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Thread: I am facing a problem while opening DFS Link in Microsoft Excel

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    75

    I am facing a problem while opening DFS Link in Microsoft Excel

    I originally posted this question under networking, but this may be a better forum for my question. Have a weird problem. We're on a Windows 2000 domain where the users' home directory has been redirected using this syntax: \\fqdn.xxx\dfs root\sharename\%username%. The DFS root server is a member file server that holds the majority of the network shares (including the user profiles and home folders). The DFS root is registered in our AD. Here's the problem: Occasionally someone will try to open an Excel file on a share via a DFS link and will get an error message stating that the "\\fqdn.xxx\dfs root\" cannot be found. After a few minutes they can open the file and this has only been reported to me 10 times or so out of 70 users over a 60 day period, but I don't have an answer why this happens.

    There is no problem with the Excel files in their home folder (also using DFS) and when you check the DFS status of the folder they are having problems with, it shows the status is OK. Additionally, any other type of file in that folder can be opened with no problem--Word and text files open normally, but I haven't tried Access files, as the problem usually fixes itself within 10 to 15 minutes. I can't find anything in the client or server logs that indicate a problem. The big mystery is why only Excel files are affected.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    580

    Re: I am facing a problem while opening DFS Link in Microsoft Excel

    It is probably not a networking problem and probably not an Excel problem but probably a "Networking with Excel" problem. And, you're pushing the technical envelope for those of us who normally troll the Newsgroup wanting to help. Check the Excel options, General tab for the default files location of some of the complaining users to determine if anything there smells funny. My thought is that Excel is [somehow] throwing your networking software a curve as Excel is looking for something, as in, are any of those workbooks trying to OLE with some other workbook which may or may not be on the net?

    The network cannot respond (for unknown reasons) and goes into something like a "soft timeout." (This is, of course, hypothetical. You might have to do homework with your IT staff.) I'd also do more of an investigation into the users. What else are they trying to do? Are the same workbooks always causing the problem? How about some selected time of the day (as in, is IT doing back-ups, or something).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    540

    Re: I am facing a problem while opening DFS Link in Microsoft Excel

    I will try what you suggested first thing Monday morning and let you know if the default file location is still pointing to the old server location or any other non-networked path. I'm the only IT guy that works here, so there weren't any backups going on when there were problems. But our users move/copy and work on some pretty large datasets (200 to 900MB) on a 10/100 network, so I'm guessing that the traffic hitting the main file server (also the DFS root server) may be causing the problem.

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