[Samba] home directory mapping can cause strange Windows errors

[Michael Hulet]

I've just spent several hours trying to solve "an unexpected error
occurred" while I was accessing my Local Area Connection properties on a
Windows 2000 machine.  I'm sending this message as penance for blaming
Samba.

The "an unexpected error occurred" message came up everytime I tried to
view the properties of my Local Area Connection but there were other
problems within Network and Dial-up Connections.  For example, the Make
New Connection wizard would only allow Dial-up to the Internet connections
even though I am an Administrator.  These problems would only manifest
themselves if I logged into our Samba domain.  My local account worked
just fine.  If I disconnected my network cable and logged in using my 
locally cached profile (we're using roaming profiles in the domain), the 
problem also went away.  Another clue was only Windows 2000 machines were 
affected; Windows NT and Windows XP domain members worked just fine.

The problem turned out to be a file in my [homes] share.  At one time I 
had copied SETUPAPI.DLL to my H: drive ([homes] share) to fix a Windows NT 
problem.  This SETUPAPI.DLL file was in the root directory of my [homes] 
share and somehow, this file caused all my problems.  After I removed or 
changed the name of this file, everything worked the way it should.  The 
SETUPAPI.DLL was from a Windows NT machine so I'm guessing it was used by 
the Windows 2000 machine and broke any functions that use SETUPAPI.DLL.

I had no idea a .dll file in a Windows share could cause operating system
errors (or maybe SETUPAPI.DLL is the only one, in which case lucky me).  
If you come across an unexplainable Windows error in the future, try
changing the location of your [homes] share to a temporary empty directory
or see if you have any dll's in that share.


--

Michael Hulet
Network System Administrator
ITTC, University of Kansas