Windows7 and the Novell client

[ashleysmith55]

We have started migrating to Windows7 since Microsoft stopped shipping XP recovery disks. We're also in the process of migrating away from Novell e-Directory to Active Directory. I've noticed some intermittent connection problems, e.g. mapped network drive randomly becoming disconnected or being unable to log back into a locked workstation first time, but the same password works again if used a second time.

According to MS to issue is due to the patch level on the Novell server. However the Infrastructure team do not want to patch the server because it's a little temperamental and may go belly up. After all it's being migrated away from..... However this does help me with the issues my users are facing, so does anybody have any suggestions / recommendations from a desktop perspective that may help at least improve the situation until the Novell servers are turned off once and for all?

All help appreciated.

Ashley

[cluberti]

Unfortunately, no - I ran into this myself, and Novell confirmed that to have Win7 clients working properly without random issues (we saw network disconnections on mapped drives and logon failures), we needed to upgrade the Novell backend. Since we were migrating off of Novell onto AD in this environment, we lived with it for a few months until we were able to move everything off to the new Windows environment, and then we decommissioned the Novell environment and removed the Novell client from the client machines.