Having problem accessing MacMini over network with PC's Windows 7

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Having problem accessing MacMini over network with PC's Windows 7

Hi all,

I have a Mac Mini with 10.6.x

Onec in a while, especially when restart Airport Extreme for upgrade or something else (both are connected with ethernet cable cat5e) ALL PC's on the network having problem accessing Mac Mini Server while All MACs are fine and can access all folders no problem. Usually takes about 3-4 min for PC to connect to server. Then once it is connected (it loads all folder and files in that current window on the PC) i can go from folder to folder with no delays. However if i close the window with all folders then again i have to wait for around 3 min. to load everything all over again. AFP and SMB are ON. Today i made an experiment and turned SMB off and the problem still excist with the difference that after 3-4 min delay no folders were shown.

It seems that the PCs have hard time establishing connection with the server which is weird that Macs don't have that problem. It must be something with the setting of Mac MIni. Other wise i have no problem accessing Internet so the routher is working fine. DHCP is ON on the AP Extreme.

I came across as i was searching for this issue and it seems that authentication - Golden triangle or whatever is called - might be the issue in the whole mess. Do you guys think that this might be the case ?

The only way i have found out to help is to restart the Router and Server and that usually fix the problem 😕.

Could you please help me figure what is going on there?

Here is the original thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3867559?tstart=0 ( i think i posted in the wrong forum 🙂)

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Apr 11, 2012 11:18 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 11, 2012 12:47 PM in response to immigranta

Confirm that your DNS server on your network is correctly configured.

(Assuming this is a NAT'd network, and to short-circuit a few of the common next-question questions... Yes, you need a DNS server, and yes, it'll be on your LAN. No, you can't use your ISP DNS servers, nor Google DNS, nor any other DNS servers located off your LAN. Not if you're using NAT.)

To verify the basic DNS settings, launch Terminal.app on the server (Applications > Utilities), and issue the command

sudo changeip -checkhostname

And see if it shows some output and tells you no changes are required, or if it reports network or DNS errors.

Your DHCP server(s) should be serving the (static IP) address of your DNS server, as well.

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Answer 2

immigranta Author

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Apr 11, 2012 1:20 PM in response to MrHoffman

Hi,

Will that command change any current setting or it will just display all current setting?

I just do not wat to mess something up as everyone is accessing server.

However this i what i got as information just by going over some setting as of right now:

Under network preferences :

the dns Server ip is:127.0.0.1

and the server has its static ip

In Server Admin Console:

DNS tab/

-zones: primary zone is the name of the server

-setting: forwarder ip addresses match the dns server ip address in airpot extreme

DHCP tab

-service is running

-current DHCP clients 0

DHCP of Airpot EXtreme actually does this service

SMB setting

-role: standalone server

-aceess: authentication ntlmv2 & kerberos and NTLM

-advanced: services: master browser

-wins registration: enable wins server

h-omes: enable virtual share points

AFP: authentication any method

enable admin to masquerade as registered user

are the only setting for aft

Thanks

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Answer 3

Apr 11, 2012 2:55 PM in response to immigranta

The specified changeip -checkhostname command does not make changes to your configuration.

To research the command (and that's entirely your perogative), please use Google or Bing to search for previous discussions and details, or review the provided man page documentation for the command. (Launch Terminal.app (folder Applications > Utilities) and issue the command man changeip. You'll see something like this:

$ man changeip

changeip(8) BSD System Manager's Manual changeip(8)

NAME

changeip -- Change service configuration files with hard-coded IP addresses

SYNOPSIS

changeip [-v] [-d path] old-ip new-ip [old-hostname new-hostname]

changeip -checkhostname

changeip -h

DESCRIPTION

changeip is used to manually update configuration records when a server's IP address or hostname changed in a way that affected services were unable to properly process, for example when the server is behind a NAT device and the WAN identity changed. ...

Given your response and your concern, consider creating a backup of your disk. Shut down, boot the installation DVD, and use Disk Utility (from the Utilities menu) in the second screen of the installation process to copy your disk contents to an external storage device. (Time Machine isn't as good at getting a backup of a server as is a clean backup created while shut down.) There are descriptions around that detail how to create this backup using Disk Utility.

There is no DNS server implemented in the Airport Extreme. The Airport Extreme forwards DNS requests to a DNS server elsewhere. Few gateway devices contain DNS servers; that these devices request a DNS address tends to be confusing, too. That address is solicited from the user for use in the DHCP server that many of the available gateway devices provide.

There is no need for a DNS forwarder, particularly if your server is configured for your LAN. (Adding a forwarder adds another hop into the whole translation process. That configuration and that extra hop can be useful when the intermediate DNS server is providing specific, enhanced DNS-related functions, such as security monitoring and logging, or providing a "nanny filter" mechanism.)

If you are running DNS services on your LAN, then your Airport Extreme DHCP server should be configured to pass out the IP address of your DNS server.

It would appear that your local box has the default self-hosted DNS, and is not configured to serve LAN DNS (other than for itself). That's good. Accordingly, it'll likely be getting good DNS from itself, but will not be getting translations for other hosts on your network. That's not so good. When DNS responses are not available, you'll get DNS-level timeouts, and those are usually around 30 seconds each.

Check your server logs for messages related to the failed connections, and check the Windows file service logs for any errors being generated by the file service. The log information is most easily available from Console.app, which is a utility in Applications > Utilities folder, or from the Server Admin tool (Applications > Server folder) for DNS, and for the file server component.

The above is probably going to read like a wall of unfamiliar jargon, so please ignore this and my previous response here, and I'll leave it to somebody else to assist you here.

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Answer 4

immigranta Author

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Apr 12, 2012 6:10 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for helping out here.
I really thing(hope) that this intermittent issue does not require complete installation and rather tweaking settings up should work.

You said a lot of thing.some understood some not so much.

The question is why Mac communicate without problems and PCs can't and this has anything to do with DNS server?
How to make DNS Server available to the LAN and also when ping the server from a PC I usually get good results with no lost packets?
Do you know where I can find a walk through of how to set Mac mini file server for LAN of ” mixed” environment and how to make sure I have right authentication settings?

Thanks and I expect others to bring some light.

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Answer 5

Apr 12, 2012 10:54 AM in response to immigranta

Setting up DNS Services on OS X Server and some Microsoft Windows file services registry tweaks that I've occasionally needed.

Valid and functional DNS services are fundamental to various network tasks and particularly to network security, and bad DNS causes all sorts of weird problems; apparent disconnections, delays due to DNS timeouts and retries, and authentication failures.

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Answer 6

immigranta Author

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Apr 12, 2012 12:16 PM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks

I will go over those links and i will see what i can do.

I just did not know that DNS Services are so important for file sharing. I thought DNS Services are mainly for Accesing website and whatever they are in use on the Internet.

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