Got an issue thats rearing its head regarding shared (mapped) drives on an SBS2003 box. Basically there are 4 users, each of which opens spreadsheets through the day - sometimes looking up info, sometimes updating the info in them. Sometimes they can be working on a single sheet for 2 or 3 hours at a time updating it.

However we are having an issue whereby the Excel file locking notifications arent working properly. If I open a file on machine A and then open it on machine B soon after it works fine and I get a readonly/notify box popping up. If I open the file on machine A, work in the file for an hour or so then open the file on machine B it allows me to open the file on machine B with no warning.

This is leading to major issues with data loss due to multiple people updating the files at different times during the day. Its not something Ive come across before but I believe Ive tracked it down to the shared drives becoming disconnected. It seems as though theres a function that closes the session after about 45 mins idle time. This means the file is not then seen as "open" by the other machines and therefore its allowed to open it with no warning.

The original user can save the file no problem - and with no warnings etc overwriting the other users changes.

Seems odd that its not been an issue elsewhere? Ive now changed the server to make the autodisconnect value in the registry quite high (18 hours or so) and hopefully this will alleviate it but it just seems a little off that it lets it close the connection. Is this something anyone else has come across before?

Paul..

 

For some reason - the term "opportunistic locking" is popping into my head... I feel like Derek bloody Acora saying that...

Look that up - I swear there is an issue with OL that might explain your issue

 

I will have a look into that but I suspect its not opportunistic locking on this - simply because the share drops the connection completely (the session info / idle time is reset to zero etc)

Paul..

 

Any further ideas guys?

Ive not managed to get this resolved as yet - depsite spending inordinate amounts of time on it.

Paul..

 

If your share is dropping, maybe its something to do with that, and not Excel? Anything in the event logs on the machines?

 

are you doing it through a UNC path or mapped drive?

 

Soprry - should have been clearer in my last post - Im convinced its not an Excel problem - just manifests itself in Excel due to the long times and the multiple users who use those particular files.

Its definately the server dropping the connections to its shared files. With testing I believe this is due to the file not being saved for a couple of hours and the server believing that the connection is idle.

Its through a mapped drive (and I want to keep it that way) as unc paths would be a nightmare for the users to use - they have enough difficulty now!

Paul..

 

Yes it sounds like it could be this

By default IIRC the server4 will 'disconnect' the shares if not used for more than 15 minutes, there is a registry key to turn this off, so the share is always connected

 

Unfortunately Ive already tried the registry key from the MS articles (autodisconnect being turned off etc) plus a number of other reg tweaks (Keep Alive) and everything else I can find on both the server and the clients.

However nothing seems to work.

Interestingly, I have a Win2000 machine that never disconnects and has idle times up to 8 hours now. However XP clients always disconnect and although Ive found a couple of people with the same issue on the 'net, not one fix has been found...

*sigh*

Paul..

 

G'day Paul

Not really a fix and am not even sure if it's possible but is there a way of polling the share on an interval to keep the connection alive? Something equivalent to a ping perhaps.

Just a thought...

Mark

 

why not autosave the file??

 

Hi Mark

As Dazza has said, excel autosave would do that but unfortunately the accountant doesnt want that as a "solution".

Im sure you remember how he can be....

Paul..

 

I have had this problem before with a workstation at one of our customers sites........... is the client PC running Windows 2000?

 

can't you set a scheduled task to run from a batch file:

net view \\machinename\share

That should suffice as a poll to the share

 

LOL. I couldn't possibly comment