Troubleshoot DFS Connectivity on Clients

To troubleshoot when clients have issues accessing DFS shares. This occurs mostly over VPN connections. Just a few notes to help troubleshooting these cases. Mostly this happens on Windows XP or when DNS settings are incorrect.

  • Make sure machines can see each other, for example ping both ends.
  • Make sure you enable file sharing.
  • Make sure client is in the same DOMAIN.
  • Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.
  • Make sure no firewall/security software block sharing.
  • Create the same username and password on all shared computers.
  • Disable the IPv6 from the property page of the NIC.
  • Reset Network Security LAN Manager Authentication Level from the default setting (NTLMv2 only) to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session if negotiated.

  • To rule out permissions test the users account on a different XP client. For instance a Windows XP client hooked up to a guest Internet port, logged in locally as relevant user, using user’s own VPN account and then trying DFS. This will ensure it is a DFS/DNS issue on client’s pc or network and not a generic permissions issue.
    Check general requirements (VPN interface):```

    C:\Program Files\Support Tools>ipconfig /all
```

Check for correct DNS servers, WINS servers and DNS suffix. While connected to VPN use nslookup to check if correct DNS server is being used.

\*\*Note if you are experiencing DNS hijacking as done by some ISP's, it is out of scope of this document and need to be resolved first.

**Check output of this DNS command for DFS and/or DNS server entries:**

```

    C:\Program Files\Support Tools>ipconfig /displaydns
```

**Test basic non DNS Windows file sharing:**

```

    C:\Program Files\Support Tools>start \\172.20.10.222
** You should see an explorer window displaying the volumes of this server.

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>net view \\172.20.10.222
Shared resources at \\172.20.10.222
Share name  Type  Used as  Comment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NETLOGON    Disk           Logon server share
SYSVOL      Disk           Logon server share
The command completed successfully.
```

**Try DFS share from command line:**

```

    C:\Program Files\Support Tools>net use * \\YOUR_DOMAIN\TOP_LEVEL_SHARE
```

**Install Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools:**  
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=49ae8576-9bb9-4126-9761-ba8011fabf38&displaylang=en

**Run dfsutil /pktinfo and record results:**

```

     C:\Program Files\Support Tools>dfsutil /pktinfo
--mup.sys--
3 entries...
Entry: \domain.com\SysVol
ShortEntry: \domain.com\SysVol
Expires in 0 seconds
UseCount: 0 Type:0x1 ( DFS )
 0:[\server0.domain.com\SysVol] State:0x131 ( ACTIVE )
 1:[\server1.domain.com\SysVol] State:0x21 ( )
...snip
16:[\server16.domain.com\SysVol] State:0x21 ( )

Entry: \domain.com\corp
ShortEntry: \domain.com\corp
Expires in 0 seconds
UseCount: 2 Type:0x8081 ( REFERRAL_SVC DFS )
 0:[\server0\Corp] State:0x119 ( ACTIVE )
 1:[\server1\Corp] State:0x09 ( )
...snip
11:[\server11\Corp] State:0x09 ( )

Entry: \domain.com\corp\us
ShortEntry: \domain.com\corp\us
Expires in 360 seconds
UseCount: 0 Type:0x8001 ( DFS )
 0:[\server0\DFSData$\usdfs101_data1\corp\US] State:0x131 ( ACTIVE )

Done processing this command.
```

**Run dfsutil /spcinfo and record results:**

```

     C:\Program Files\Support Tools>dfsutil /spcinfo
[*][server.sonosite.com]
[*][DOMAIN]
[*][domain.com]
[+][domain.com]
      [+server0.sonosite.com]
...snip
Done processing this command.
```

**Links:**  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975440

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