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kevin_alan Author

Level 1

5 points

Continuous error about Connection Failed

Hello,

I am having a really strange issue. I just upgraded to Snow Leopard an hour or so ago and so far everything is working fine in the sense that I'm able to get on the Internet, etc...

That said, I keep getting this error over, and over and over:

Connection failed

There was an error connecting to the server "Stanley". Check the server name or IP address, and then try again.

If you are unable to resolve the problem contact your system administrator

The problem is that "Stanley" is the name of an old, old home network or external HD (I can't remember which) but hasn't been in use in quite some time. I haven't even seen any references to it at all until this happened and I can't figure out where to tell the computer to stop looking for and trying to connect to this "Stanley" server.

In Console it says this:

mount_smbfs: can't get server address: syserr = Network is down
mount_smbfs: can't get server address `STANLEY. SMB.TCP.LOCAL':
Unknown host

Any ideas?

Thanks so much,

Kevin

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 3:48 PM

88 replies

Jul 21, 2010 2:17 PM in response to d1n0

d1n0 wrote:
I emptied out the following directory
<username>/Library/PDF Services/

Thanks for the tip! I was getting this error every time I tried to change a setting in the "Print…" dialog box. Turns out there was an alias to my Time Capsule hard drive in there.

I deleted it, and now all is well.

Aug 9, 2010 12:12 PM in response to Ahrum Pilendiram

How does one GREP? Caus I'm all lost and maybe a GREP would solve my problem...
Ive looked up on Google how to do this, but im a UNIX nublet. Still having the problem everyone else has on this forum, which is making me go NUTS!

I get this error when i open picasa.
+The server “maykepc” may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.+

maykepc being my wife's computer.

Ive completely removed the Picasa app and all of its other contents but still get the error. Anyone got anyclue, what am I missing? What on earth can i do, to get rid of the error. Ive been looking at the PDF folder, emptied it... didn't work. Im lost and very sad 😉

Any suggestions are welcome.
Kind regards,
Thomas

Sep 28, 2010 9:50 PM in response to kevin_alan

I was seeing similar symptoms, i.e. in Console it said:

Sep 28 23:46:46 <hostname> /System/Library/CoreServices/NetAuthAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/NetAuthAgent[8937] : smb_mount: mount failed to fileserver/users_w : syserr = No such file or directory

... which makes perfect sense since the share "users_w" no longer exists on that fileserver. I couldn't figure out where this information was cached, but I knew that the Acrobat Synchronizer was responsible for those connection attempts. I knew this because the repeated login prompts went away if I killed the Synchronizer process.

Working from a tip found on another website, I deleted the ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/9.0_x86/Synchronizer folder and that did it for me. I'm running Acrobat Pro 9.3.4.

Dec 14, 2010 1:45 PM in response to DigitalGenius

Same here! Network Magic has it's foibles! I went to Network and Sharing in Windows 7, Change advance settings, Turned off File and Printer Sharing. Turned off Public Folder Sharing.

Continuous message boxes stopped! You found this in 5 min? You're good!

Dec 26, 2010 12:23 AM in response to kevin_alan

None of these solutions works for me. The problem is that it must be something requiring a server that I've installed some time in the distant past, but the error message gives no clue as to what it might be and there are hundreds of possibilities. Is there anyone with a more general approach? Why don't these stupid error messages have more useful information in them? Is there a diagnostic tool that logs the startup sequence that might list the actual server that's being referenced? The guessing game is just pointless.

dmwingon

Level 1

7 points

Jan 3, 2011 8:16 PM in response to Scott Talkington

I'm having this problem too, on a slightly used MacBook Pro 17" that I just bought from eBay. It was having a number of problems, including this, so I did a clean erase/install of Snow Leopard.

Straight from the clean install, it's still doing this. The steps:

Navigate to Drop Box on my main laptop (MBP 13") –> Double-click disk image in folder (which holds install files for a number of programs I want on the new laptop) –> Get error message about "connection failed"; the server it's trying to connect to is the 13", which I'm on now –> Disk image opens anyway, after a long pause.

