Category: Windows 10

SMBv3.1.1 disconnects and fails to reconnect on Windows 10

Be warned: This will be a long one with a lot of text and few images. I never planned on doing a write-up on this issue, so I did not take a lot of pictures.

I have been troubleshooting this issue on and off for two years, and I was on the brink of giving up several times. I pride myself in finding solutions where others only find stress and hair-loss, and do so routinely, but sadly there are still nuts I cannot crack. This issue was believed to be such a nut. But I was wrong. The solution had been staring me straight in the eyes for quite some time, but we must not get ahead of ourselves. Let us start at the beginning.

Problem

SMB sessions are invalidated, such that it is impossible to reconnect. This happens only on Windows 10 clients, Windows 7 and 8? clients running SMBv2.* can still reconnect as normal.

User story:

  • The user opens a file explorer window and navigates to a folder on a fileserver containing documents the user wants to read and/or edit.
  • This works without issue 100% of the time as long as the client computer has a network connection to the file server.
  • After a period of inactivity the SMB session is suspended. The user does not detect this, everything is still ok.
  • Some time later, the user will either
    • Try to save a file
    • Try to open a new file using the same File Explorer window
  • Possible outcomes
    • Everything works as expected
    • It is impossible to save the file to the server, it has to be saved locally.
    • The File Explorer window is gone. The user has to re-open the window and navigate back to the folder in question.
  • Thus, the user gets annoyed and and complains about the stupid Windows 10 upgrade, which is understandable.

Relevant Event IDs: 30807 from SMBClient and 1016 from SMBServer.

Continue reading “SMBv3.1.1 disconnects and fails to reconnect on Windows 10”
Last edit: Wednesday, May 11, 2022

IP Address conflict on 0.0.0.0

Problem

Sometimes when I restart one of my Windows 10 computers the network never gets online. I have to disable/enable the network to get it back. the reason seems to be an IP conflict with the address 0.0.0.0. This computer has a fixed IP, no DHCP is involved. The NIC is an Intel I219-V.

Analysis

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Event ID 4199, TCPIP: The system detected an address conflict for IP address 0.0.0.0 with the system having network hardware address 20-4C-9E-49-38-8A.

A quick check in the tracking system revealed this article from Cisco: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ios-nx-os-software/8021x/116529-problemsolution-product-00.html. It talks about a conflict between the IP conflict detection system in Windows and an ARP Probe sent by the switch as part of IP Device Tracking. I am no Cisco expert, but I would like to have a chat with whoever thought that IP conflict detection should start BEFORE the nic has an IP set…

As far as I can tell the IP Tracking function on the switch is enabled by default from IOS version 15.2.

Workaround

Turn off IP Device Tracking at the switch

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/11960461/ip-device-tracking talks about running the following commands on the switch:

switch(config)# int range gig1/0/1 – 24
switch(config-if)# nmsp attach suppress
end

This is supposed to turn off the IP Device tracking on a  per switch basis. I do not have access to my switching infrastructure, so I have not tested this. Update 2018-05-15: I can confirm that this workaround solves the problem.

Turn off the Gratuitous ARP Function

Refer to this ancient KB: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/219374. It is written for NT4, but it still works. Be aware, this basically turns off IP Conflict detection completely.

Upgrade your NIC driver

And hope that it helps…

Last edit: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Getting rid of that pesky Store Icon

Annoyance

Fore some reason, the Store Icon comes back to haunt you every time you restart. That is, it stays pinned to the task bar no matter what, and if you un-pin it, like a zombie it will rise from the grave as soon as you reboot…

image

This is probably a scheme to make us buy more of those stupid “modern” apps. Not that there aren’t useful apps, but they are few and far between. Anyways, the point is to get rid of the icon. I could of course disable the store altogether, but I just want it out of my way and off my lawn –eh, taskbar.

Solution

The good people of Microsoft has finally given us a proper option to get rid of it.  Salvation comes in the form of a GPO called “Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar”. The wording is such as to make us believe that it is all our fault to begin with, but no matter, lets just remove it.

The GPO is hidden in User Configuration under Policies, Administrative Templates,Start Menu and Taskbar:

image

Set it as enabled and deploy it to your users as best fits you. If you are looking to make this change on you own local computer without a domain, just start gpedit.msc to edit your local policy.

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Last edit: Sunday, September 18, 2016