Cannot Connect to Dfs Share Using Fully Qualified Domain Names

ID: Q176084

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Connecting to a Distributed File System (Dfs) share using a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), for example, DIR \\DFS.Microsoft.Com\Share will result in:

Either an empty directory being returned when browsing directories under the root Dfs share point.

-or-

If mapping to a directory under the DFS share point.

System error 67 has occurred. The network name cannot be found.

CAUSE

The "How Users See and Connect to Dfs Trees" section of the "Microsoft Distributed File System for Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Administrator's Guide" states the following:

Windows 95 Dfs clients have some additional limitations which do not
apply to Windows NT clients:

The Windows 95 client cannot access non-SMB leaf volumes.
The Windows 95 client cannot use the DNS namespace as part of
accessing Windows NT shares
(for example, DIR \\DFS.Microsoft.Com\Public).

It should also state that Windows NT does not support access to a Dfs share from a Domain Name Server (DNS) namespace.

WORKAROUND

Connect to the Dfs share using NetBIOS machine names only. This may require use of a WINS server or a LMHOSTS file to resolve the Dfs server's machine name to an IP address.

Keywords : ntnetserv ntdocerr
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb