MP C4503 can't see server

[michaeljwyo]

Hello all. Got an issue that's taken me to the edge of my sanity. I have a customer with an MP C4503 that seems to have always have had intermittent problems seeing the folders on the office server. There are 5 or 6 folders set up as destinations. Out of the blue someone will scan something and eventually get a red light and the error shows it couldn't reach the destination. it's on the same network as all the pc's in the office and the pc's have no problem accessing those folders or anything else on the server...and evryone can print to the ricoh just fine. Yet I go over to the ricoh and then into the destinations and try to browse the network and do a connection test and get errors....it can't see the destination folder or even browse the network. This was intermittent for a quite some time. I'd reset the copier, reset the network switch, even reboot the server and eventually the ricoh would be happy again. Today it finally quit working altogether and I can't get it to work again. I know you guys like to know everything that has been tried so I am trying to be as detailed as possible. The ricoh has a static IP (192.168.1.252) and the subnet, gateway, and DNS are all programmed correctly too. I was in the config area today that has the ping so I put in the server's IP and was able to ping it successfully. Yet go into the destinations and again try to point to the folder and no dice. can't browse the network and pc connection fails. I've tried all many different usernames and passwords for authentication and even put in the administrator user and password for authentication and it still fails. Sharing is set up correctly on the server. The server is server 2008R2 by the way. The scans folder i am trying to send to is shared with everyone. all pc's on the network can see it and write to it. I made the ricoh a member of the office workgroup. I rebooted the server and the ricoh and all the network equipment many times. It was working yesterday. The logs show scans were sent to the folders successfully. Yet nothing today and nothing I can do seems to matter. I shut off the windows firewall on the server completely. I tried bypassing the black box on the floor that the power and network run through. None of that helped. I'm out of options. I don't know what else to try. It just doesn't make any sense, especially since all the pc's can print to it and all the pc's can see everything on the server just fine. I also tried browsing by IP address but that didn't help. I've talked to the local ricoh guys (who aren't that great) a few times about the intermittent problem yet it always ends up the same way with them telling me it's on our end and there is nothing wrong with the copier. I seriously don't know what else to try. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Michael

[slimslob]

It sounds to me like there might be someone playing with user credentials on the server. A couple of things to check/do:

1. You mentioned the office workgroup. If the server is setup as a domain server, you need to set the proper domain name in the interface settings and the first DNS must be the domain DNS. Even with a domain, found that an entry should be made in the interface settings for SMB Workgroup.
2. I like to create a name and password for the MFP to use for scanning. That name should have full right to the scan directory structure. It should be set for "Password never expires" and "User cannot change password". I like to scanner as the name and scanning as the password. This name and password should be entered into the SMB authentication in File Transfer and not in the individual address book entries.
3. Create a folder named scans on the root directory and create all scan destinations as folder in this folder. The user created for the MFP must have full access to this folder structure.

[Tonerbomb]

It sounds to me like there might be someone playing with user credentials on the server. A couple of things to check/do:

1. You mentioned the office workgroup. If the server is setup as a domain server, you need to set the proper domain name in the interface settings and the first DNS must be the domain DNS. Even with a domain, found that an entry should be made in the interface settings for SMB Workgroup.
2. I like to create a name and password for the MFP to use for scanning. That name should have full right to the scan directory structure. It should be set for "Password never expires" and "User cannot change password". I like to scanner as the name and scanning as the password. This name and password should be entered into the SMB authentication in File Transfer and not in the individual address book entries.
3. Create a folder named scans on the root directory and create all scan destinations as folder in this folder. The user created for the MFP must have full access to this folder structure.

slimslob is dead on!!!!! the only other thing that comes to me is, the dcan destinations are they host name\ shared folder or are they ip address\shared folder?? sometimes 1 works better than the other...........

[michaeljwyo]

It sounds to me like there might be someone playing with user credentials on the server. A couple of things to check/do:

1. You mentioned the office workgroup. If the server is setup as a domain server, you need to set the proper domain name in the interface settings and the first DNS must be the domain DNS. Even with a domain, found that an entry should be made in the interface settings for SMB Workgroup.
2. I like to create a name and password for the MFP to use for scanning. That name should have full right to the scan directory structure. It should be set for "Password never expires" and "User cannot change password". I like to scanner as the name and scanning as the password. This name and password should be entered into the SMB authentication in File Transfer and not in the individual address book entries.
3. Create a folder named scans on the root directory and create all scan destinations as folder in this folder. The user created for the MFP must have full access to this folder structure.

