One Mac lost its connection to the server

T

timcha

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The server is a G5 running OS X Server 10.5.3. The network has 5 other Macs and 10 Windows XP Pro PCs. One of the Macs running 10.5.6 lost its connection to the server and attempts to reconnect via "Finder" get a message "Connection failed." The lost Mac and the Server can get ping responses from each other and all was working fine a few days ago. We can't figure out what changed other than that the Mac can't connect. Since I come from the Windows world, I'm not sure how to reinstall the network software.

Thanks,
Tim
 
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What do you mean by "connect?" What kind of "connection?"

Are you losing a mounted share? Are you unable to authenticate via Active Directory?

"Connect" is very vague... there are hundreds of "connections" a client computer can make to a server -- accessing a shared printer, viewing files stored on a mounted share, authenticating with a directory service, etc. Since you can ping each machine from the other, right there you have a "connection" that is working -- the physical ethernet cable is "connected," and you are able to communicate via TCP/IP (because you can ping the machine).

...and attempts to reconnect via "Finder" get a message "Conncetion failed."
Click to expand...
What specific action were you trying to accomplish on the Mac when you got this message? Mount a shared drive? Access a printer? Was the Mac set up to auto-mount a shared drive upon login, and perhaps it can't find that share anymore?
 
I have a few things to learn about Mac terminology; I'll try to explain the situation better. For starters, this network was set up a couple years ago by someone else; I have come in recently to solve some Windows problems, but now this Mac problem has popped up so I'm trying to figure things out. There is no Windows server, so no Active Directory.

The Mac OS X server has a shared folder where everyone has a folder to store their work. A few days ago, Bob was working just fine, but then 'something' happened, he doesn't know what, and he could no longer see his folder. But of course, everyone else can work just fine. So now, when Bob opens Finder, and clicks the 'Bob' icon for his share, the beach ball spins and a message says that either the server is down or offline. If he uses Finder to navigate to the server, he gets a message that the 'Connection failed'. But, he can still reach the internet and get/send email just fine. On the server, I can see his folder and files are all still there.

Does that help? Any pointers to what I should read to get up to Mac speed?

Thanks!
 
Ok, better understood -- it sounds like Mac users' profiles (er, home folders) are stored on the server ("roaming profiles" as they're called, I believe), and perhaps Bob's machine has somehow lost the path to his home folder on the server.

I'm on Snow Leopard, and things have changed places in the operating system in terms of what app to use to configure the home folder's path on the server. Fixing the problem may be as simple as verifying that the machine Ack. I believe it was called "NetInfo Manager" or "Directory Utility" under Leopard and earlier; I could be wrong.

I'll report back if I can dig up any information or remember, but you may be able to take that hint and run with it if you're familiar with the Mac server. I believe you want to be looking in "NetInfo Manager" for the place where the home folder path is specified and verify that it's correct. I wish I could give you a walk-through, but hopefully that gets you going in somewhat the right direction.
 
Thanks! You poked me in the right direction. And this network is a whole lot simpler than I was expecting. The previous caretaker set up only two users: the admin, and one account for everyone else. There are no profiles or home folders. All Bob had to do was to use Finder to navigate to the server, Connect As everyone's user name, and bingo. Dum, dum, dum. But at least dumb old me learned something Mac-ish. And who says an old dog can't learn a new trick?

Thanks again!
TimC
 
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