Unable to browse UNC path on Novell volume

  • 7017177
  • 21-Jan-2016
  • 25-Jan-2016

Environment

Novell Client 2 SP4 for Windows

Situation

Browsing to Novell NSS volumes on OES servers using a UNC path sometimes does not work. For example, after logging in and having a valid connection to \\SERVER1, then executing "Start > Run > \\SERVER1" (or \\<IP Address>, and clicking on the a folder such as USERS, the following error appears:

"\\server1\users refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location."

If the user then right-clicks on the "users" link, and chooses the "Map Novell Network Drive" option and maps the drive, the resulting drive mapping works fine.

Resolution

Disable the Microsoft DFS client. The Microsoft DFS client can be disabled using a DWORD value of 0x1 named "DisableDFS" under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Mup] as described in the Microsoft document "MUP and DFS Interactions".

Cause

The attempt to access the UNC path is being filtered by the Microsoft DFS client and therefore never reaches the Novell Client.