Bizarre problem -- lose connection randomly to/from Windows Server 200

[xcapes]

I have been running Windows 2003 Server for my home network for a couple of months now. Since install I have had a strange problem where I will lose connection to/from my server. The problem isn't fixed until I reboot the machine.

I am using the server as my PDC, AD, DNS, WEB, and file server (i know, i know, a lot for one box). I have tried everything short of going back to W2K to see if the problem remains (it never happened under W2K before)...

When I lose connection, i can't even ping the box internally. I have tried four different NIC cards as well, so I don't think that is it.

Could an IRQ conflict be the coulprit? How would I know?

Any ideas?

My harware configuration is:

AMD Athlon 1.2
KR7A-133 MB (Stripped RAID)
1 GB of PC 2100 SDRAM (mushkin)
3Com NIC
Two 40GB 7200 Maxtor HD (on RAID)

Thanks in advance!

 

[ashleym]

Could be a bad cable, or a faulty port in your hub/switch.
Have you tried changing any of these things?

AM

 

[xcapes]

Thanks for the response. Yeah I've tried both thinking the same, but no luck.

Sometimes the connection stays on for 5 or 6 days and others it will go out in a matter of seconds after reboot...

I'm very close to reinstalling W2K to rule out HW failure...

 

[ashleym]

What do the event logs report? There is a repair feature in windows 2003 for the network connection have you tried that? Have you tried another network card? Are your drivers up to date for the nic? Have you tried forcing full or half duplex 10/100MB?

AM

 

[ChicagoTechNet]

check #2 and 3 of the quotation from

http://www.chicagotech.net/

disconnect issue

red x disconnection can be fix 1. net config server /autodisconnect:-1. 2. disable APM. To do this go to the control panel>system>hardware>device manger>NIC>advanced or power management. 3. Check the hardware settings such as NIC and hub/switch, for example, configure all of the computers' network cards for half duplex. Most Hubs don't support full duplex.


Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Windows, Network and How to at

http://www.ChicagoTech.net

 

[xcapes]

Had not tried setting to half duplex...

I will give these a try and see what happens... it may be several days... but if more than 6 days go by then we may have a winner.

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[jemerich]

I am having a very similar, if not the same, problem. Did you ever find a resolution to this issue?

 

[xcapes]

Well, the problem was fixed by doing two things but I am not sure that they were the culprits...

1) I reinstalled Windows 2003 Server but this time I did not use the Enterprise edition...

2) I only installed the roles I knew I needed. I think that the print and file server roles may have been somehow conflicting with the IIS, DNS, PDC, and AD roles.

When I reinstalled I installed the server roles one at a time staring with making the box a PDC with AD (which forces DNS install) and then added IIS...

I have been running smoothly ever since...