Windows XP Intermittently Loses Connection To SBS 2003 Server

For some time now I have had issues where a Windows XP workstation will lose the “F:” drive on a Windows SBS 2003 server. Wait a couple of seconds, curse under your breath and it comes back.

Thanks to the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices Analyzer, I think I may have found the solution:

On the SBS 2003 Server:

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To work around this problem, turn off checksum offloading on the network adapter. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
3. In the right pane, make sure that the DisableTaskOffload registry entry exists. If this entry does not exist, follow these steps to add the entry:
   1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   2. Type DisableTaskOffload, and then press ENTER.
4. Click DisableTaskOffload.
5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6. Type 1 in the Value data box, and then press ENTER.
7. Exit Registry Editor.

I hope this works. Description fits perfectly for the intermittent connection problem we have experienced.

Tagged as: windows XP intermittent connection loss