I'm sure there's just some setting on the 13" that I need to tweak, but heck if I know what it is.

Mr. Toph

Level 1

5 points

Jan 5, 2011 7:35 PM in response to Ahrum Pilendiram

ANOTHER SATISFIED CUSTOMER!!! After several SEVERAL hours of trying to figure this issue out this thread finally got me the answer I needed. Other threads suggested tossing (or renaming) certain .plist files including both the .loginitems.plist and .loginwindow.plist. It was only in this thread where I found the suggestion to toss the .recentitems.plist. I did and VIOLA! No more annoying, idiotic, unexplainable (well I am sure there is an explanation) dialog box complaining about a server that no longer exists on my network. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!

Chris in Marietta, Ga.

Jan 11, 2011 1:17 AM in response to kevin_alan

Having recently migrated our domain controllers to 2008 R2 , we found this problem affecting all 10.6.x machines especially when authenticating with NAS boxes running embedded Samba.

To fix the problem simply join the OSX machines to your domain (from preferences-->Users-->Network servers) and the problem will go away. No reboot or relogin necessary.

Somehow, OSX / Samba to auth needs a computer account in AD to allow login requests.

Hope this helps

Jan 24, 2011 2:03 AM in response to Ahrum Pilendiram

After airport connecting my main mac to my macbook I had the same irritating message as everyone else. As suggested I found the Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist and deleted reference to the server - the macbook and it disappeared from the 'recent items' submenu. However it didn't cure the problem. I then looked in Preferences/loginwindow.plist which lists the login items under AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary. Here I found a new reference to iTunes on the macbook. So the main computer was trying to connect to the macbook to do something with iTunes. Deleted this and the error message has gone. What a ridiculous amount of effort.

Jan 27, 2011 11:05 PM in response to matthewmarkmiller

Wondering if you ever fixed this. My error comes up whenever I try to access the photos area of my Media window. It's quite frustrating. It keeps looking for files on a work server. When I'm connected to the server there's no error. But when I'm at home, it basically shuts me down.

Apple please amend the OS to stop looking for a disconnected server.

Jan 29, 2011 11:37 AM in response to Scott Talkington

Try this: in Finder, go to: Go > Connect to Network Server.

Instead of afp://RemotePCName use smb://RemotePCName.

I am not sure what the difference is, but it seems to work for me.

Jan 29, 2011 12:15 PM in response to Jay in Detroit

I believe there are more than one problems that cause this phenomenon. I stopped the problem on my MAC by removing Cisco Network Magic Pro. Not only does it cause the mentioned error, but it connects and disconnects the network every 2 minutes, making it impossible to transfer files. Ease of transfer was why I installed it in the first place, as the network connection between the Mac and my PC was troubled. I now use the server connection rout instead with more success.

crrowe

Level 1

0 points

Jan 30, 2011 9:55 AM in response to the_rainbowarrior

Just to make sure how you fixed your issue. When you say "from preferences-->Users-->Network servers" are you doing this from the client? If it's the client that is binding to AD, that would be in System Preferences-->Accounts-->login options-->"Join" network account server. If your doing it from the server end, could you provide a better explanation, I haven't attempted from that side, only from the client side.
Thanks,
Randy

biergoat

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2011 10:15 AM in response to kevin_alan

I had the same issue with "Connection Failed" to my old laptop, I took the advice given here and removed the following preferences:

Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist
Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
Preferences/loginwindow.plist

No issues at startup so far.

sKurt

Level 1

6 points

Feb 4, 2011 6:25 AM in response to biergoat

This fixed mine as well, problems? The items I had in my startup/login didn't - mostly.

Since I renamed the items in preferences of course they no longer show up so I have to re-input the login items. Not too bad as it did 'fix' the pop up window at every startup.

Continuous error about Connection Failed