Lan communication problem: "specified network name is no longer available"

[SuperNick]

I have installed a D-Link Gigabit card on two machines. I gave both cards static IPs.

The connection works and files do transfer, but very often it times out, especially when I transfer large groups of files.

I get a message pop-up saying "the specified network name is no longer available."

I hear this is a common problem with Windows 2K. Any ideas?

[MagellanTX]

Usually the problem is caused when the NETBIOS naming is unavailable for a specified amount of time.

However, a nice workaround is to use ROBOCOPY from the Resource Kit. It is a CLI copy utility that does a very nice job with large files.

[SuperNick]

Thanks for the tip.

I just tried robocopy. It worked well in cases when I am copying a folder with lots of files. When the network connection is interrupted by a message "specified network name is no longer available", Robocopy starts copying again with the file on which the transfer stalled.

The problem is that when I am trying to copy a file that is 500MB, it stops just as before, but then starts from the very beginning of the file (judgning by process indicator percentage sign). And thus it is never able to copy the 500MB file. It never gets farther than 1.2%

Are there any other solutions to deal with the error "specified network name is no longer available"? It pops up at some point during file transfer.

The connection is between two windows 2000 systems, neither has server software.

[MagellanTX]

Make sure you are using /Z in the robocopy command.

Also, you can try creating a host file entry for the computer you are copying to. This will keep your computer from trying to resolve the name via NetBios.

[SuperNick]

Hey magellan,

Thanks for the advice.

where exactly do I go to create this host file entry?

Network properties? TCP/IP?

[MagellanTX]

In Windows 2000:
C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\

There is a file in there called HOSTS (with no extension).

Add a new line to the bottom of the file and put the IP Address then hit TAB then the computer name.

So your file will resemble something like...

...
...
...
192.168.1.1 MyComputer

Just make sure you use a TAB instead of spaces between the IP and computer name.

Important!! If you are using Notepad to edit the file make sure it does not append a .txt to the end of it. The HOSTS file must not have any extensions on it.