I had all the same symptoms you had. I found that the problem was with Windows Firewall. There are about a million settings in there and I have no idea how they work, so I just turned WD off completely and viola, no more connection problems. I suppose I could work my way back through the settings to see if I can figure out exactly which setting it is, but I am using a home network and only want to connect to internal storage drives so there is little chance of invasion. If you figure out which setting it is please let us know. I think there are alot of us that are having this issue.

RLL

Rob,

I'm unclear from your post whether your problem was Windows Firewall or Windows Defender (WD). Windows Firewall is and has always been shut-off on all my PCs (Vista, XP and W7). However, Windows Defender is and always has been active on all my PCs (Vista, XP and W7). Since my primary PC is now connecting and I never futzed with firewalls or Windows Defender I can say definitively in my case that the issue was not either of them.

I have a hunch I want to test out on my tablet when I get a chance ... If/when I get the tablet (with W7B installed) connecting to my Drobo/N: drive off my XP server I'll update this post with as good a reason as I can figure out at the time.

...Dale

Sorry, you are right - my message was unclear. All my issues were caused by windows firewall. Once I turned that off I had no more reconnect problems with any of my mapped drives. I have windows defender running, same as you. You may want to double check and make sure that WF is turned off on the machines you are using. It seemd like a pretty easy fix and is worth checking twice. If it is turned off as you stated, then I wish you luck finding your solution. Sorry I wasnt more help.

Hey Rob:

I'm certain ... believe me, Firewalls is something I checked pretty early on. And, as a rule, I NEVER turn firewalls on (or more accurately I now shut them off as a first thing when I install an OS) inside my own home office because its just me here and I feel my NAT router protects me from the outside world well enough.

But, no apologies ... I think its important that we collect all the possible solutions on this forum because clearly people are having this problem for differing reasons. I tried to list all the things I did in the original post (one of which was to make sure firewalls were off). For the next person that comes along with the same problem, hopefully by going throug the list thye'll solve it - includig those that have the firewall issue you had.

...Dale

I have a similar problem.

I have an XP x64 server with several shares and my Vista Ultimate x64 HTPC in the living room always has the same error when you boot up:
"Could not reconnect all network drives"
yet when you open explorer all the drives are listed with the display bar showing how full they but a red x on them to say disconnected - clicking them though goes through to the share and browsing back the x is gone on that particular share but remains on other shares connected to the same machine.

My desktop has just started doing this too - I upgraded to win 7 recently (signature (ultimate) x64) and everything was fine - a powercut during an office install though left me unable to re-install office after trying all kinds of registry fixes and clean-ups so I wiped the system and rebuilt it and now every time I login I get the same error and behaviour as my HTPC on my main desktop - all shares are shown as connected (as they have the content bar) but with an X and can connect straight through once clicked.

Windows firewall is disabled on all machines (like the poster above the router should do a job of stopping anything getting in). My XP machine in the bedroom and extension do not exhibit this behaviour nor does the girlfriends machine (Win7 Ultimate).

I find it quite bizarre that everything was fine prior to the rebuild and now, without fail, the error occurs on every boot.

This is a guess on my part. I have a 2 computer network with W7 on my desktop computer and XP Home on my wife's Laptop. For one reason or another sometimes they have a hard time connecting.

I'm not sure but I think this is the way it works. Computer networks always have a "Master Browser". One of the computers will keep track of all the shared drives and folders on that network. In a two computer network the other one won't try. The duty usually falls on whichever one is on the most. The Master browser on a network checks to see what's going on in the network on a time schedule. From what I read they check about every 15 minutes or so. If one computer is on and another comes on the network the one that is already on has assumed the role of Master but it won't know about the other one til it makes it's check. Therefore when a computer first comes on it can't find the network because it's relying on the other computer which doesn't know it's there yet.

I think it's pretty much normal for a network to take a little time to establish it's self.

I've always been able to jump start the network by doing this. In the Address Bar of the explorer window type in " \\(the other computer's IP Address) ". After that it stays working til the next time my wife turns off her Laptop.

Originally Posted by Dajad

I NOTE THAT THE PROBLEM STILL SUBSISTS ON MY TABLET RUNNING W7B, so I am now confident the problem has nothing to do with how my XP server is configured. It has something to do with the way W7B is configured. If I solve this problem on my tablet I'll write another post. Hopefully by then I'll have isolated what worked.

...Dale

Hi, I saw your post before I found a solution which I posted on the QNAP forum. I hope it helps with your tablet:

OK, I have finally cracked some of this one (I think). (Thanks Loekf for your post, I didn't see it until I found my way to the following which you hinted at in your post).

Whenever I mapped the drives in Windows it asked for credentials. However these credentials were then created with a persistence type of "Logon session" which is not editable.

Having discovered this, I restarted windows and then before supplying the credentials to reconnect the mapped drives, I added credentials explicitly as follows:

1. Goto Control Panel -> All control Panel Items -> Credentials Manager
2. Next to the heading "Windows Credentials" click on the link "Add a Windows credential".
3. Enter the name of your NAS server ("NAS" in my case) and the appropriate credentials.

The result is an entry that has a persistence type of "Enterprise". This seems to do the trick. (I then restarted windows)

Unfortunately the QNAP finder still can't find the NAS and I think that this is another symptom of the underlying problem that is preventing iTunes from finding the media server.

BTW. In order for windows to resolve the server name I found that I had to create an entry in the "Hosts" file located in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc". There's probably a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is. I also suspect that this is another symptom of the underlying invisibility problem, but I'm not sure.

Thanks David.

Ironically, just this week I finally migrating my entire network, including my server, to Win7 so I no longer need this solved. But I'm sure your answer will help others.

...Dale