The network consists of a single Active Directory domain. The network includes Windows 2000 Advanced Server computers, and Windows 2000
Professional and Windows XP Professional client computers. Except for the domain controllers, all computers on the network use DHCP for their TCP/IP configuration. Users begin reporting that when they try to access resources on File Server, they receive the following error message: “Network path not found.”
The likely problem in this scenario is that when the file server was restarted, it received a new IP address. When a user connects to a server using a user-friendly name, DNS resolves the user-friendly name to an IP Address that is then used to connect to the server. This name-to-IP address resolution is then stored in cache on the user’s computer so that when they attempt to connect to the same server, they do not have to use DNS. The DNS cache on the users’ computers has the old IP address for the file server. Thus, when the client attempts to contact the file server it is using the wrong IP address that it has cached. The /flushdns switch of the Ipconfig command flushes the list of locally cached DNS names.