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General discussion

Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot

Dec 1, 2003 5:04AM PST

We use Small Business Server 4.5 as our all-in-one server system. The workstations are generally Windows 98, a couple of them are still Windows 95, and two workstations are Windows XP Professional.

For the last two weekends, a strange thing has happened. The server is up and running, but the workstations have random connectivity problems. One workstation may be able to access printers and the Web but not files or email. Another may be able to access files, but nothing else. A third one may get the error message "no domain server is available to accept your password" and can't log into the network.

What fixes it is rebooting the server, but we've never had to do this once or twice/week before (maybe once every month or two). Any thoughts as to something bigger going on would be welcome, thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 1, 2003 8:50AM PST

can you access this server from the Internet? on general principles, you should scan for a virus on the machine even if you can't get to it directly from the Internet. have you been applying maintenance patches from Microsoft on the machine on a regular basis?

Herb....

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Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 2, 2003 2:33AM PST

Cannot access from Internet but can via a dialup and when the server goes down like this have similar problems with the dialups.

Have applied all service packs, not sure about any other patches; most of them seem to apply to XP or 2000, not NT.

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Re:Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 4, 2003 9:10AM PST

since this has only recently started happening, can you think of anything that might have changed? you still haven't told me if you have scanned for a virus or not.

Herb...

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 8, 2003 12:49AM PST

Yes I did and it did not find anything. And the anti-virus software is updated as of this week.

I did find a pattern though. The problem seems to occur on Saturdays when no one is in the office and we catch it Monday morning (or occaisonally the owner of our company comes in on the weekend and notices it and reboots the server). The disconnect is between the server and the hub, this is why I can dial in (but not connect to our external Snap Server, which is connected to the hub), but someone in the office cannot connect to the network at all.

I would normally just say something is bad with either the hub, the net card on the server the connection is connected to, or the wire connecting the 2, but why would it consistently do this every Saturday (which sounds like a virus)? What should I look for, I can't find anything on the server that only runs on Saturdays. Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 9, 2003 10:59AM PST

it sounds like something is running alright. i don't know of any tools to monitor what is run. nothing that comes with Windows anyway. you are up to date on all service packs on the system and its software? are you sure the computer isn't being attacked by anyone?

Herb...

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 10, 2003 2:46AM PST

We are up to date on Service Packs, but I too have thought of the possibility that it is getting some sort of weekend Denial of Service attack or something. I'm having someone at our ISP investigate this, thanks for noting.

I also setup the server to reboot itself a couple of times on weekends for now.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Sudden loss of network connectivity until server reboot
Dec 12, 2003 10:54PM PST

Unfortunately I fought this type of battle for a while. I found some spyware stuff with Ad Aware. Removed it - no help. But, only when I decided I'd had enough, I reformatted and reinstalled everything. No more problem. Sorry for the extreme on this, but it was my experience. Bill