Weird File Sharing Problem

[ericl143]

While adding a new iMac G5 to the network (XServe G5, XServe RAID, Appleshare) i encountered a strange problem.

I usually just use the “Connect to Server” feature, punch in the addresses for the three servers the user needs to connect to, connect to each, mount the shares, add them to the startup items and call it good.

This time, I hit the browse button on a whim. and I saw all of the usual suspects, plus one of salespeople’s new laptop. I clicked on my XServe and mounted the share and noticed it was in all CAPS. This is not usual, so I just unmounted it, punched in the IP address, connected up and everythign was normal.

When I punched in the next IP address for our Win2K3 server, I got the afp://10.1.1.3 “could not connect to the server because the name or password is not correct” – I have never seen this before.

So i dropped into terminal and it said:
burnslaptop:~ steve$

burnslaptop is the salespersons laptop and steve is the name of the users imac G5

I have worked around this by shutting down the laptop and getting my shares into the startup items. Now that the laptop is back on, if I go into terminal, it says this again:
burnslaptop:~ steve$

What it should be saying is:
steves-computer:~ steve$
(where steves-computer is the name of my the users machine)

I am feeling like a total moron here. Everything looks fine in the network control panel – what am I missing?

UPDATE: If I manually configure my network settings, everything works as expected. When I switch back to DHCP, the problem re-appears.

Help is GREATLY appreciated!

Eric

[ericl143]

I would have suspected DNS, but no other Mac on our network exhibits this behavior.

Here’s a new twist…burnslaptop is out of the buiding right now. If I kick the machine back to DHCP, it now says “MarcyXP:~ steve$”

The weird thing is that the marcyxp machine isn’t even on. Marcy left our company two weeks ago. Her computer is still in the Windows 2003 Server computer list, but the machine isn’t on.

Is there a preference that I can blow away or a command through terminal that will make this mac forget everything about the system preference?

I have this machine all loaded and configured and would rather not blow it away just for this.

On the off chance it might help, I used network utility and pulled the routing tables for you. Here is the result:
Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 10.1.1.200 UGSc 3 3 en0
10.1.1/24 link#4 UCS 3 0 en0
cpcwin2k.cpcprints 0:b:db:ad:e7:5e UHLW 0 33 en0 1194
marcy_xp.cpcprints localhost UHS 0 7 lo0
10.1.1.41 0:60:94:dc:d5:b2 UHLW 0 65 en0 1026
10.1.1.200 link#4 UHLW 3 0 en0
127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0
localhost localhost UH 71 7295 lo0
169.254 link#4 UCS 0 0 en0

After sitting thorugh some of your sessions at 2 different Macworlds, I am convinced Joel=genius so I am confidentthis will get solved I really appreciate the help.

[Author]

Posts