9.2.5.5 Testing connections with Windows Explorer

Start Windows Explorer or NT Explorer (not Internet Explorer), select Tools→Map Network Drive and specify \\ server\ temp to see if you can make Explorer connect to the /tmp directory. You should see a screen similar to the one in Figure 9.3. If so, you've succeeded and can skip to Section 9.2.6, Troubleshooting Browsing ."

Figure 9.3: Accessing the /tmp directory with Windows Explorer

A word of caution: Windows Explorer and NT Explorer are rather poor as diagnostic tools: they do tell you that something's wrong, but rarely what it is. If you get a failure, you'll need to track it down with the NET USE command, which has far superior error reporting:

• If you get "The password for this connection that is in your password file is no longer correct," you may have any of the following:

  • Your locally cached copy on the client doesn't match the one on the server.

  • You didn't provide a username and password when logging on to the client. Most Explorers will continue to send a username and password of null, even if you provide a password.

  • You have misspelled the password.

  • You have an invalid users or valid users list denying permission.

  • Your client is NT 4.0, NT 3.5 with Patch 3, Windows 95 with Patch 3, Windows 98, or any of these with Internet Explorer 4. They will all want encrypted passwords.

  • You have a mixed-case password, which the client is supplying in all one case.

• If you get "The network name is either incorrect, or a network to which you do not have full access," or "Cannot locate specified computer," you may have any of the following:

  • Misspelled name

  • Malfunctioning service

  • Failed share

  • Networking problem

  • Bad path line

  • hosts deny line that excludes you

• If you get "You must supply a password to make this connection," the password on the client is out of synchronization with the server, or this is the first time you've tried from this client machine and the client hasn't cached it locally yet.

• If you get "Cannot locate specified share name," you have a wrong share name or a syntax error in specifying it, a share name longer than eight characters, or one containing spaces or in mixed case.

Once you can reliably connect to the [temp] directory, try once again, this time using your home directory. If you have to change something to get home directories working, then retest with [temp], and vice versa, as we showed in the section Section 9.2.5.4." As always, if Explorer fails, drop back to that section and debug it there.