Networking & wireless: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available
XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available
by Gooball - 4/14/04 7:30 AMHi all
I have a home network of two PCs joined by direct ethernet cable. This works fine 99% of the time, but some files won't copy from one to a shared drive on the other. The copy will start, with network utilisation at 2-3% for a few seconds. Then packets stop flowing, and after between 30 and 120 seconds I get an error, either "The specified network name is no longer available" or "Semaphore timeout period expired". During that time I can ping in either direction, so the network is working, it's just that the file has stopped going anywhere. However Windows Explorer (if I initiated the copy from Explorer) locks up until I dismiss the error dialog. It's not an Explorer problem though; the same thing happens in a batch copy.
There's a definite set of files affected e.g. one is an Excel spreadsheet of about 1.5 Meg. But other much larger files copy fine. And there's no pattern e.g. other spreadsheets are OK, it's not all the files in one folder etc.
I'm running Windows XP Home Service Pack 1 on both PCs, and they're both up to date with Windows Updates. I'm using manual IP addresses at both ends. I have ZoneAlarm (a freeware firewall program), and it's configured to let all traffic through to the IP addresses. I've even changed the drive mappings to use IP addresses instead of share names, in case it was a DNS problem, but that didn't help either. I've set both network adapters to use 100 MBits Full Duplex. The adapters are "SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet" and "Macronix MX98715-Based Ethernet".
So I'm at a bit of a loss, and wondering if anyone can shed any light. Thanks in advance.
Re:XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available
by Michael Geist - 4/16/04 3:46 PM In reply to: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available by GooballI might try another NIC in each of the computers. Replace one at a time and retest. And check that crossover cable, another component which can be swapped.
Good advice. Suffered from the same problem...
by interlopr_007 - 5/3/05 11:00 PM In reply to: Re:XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available by Michael Geistfor over a year.. The problem was bad certified xp drivers. Affected NIC was a
Linksys NIC
Labled
LNE100TX
LC82C115
C9929
TA718901
37DDX
Either do not use this nic or find someway
to use better drivers..
Client for microsoft networks, does not get bound properly...After zero ability for file sharing, and checking every setting, registry included in detail,
a swapped nic works like buttah.
Symtoms: not even a direct network map, view or browse
would work.
All other network connectivity was ok.
Re: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer availab
by JohnQ - 11/19/04 10:09 AM In reply to: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available by GooballHi,
Did you ever resolve this? I'm running into the exact same issue and no one seems to have any ideas on the various Microsoft forums I've tried.
Thanks,
John Q.
Re: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer availab
by pkelly - 11/17/04 8:02 AM In reply to: Re: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer availab by JohnQI got the same thing going on - tried many things - no luck
yup, been there, done that...
by Dick White - 11/17/04 10:56 AM In reply to: Re: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer availab by pkellyI had similar problem. Everything networked fine. Then began having trouble when trying to transfer either a large file or a large number of small files in a single transfer from one machine to another. The transfer would begin, run fine for several minutes, and then stall. After a while, the "not available" error message would pop up. Upon examination, all network access was gone, but local drives in that machine were still accessible; had to reboot. Smaller transfers did not cause the problem.
The system at issue was an older one, running Win98. I tried reloading the NIC drivers. I tried swapping in a new (and different brand) of NIC, even in a different slot. Went to the registry and deleted all network devices and reinstalled. No go. Finally got out the big hammer - completely repartitioned and reformatted the drive, and reinstalled the O/S. Brought up-to-date all patches, etc. but installed absolutely no other software yet, so the system was as pure as the new-driven snow... Then tried another monster file transfer. Crapped out just as before.
Concluded it must be a hardware/BIOS/motherboard failure somewhere deep inside that wasn't enough to bring the whole system down but still enough that it couldn't maintain the external connection for a long hard pull. Finally solved it with a new motherboard, etc. (and upgraded to XP too).
your mileage may vary,
dw
Re: yup, been there, done that...
by JohnQ - 11/19/04 9:16 AM In reply to: yup, been there, done that... by Dick WhiteHi,
Well, if I can't get a solution then feeling like I'm one of the gang will have to do 
Both machines are brand new installations of XP with SP2. Both are brand new machines... a new laptop from Dell and a new Abit mobo with all new hardware.
This is certainly a puzzler... and frustrating, too.
Thanks,
John Q.
The specified network name is no longer available Fix
by walterGG - 11/20/04 9:26 PM In reply to: Re: yup, been there, done that... by JohnQHi I was getting the same error. Here is how I fixed it.
I looked at my Event Viewer log and found there was a DHCP error every 6 minutes or so.
I checked my router and for whatever reason the DHCP lease time was set to 6 minutes. I bumped up the lease time to 2 hours and I retryed my 3.3 gig copy again and it worked flawlessly.
Walter.
Re: The specified network name is no longer available Fix
by JohnQ - 11/24/04 10:14 AM In reply to: The specified network name is no longer available Fix by walterGGHi Walter,
That's a good idea, I'll check that... I had a direct firewire connection on one of the tests... but my ethernet cable was still connected to the router... so I'm wondering if that would have made Windows pause to consider even if it shouldn't have effected the firewire connection. I'll check my logs... I should have done that to begin with... I'll post something again if that ends up being the problem.
Thanks,
John Q.
The specified network name is no longer available solution
by kochrep - 11/27/04 5:20 PM In reply to: Re: The specified network name is no longer available Fix by JohnQHello everyone,
Check the contents of http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win2000/1023402038. Obviously this link isn't the only cause for the problem (anytime a network adapter loses its IP address this could happen too, as was mentioned before), but it is one possibility. It seems to be the problem in my case: I was using an inferior (coiled, like a telephone handset cord) 8-conductor wire for my network connection when I had this error. When attempting to connect at gigabit speeds, the system would repeatedly light the link light and then immediately (~1/2 sec.) drop the link. One network adapter refused to negotiate a link at all using this wire (that NIC was a Xircom 16-bit PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) (Model REM56G-100).
Hope this helps,
Isaac Koch
isaac?ipa069.plattevalley.net
Re: The specified network name is no longer available soluti
by kochrep - 11/27/04 5:24 PM In reply to: The specified network name is no longer available solution by kochrepI would also get the error message "Could not copy %s: The path is too deep." when attempting to copy files, as well as "Could not copy %s: The specified network name is no longer available." The latter error was observed whether the file was copied from computer 1 to comp2 or comp3 by comp1, or whether it was copied from comp1 to comp2 by comp2. The systems were connected with a Linksys BEFRW-S100 (not sure if that's the exact model #) switch.
Re: The specified network name is no longer available soluti
by JohnQ - 12/4/04 1:00 PM In reply to: The specified network name is no longer available solution by kochrepWell, I think the problem set is starting to narrow... I'll definitely be conducting the ping test and I'll try to isolate my machines entirely from ethernet when I'm doing my firewire test and see if the IP address stays the same, etc. etc. Usually, I'm the one with the problem that's never been heard of... so I'm glad (in a sympathetic way that I'm not alone here and that some people have found a way out.
Thanks,
John Q.
Re: The specified network name is no longer available Fix
by brobb - 12/12/04 11:10 AM In reply to: The specified network name is no longer available Fix by walterGGHi,
The original problem describes a direct connection between two computers by a UTP (cross)cable.
What I did to fix the problem is the following:
- disable the ntpclient in date and time;
- give both network interfaces a primairy static IP adress f.i. 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 with 255.255.255.0 as subnet masks.
Different fix for me -- see inside
by Johnny Cakes - 12/28/04 6:20 PM In reply to: XP Home: The specified network name is no longer available by GooballFor me the problem was that I had two IP's running in one of my machines. From a dos prompt (command.com), I used IPCONFIG and saw that not only did I have an IP for my router/interent, but also there was an IP for my VPN connection to my secure office. After disabling the VPN connection, everything was fine -- transferred no problem. Also explains why the problem was sporatic -- I only connect to my VPN now and then. Hope this helps.
Problem arose after Windows update
by Jack Yan - 4/15/05 6:09 PM In reply to: Different fix for me -- see inside by Johnny CakesHi there:
New to networking and to this forum, so I may re-post this if it doesn't show up in the right place.
I could transfer large files (and was doing so) after installing a D-Link DI-704UP router hooking up two Windows XP Home machines. These files were over half a gig each. DHCP is assigning IPs, but these do not change.
Now I cannot—after about eight or nine hours of using it successfully. Even the tiniest files result in everything from 'The specified network name cannot be found' to something to do with semaphores. Sometimes, a 20 kbyte file might get through—but even then Windows takes an awfully long time (probably one minute).
Windows updated itself yesterday, as many of you know, with security patches. I think it may be to blame. I have turned the firewalls on both machines off (relying on the D-Link for my protection now), and disabled TCP/IP filtering. Being a neophyte I have not attempted too much more. Can anyone help?
Regards,
Jack
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
