LAN Connectivity Problems

JJM

New Member
I have a network here with over 2 dozen computers, at least 3 of which are servers. 2 are running Windows Server 2003 and one is running Windows NT Server 4.0. One of the 2003s and the NT are in a Workgroup with the rest of the computers the other 2003 is in a Domain. All the computers have fixed IP's except for the laptops. One of the laptops, running Windows 2000, has recently been having problems with connecting to mapped drives. When the laptop is turned on the mapped drives connect but usually within a half an hour they get red Xs on them, and when they are opened the following error is given:

"An Error Occurred while reconnecting S: to \\server\folder. Microsoft Windows Network: The Local Device name is already in use. This connect has been restored."

When the NT server is mapped and this happens the laptop ceases to recognize any of the computers in the workgroup and the domain. If one waits long enough it will be restored.

That secondary problem doesn’t occur with the 2003’s and they return much faster.

Also, it will not enter the domain itself but the Server inside of it can be accessed by typing it into the address bar, but that may be unrelated.

We have seen a similar problem very temporarily on 2 other computers but that may not be related and those problems were very minor.

If the laptop is restarted with the drives mapped, the process is restarted again. If the mapped drives are disconnected and then the computer is restarted the connectivity that is lost when the mapped drives stops working will stay up. It is lost periodically but it will come back usually, if you attempt to access it in a different way, which may be because it takes a certain amount of time to try it another way and the connection resorted itself by then.

However the internet connection through the LAN is never lost.

I have recently come to the conclusion that it’s loosing connection to all of the other computers for very short periods of time and when this happens with the NT Sever is causing a lag. Does anyone have any idea as to why such a disconnection is happening or how to keep the lag from happening?

I have tried installing a different Network card, which gave me the same problem, running NET USE * /delete, which told me there was nothing there to delete, replacing the hosts file, mapping them under different letters, moving the laptop to a different location, setting a fixed IP address, changing the default time-out period, and creating a different user name, which also gave me the same result. Does anyone else have any ideas?

It is also possible that restoring the connecton takes at least some fiddling around with. But I don't know because the only way to check is to attempt to connect.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
are these machines bound to an AD domain?

Doesn't sound like your switches or nics since the internet works, and it works fine right? I would see if you can ping the servers too with the work stations, that will tell us they are connecting

Also, when was the last time you ever rebooted the servers?
 

JJM

New Member
Thanks for the quick reply!

As to whether or not they are bound by an AD domain I have no idea the person who could tell you that has left the office and will not be back in until Monday. I know that when I we set them up we put them in a workgroup but they can all connect to the 3rd server, which says it is a Domain director when you click "Change…" under the "Computer Name" tab in the “System properties”. I assume that is an AD domain but I can't be sure.

As far as I know the internet is working just fine. When I first got to the computer it wanted me to set up an internet connection and gave that whenever you create a new user but if you get it not to do that anymore it connects just fine.

I tried pinging the servers and I got a reply when it was connecting as for when it wasn't I tried to ping the Domain server first and I got a reply for the first packet but the other 3 timed out. However when I went to do the other 2 severs I found the connection to be restored. I'll wait for it to loose connectivity try the other two then to tell you what happens.


As for rebooting I know the 2003 in the workgroup has been rebooted within the month and the other 2003 within the year, but as for the NT machine I have no idea.
 
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tlarkin

VIP Member
reboot your switches, you can just power cycle them. You will bring the whole network down for a second (or every workstation on that switch) but it sounds to me like two possibilties. The fact that the ping timed out means there is something going on in the network. Latency, colisions, etc.

Also, it sounds like the machines are bound to a windows Active directory domain, so unbinding and rebinding the machine fixes the excessive authentication times, and would fix any kind of policy the machine pushes out for things like, permissions, mapped drives, etc.

You can just power cycle the switch to reboot it
 

JJM

New Member
Ok so I am always able to ping the two workgroup servers but the domain server I could ping completely once but the other times it either always timed out or timed out the last 3 times. I don't know why. Regardless, it seems that trying to ping computer will always fix the problem immediately.
 

JJM

New Member
reboot your switches, you can just power cycle them. You will bring the whole network down for a second (or every workstation on that switch) but it sounds to me like two possibilties. The fact that the ping timed out means there is something going on in the network. Latency, colisions, etc.

