sunset Boulevard at Rotten Tomatoes
Sunset Boulevard at IMDB
Sunset Boulevard at Amazon

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