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Tuesday 7 October 2014

Windows 7 Offline files will not go Online when connected to network

Issue
Several laptop users move between networks, domain, home, etc and when they attempt to access DFS shares explorer status is working offline.  The issue only resolves it self after a reboot. Connecting directly to the share works and i am able to ping network resources.  This behavior occurs for VPN users as well.

Possible Causes

"slow-link mode". In win7 (with default settings) a client will enter slow-link mode if the latency to the server is above 80ms. In slow-link mode all writes are made to the local cache and a background sync only happens every 6 hours.  Depending on your connection the default slow link detection speed is 64,000 bps

On client computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, a shared folder automatically transitions to the slow-link mode if the round-trip latency of the network is greater than 80 milliseconds, or as configured by the "Configure slow-link mode" policy. After transitioning a folder to the slow-link mode, Offline Files synchronizes the user's files in the background at regular intervals, or as configured by the 'Configure Background Sync' policy. While in slow-link mode, Windows periodically checks the connection to the folder and brings the folder back online if network speeds improve.

If you do not configure the "Configure slow-link mode" policy setting, computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 will not transition a shared folder to the slow-link mode. Computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 will use the default latency value of 80 milliseconds when transitioning a folder to the slow-link mode. To prevent computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 from using the slow-link mode, disable this policy.

Option 1 Disable it in the Group policy to see if it helps (feedback welcome),
Check the following two policy settings that control the offline file slow-link mode and speed:
Path: Computer Policy\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files
Policies:

*Configure slow-link mode

*Configure slow-link speed

Option 2 Configure Forced silent auto reconnection

1. Click Start, type REGEDIT in search bar, and then click OK.

2. Locate and click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache

3. Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

4. Type SilentForcedAutoReconnect, and then press ENTER to name the value.

5. Double-click SilentForcedAutoReconnect.

6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

Option3 Computer Policy\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files\Action on server disconnect

Tip: To configure this setting without establishing a setting, in Windows Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Folder Options, click the Offline Files tab, click Advanced, and then select an option in the "When a network connection is lost" section.

Also, see the "Non-default server disconnect actions" setting.

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