Also, it sounds like the machines are bound to a windows Active directory domain, so unbinding and rebinding the machine fixes the excessive authentication times, and would fix any kind of policy the machine pushes out for things like, permissions, mapped drives, etc.

You can just power cycle the switch to reboot it

Thank you I will have to try that Next Week. I'd like to check with someone before I try that.

Thanks very much I'll be sure to let you know if it works or not.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
sounds like a problem with cisco switches, make sure portfast is enabled. That is of course if you are running cisco switches

what kind of cisco switches are you running?
 

JJM

New Member
sounds like a problem with cisco switches, make sure portfast is enabled. That is of course if you are running cisco switches

what kind of cisco switches are you running?

We have one Cisco Catalyst 1900 and an SMC Tigerswitch 10/100 6750L2.

As to your domain question earlier what I've been told is that there are no computers that actually belong to the domain. That 2003 simply hosts a domain, which we connect to through the workgroup or because it is connected to the LAN. Does that make sense?

I'm going to try to reboot the switches when everyone leaves tonight.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
you have any kind of network analyzer?

when your machine logs in, does it log in to the domain or the machine locally? Where are all the home directories stored?

At this point I may have to be in front of your network to solve the problem, but we can keep trying.
 

JJM

New Member
you have any kind of network analyzer?

when your machine logs in, does it log in to the domain or the machine locally? Where are all the home directories stored?

At this point I may have to be in front of your network to solve the problem, but we can keep trying.
We didn't, but I have downloaded Ethereal and can run that.

They connect to the machine locally. If I had to specify the home directory it would be C:. The network is used primarily to connect the many workstations to shared files and projects on the servers and occasionally other workstations.

An interesting thing which may be of some help is that I tried to connect to the network with a VPN and I got a really funny IP address, and was unable to connect to the network.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
if it reproduces on every machine I don't think its the NICs. You may want to capture some network traffic and see how many packets are erroring out, and where they are erroring out.

Who manages your cisco switch?
 

JJM

New Member
if it reproduces on every machine I don't think its the NICs. You may want to capture some network traffic and see how many packets are erroring out, and where they are erroring out.
I did this and there are stretches where every third packet has a problem it is usually from the laptop to the NT server. Most of them begin with [TCP out of order]

There were also some errors from the laptop to the 2003 server which is in the Workgroup. that began the same and to my desktop computer. I may have been trying to access them. the NT server is predominant and it was the one which was mapped.
Who manages your cisco switch?
It depends exactly what you mean by this but I'd say myself and the person directly above me.
 

JJM

New Member
take a look at

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?id=297684

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890413

Have you tried remapping the shares?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694

what purpose does the NT server even function as?

As for the cisco switch question, who telnets into the switch and sets it up? There are settings you can configure on that switch.
The first website I'd seen before, the second I hadn't but I had already tried its fix and I don't think that the third is it because it happens if I map the drive as Z: after I start up.

Yes I tried remapping the shares.

The NT server is basically a group storage space where software and projects common to multiple people in the company is stored.

What settings are you talking about exactly? The person who set it up is the person I spoke of in the previous post, but he doesn't think he has ever telnetted into the Cisco switch. But the problem happens also with the tigerswitch so I think that is either a larger hardware issue or and software problem specific to the laptop.

Thanks very much for the help. If you have any more ideas please let me know, but I think that I'm going to write an executable to run in the background that will ping the NT machine every 10 minutes. This should at least make the symptoms go away. It's kind of like fixing a leaky pipe with duct tape but, at least the laptop will work as it is should.
 

JJM

New Member
Ummm

You can try rebuilding the winsock file on your laptop with this utility

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html

Its worth a shot. So, it only occurs on the laptop? I was under the impression this was a problem on your whole network, sorry I misunderstood if thats the case.

Thanks but it didn't help. No while it is possible it is my whole network i think it is only the laptop. for some reason thought the pinging idea doesn't seem to be working.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
It is possible you have a software/hardware problem on the laptop. Have you reimaged the laptop? Tried a new, or another PCMCIA NIC?

Something could cause it to broadcast those bad packets, making it harder to communicate with your network.
 
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