Here is my problem. I log on to a win 2000 server with a XP pro. I go to my network places on the XP and I can access my shared folders and files. 1 hour later I try to access those same files, and I get a message stating can not find path, or I'll get program not responding (end now). If I log off and then log back on again no problem untill later. Is it a server config problem or Xp ?

Thanks
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That is the legendary Windows networking bug. It took me 2 years to resolve that issue on one network, now the fixes are documented, but at that time they only lived in an obscure windows 2000 bug fix on microsoft's technet site. The bug was not fixed, and is still not, I believe fixed, although microsoft seems to believe that it is.

You need to check your system and application event logs, to get the specific event id number, then use eventid.net to track down the specific fix. Depending on which of about 5 - 10 networking issues it is, you may get the thing resolved.

We work around it by mounting a script in all machines, a bat file, then creating a desktop link that fires the script. The script simply remounts any unmounted network drive.

And by all means, stop using that silly 'my network places', just mount the drives as drive letters, my network places is like kindergarden for networking.

We also mount all local network drives using scripts that run on user logon, that solves some of the issues too. And some registry tweaks.

The moral of the story? Windows networking is a crappy collection of bad hacks designed in part to make it impossible to work with for other operating systems. One unintended consequence of this is that it's also sometimes impossible for windows to work with itself.

Keep things simple, keep them under control, script all mount operations, then once you've learned enough networking to be decent, dump windows file servers and run Linux.
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