A duplicate name exists on the network

[beeswax]

I was out of the office yesterday, but this message has been appearing on screens up and down the school as people boot up their machines. I can figure it out if I see the message on only one machine, but it's popping up everywhere. I haven't a clue why this should be happening. All mapped drives are working, but if I try to browse the network through My Network Places I can't see any machines. Any advice here would be helpful. The network seems to be running as normal otherwise.

[Halfmad]

Stab in the dark but I don't suppose all your clients have the computer browser service enabled do they? We always turn it off here as the servers do that job:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001

 

I've never seen it cause duplicate names but it's done some weird stuff before!

[Geoff]

If you have any Linux boxes on your LAN that are running Samba, double check their configuration. Make sure you've not specified that they are a PDC,BDC or Master Browser.

[lionsl2005]

I was out of the office yesterday, but this message has been appearing on screens up and down the school as people boot up their machines. I can figure it out if I see the message on only one machine, but it's popping up everywhere. I haven't a clue why this should be happening. All mapped drives are working, but if I try to browse the network through My Network Places I can't see any machines. Any advice here would be helpful. The network seems to be running as normal otherwise.

 

I got the exactly same problem here, we run windows 2008 server,

[lionsl2005]

i resolved the matter, our old server was on the network but not connected to domain, i shut down the old server now problem solved. new n old server name were same.

[FN-GM]

Ah you might have the conflicker, its been going round Balderstone and another school on the CLC WAN. I got this message. It was a pain to get rid of.

 

I would also check to see if anyone else in the Forest has not tried to name the machine the same name. To stop this happening when i ws at Heywood Community we put HC- infront of every PC name.

[superfletch]

I don't like the fact that more than 1 person in school finds this behaviour familiar.

Suggest to the users affected it might be viral - but it isn't their fault!

 

Try reducing your DHCP Servers lease time to something really low (like an hour) while you remove uninfected machines from the domain.

Keep a separate eye on any machines with static IP's to see if they act bizarrely.

 

After this, staff/pupils should report any infected or bizarre machines (to the technician/co-ordinater). If they have a viral problem the best option might be just rebuilding by RM techiques or reimaging (standard image) the machine, as realistically the computer belongs to the school not the staff so as long as work is saved on the network it should not be a problem..

 

They can be rebuilt very easily.

Edited March 13, 2009 by superfletch
Poor spelling and grammar