Thanks slimslob--no it's not a domain server. It's just set up more-or-less as a file server. The SMB workgroup is where I set the ricoh to the same workgroup as the rest of the PC's. The MFP has its own username and password and it has administratitve rights ....really it has access to everything. Ricoh is an administrator. And I've tried it both ways with the user/password entered into the SMB authentication and in the individual address book entries. Neither way works. As I said the user I created for the ricoh (ricoh2 and the password is ricoh2) has administrative rights just to make sure. I can and will tighten that down once I get the problem solved. Like I said...it was working. It just quit.
As far as the mapping I have tried it both ways. I know normally when I am working on machines at the shop, sometimes I can better-access a shared folder on my network by using IP address instead of name. In this case, neither works. Whether I put \\server\shared or I put in \\192.168.1.254\shared it doesn't work. same old "connection to the destination failed" error message. I thought I had also run across something in my research about using port 449 to make it use SMB over TCP or something like that. Not sure if that's an option. I also thought I remembered reading something about firmware updates and a guy who had this problem updated the firmware and it fixed it. I know people are notorious for coming into this forum and asking for firmware updates. I didn't one to be one of "those" guys. I wanted to prove I have tried many many things. There is a guy that kinda handles the region for this company that supplies the ricoh's and I think I have his number somewhere. HE would be smart enough to know about firmware. He supplied me with Windows Server 2008R2 drivers for an older Ricoh this client has in their remote office so he's pretty sharp. There is one other thing I should mention. Where this MP C4503 is, this is a new office this is about 3 doors down the street from the main office. I have them set up so that both offices are on the same network. I have a wireless transparent bridge set up with a couple of ubiquity nanostation m5 wireless units. So the ricoh is in this new office (their billing office) and the server is in the other office. I really want to blame something with that wireless link, but it's been WORKING FINE for about a week. Even when they were in the other building this problem would happen occasionally. So...... other thoughts?

Michael

[slimslob]

The wireless might be the problem if you have periods of heavy traffic over the link and the session times out. I think that there might be a setting for the time out value on the MP C4503, but I have never used it and am not sure where it is. Both the MP C4503 and the server should be no more than one switch away from the wireless to reduce data traffic interference. There can also be external interference with the wireless signal such as other wireless networks, hackers, and cordless phones.

As for firmware, the MP C4503 does not need any firmware update in order to work with Server 2008R2.

Port usage can be either TCP direct over port 445 or NETBios over TCP using TCP ports 137 and 139 and UDP ports 137 ans 138.

The only other thing I see is the name and password being the same. Windows does not always allow that and in some instances will not even allow you to set a user that way. One other thing that I have encountered is Windows not liking a user name to be the same as a device name. If the device name starts with ricoh followed by a space, it can confuse windows as to whether it getting a device or user name.

[Llama God]

Leaving the dreadful connection test thing to one side for the moment, have you turned off packet signing in the local group policies on the server? Without being in front of it I can't remember exactly how to get there, but it's something like this:

Open Group Policy Management

Right-click on Default Domain Policy – edit

Go to Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options

Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) – DISABLE

Domain member: Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always) - DISABLE

Just a thought.

[CSI]

Leaving the dreadful connection test thing to one side for the moment, have you turned off packet signing in the local group policies on the server? Without being in front of it I can't remember exactly how to get there, but it's something like this:

Open Group Policy Management

Right-click on Default Domain Policy – edit

Go to Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options

Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) – DISABLE

Domain member: Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always) - DISABLE

Just a thought.

+1

[michaeljwyo]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. As far as group policy, as I mentioned the server is not a domain controller and apparently that's what it needs to be in order to even USE group policy. I installed the group policy management console, but it says "in order to manage group policy you must log on to the computer with a domain user account." And that's using the Administrator account. So anyways, I don't think that's it.
I wanted to update everyone on where I'm at with this. Yes it'll be long-winded again but I don't want to miss anything. It would appear that on Friday of last week I got a call from the MAIN office, where they also have a Ricoh....theirs is a MP C6003 copier. Same setup over there. In the destinations, there are folders so that when they scan, it sends directly to a folder on the server. Theirs quit working too! And they ARE in the same building and on the same switch as the server. Also on Friday I went over to the billing office a block away (where the original problem is going on with the MP C4503 and they needed something since they couldn't wait for this problem to be fixed. So.....for temporary (now maybe permanent if I can't fix this) I decided to try to browse to one of the office workstations instead of the server. It worked great! With the Ricoh I could see any office PC and its shares...even the office PCs at the main location. So I set up SCANS folders on the individual PC's so that they could still get scanning done. They they just bring up the shared server drive on their pc and drag and drop the scans wherever they go. Yeah it works but it still bothers me that it used to work before where they could use the server like a server. So yesterday I had to end up doing the same thing at the main office so THEY could get some scanning done. Same on the C6003. I can browse to any workgroup and any PC in any workgroup.....EXCEPT the server. When I click Browse The Network, I can see the workgroup....see the server, but then when I click on the server, it brings up the error about not being able to connect to the destination and security or firewall blah blah blah. An addendum to all of this. One thing that I had done recently was fiddling with the SMB protocols in the "parameters" key in the lanmanserver key in the registry. The reason for this was that I installed a new program they use....and set it up according to the company for network environment use. The program is a medical billing program called PCAce Pro32. So again....I know a lot of us are also PC techs and many of you know about the servers. Just for the sake of you guys knowing what I did.....I am going to post an excerpt from their instructions. I really hope you guys don't mind. As you'll see...it's stuff having to do with SMB....and I am really thinking this is what broke it!

REQUIRED PRE-INSTALLATION WINDOWS CONFIGURATION:

Changes in the low-level network data access protocols made by Microsoft over the years have
produced a number of undesirable side effects.
It is necessary to disable certain enhancements in
order to insure reliable data access in multiuser networked environments.

Specifically, it is
necessary to disable the Server Message Block (SMB) version 2 and 3 protocols, as well as the
"opportunistic locking" feature of the SMB 1 protocol. Caching techniques in the later SMB versions can
create problems for PC-ACE Pro32 in a networked environment. To prevent these problems, modify the
Windows registry on the client and server computers according to the following instructions.

Step #1
– Applies to computers running Windows Server 2008 or SBS 2008 and later versions (or any
Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 computer acting as a server in a peer-to-peer configuration):

Add or update the following registry entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters

Entry name: FileInfoCacheLifetime
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

Entry name: FileNotFoundCacheLifetime
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

Entry name: DirectoryCacheLifetime
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanmanServer\Parameters

Entry name: SMB2
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

Entry name: SMB3
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0


There are other steps below that where you also configure a few things on the client workstations....that's irrelevant to this. It seemed like everything was working fine however this started like a week or so after I had changed all these things. I'm not sure why it would have continued to work after I made these changes and THEN decided to stop a week or so later...I'm not quite sure what the other 3 registry entries do and if that has anything to do with it. I had to go back in and RE-ENABLE SMB2 because with only SMB1 enabled, it actually kept people from being able to map network drives or access them. So I also re-enabled SMB3 too. I hope the PC-ACE continues to work. Right now the networking is working fine again, except for the Ricoh's. This didn't make any difference.

Thanks for putting up with all my long-winded-ness. I don't know if any of you are skilled enough to know what's going on....or if it does have something to do with the changes I made. It still doesn't make sense and it's GOT to be something with the server. The Ricohs can browse the network and connect to workstations just great.....just not the server. Yet the workstations don't have any problems connecting to the server.

Michael

[bjakobs]

As you don't mention it being done yet:

1: The xx03 series comes with Gigabit-ethernet. I've seen them behave strange in some networks. Try to go "system settings -> network interface -> ethernet speed -> auto:disable 1Gb" or any other setting than Auto:1Gb.

2: If this was my project I would connect directly to the mfp with a laptop and a crossed network cable (if needed, newer laptops often have a ethernet port that switches automagically), configure network settings, setup a shared folder on the laptop, and see if I got the same behaviour there.

[michaeljwyo]

Okay folks I just solved the problem. I started thinking about it trying to figure out what might have changed since this all quit working. Well about 3 weeks ago, In the closet where the server is located I needed to run a couple of other network lines.....but only have one network jack in there. So I installed a TP-Link 5-port 1gb switch. Just a little while ago, I decided to go ahead and plug the server back into the jack by itself...bypassing that switch. Lo and behold, the MFP's (BOTH of them) were able to see the server again. I put in a different 5-port switch and the MFP's still can see the server once again. All this worry and torment and lost sleep from a bad switch. Hopefully this may help someone in the future. Try a different switch! It might work!
Thanks for all the help and suggestions!! This is a great forum and a must-have tool. On to the next problem..

Michael