I noticed a network share mounted with denied permissions on these Macs. When I unmount the share, the freezes seem to stop. Problem is, if they restart or log out the network share automatically mounts again.
Michael,
I would suggest not auto-mounting the network home directory, and then test again.
To do this:
1. Open "/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Directory Utility.app"
2. In the "Services" tab, click the lock and authenticate with admin credentials to make changes.
3. Double click "Active Directory" and click the grey triangle to expand the window.
4. In the "User Experience" tab uncheck "Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location".
5. Click "OK"
Log out or reboot. Now the Network home directory should not auto-mount.
Live like that for a while to see if the beach balls are mitigated.
As for the permissions issues with the file server.
Ask your file server admin to setup a test share with wide open permissions. Can you connect to it?
From there start tightening down the permissions.
Eric
