WIN2000 server internet problem

[jamespeters01]

I have a bizzare problem.

We have a WIN2000 server with both WIN2000 and WIN98 clients linked. There is no problem whatso ever with the clients connecting to the shared directory's and folders, but connecting the WIN98 clients to the internet is a different story.

Once a client has logged on, their folders are available straight away, but they do not have any internet activity (browsing or e-mail), but as soon as they just re-start their PC and log on again, the internet activities then become available ! Its as though the PC needs a kick-start !
I'm at a loss as to why the computers need to be re-started to connect to the net.
The DHCP leases are set to expire after 8hrs.


Any help would be grateful


Thanks

james

 

[brontosaurus]

prior to the "kick start", are these clients getting the proper DNS server addresses? Can you ping any websites by name and get some kind of reply or even a time-out (aside from Unknown Host)? If you put in the IP address of a website in your browser instead of the URL, does the site come up?

 

[jamespeters01]

Yep, they are getting proper DNS server address. Can't ping any website by IP address........until it is re-booted !

The messages I get are the basic finding site :

http://www.msn.com

which is there for an age at the bottom of the screen, then the usual error page "Page can not be displayed".


Any thoughts ??

 

[brontosaurus]

wait, you can't ping any websites by IP address either? are these clients able to ping the gateway prior to a reboot? If so, can you run a traceroute to see where the failure occurs?

 

[jamespeters01]

Can ping the gateway, if by that you mean the server IP ?

 

[brontosaurus]

only if the server is the gateway to the internet...? do you have any routers or firewalls? did you try that traceroute?

 

[jamespeters01]

Can ping the server, but not our ADSL router.
Havn't run a traceroute. To be honest, am not sure how !

 

[brontosaurus]

I would assume that the ADSL router is the gateway then? You can confirm this by going to one of the working 2K clients, doing an IPCONFIG /ALL from a command prompt and checking the default gateway address. Then go to one of the affected 98 machines, do a WINIPCFG, and check for the default gateway setting there. As for the traceroute, don't worry about it for now, since we know the failure is at the router....

 

[jamespeters01]

Hi again,

I ran the IPconfig/all on a WIN2K client and WINIPFG from a WIN98 client and both gateways were identical....(our server's IP). The WIN2k client logged onto the internet straight away, but the WIN98 client had to be re-started !

 

[brontosaurus]

OK, so the server is acting as your LAN gateway, and I will assume it's multi-homed, and the second LAN card is connected to the router? You said the 98 clients can ping the server, but not the router, so the problem likely lies in the routing of packets from the 98 boxes through the server to the router...assuming the above config I guessed at is correct?

 

[jamespeters01]

The config you described is correct.

 

[brontosaurus]

Hmm...what would make them different...
Just curious, if you assign one of these 98 boxes a static IP with hard-coded DNS, WINS, Gateway settings, does the problem persist?

 

[jamespeters01]

On a WIN98 client that again had probs connecting to the net 1st time, I assigned it one of the static IP's given by our ADSL provider, along with the DNS, WINS and gateway settings and this avoided having to re-boot every morning, but I havn't tried a static IP from our own IP set. Kinda defeats the object of having DHCP installed if I have to go round and individually set a static IP up for all WIN98 clients....although it prob. would work

 

[brontosaurus]

what IP's would you be using if not provided by the router? Are you using non-routable IP's in your DHCP scope from the server? Is the server the only object dishing out DHCP addresses? Does the server have just RRAS installed for IP routing, or does it also have ICS installed?

 

[jamespeters01]

IP's provided by the ADSL provider, not by the router, for use with multiple servers/mail servers etc. The router only has one IP.

Our network uses the standard 192.168.0.* set of addresses. It has ICS installed

 

[brontosaurus]

OK. So the ADSL router is not doing DHCP, just the server via ICS, correct? I would assume your 98 clients get assigned something like this:

IP Address = 192.168.0.X
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = (server's internal NIC address)
DNS = (Your ISP's DNS server)
WINS = nothing

On the IP properties of the server's internal NIC , is there a gateway setting?

 

[jamespeters01]

100% correct.
I have 2 internal NIC's in my server. The NIC linked to our network does not have a default gateway set, the NIC going to the router has its default gateway set as the router's IP

 

[noeleon]

Have tried ICS and worked fine:

Client

IP:192.168.0.XXX
SUBNET:255.255.255.0
DG:SERVER INTERNAL IP
DNS:SERVER INTERNAL IP

 

[brontosaurus]

Let's investigate the lease expiration thing....is it possible that this connectivity issue is occuring first thing in the morning, then the user reboots, and they're good for the remainder of the work day? Maybe the 98 boxes are not renewing their leases after 8 hours?

 

[GlenJohnson]

I've heard of this bronto. A company in texas had there server getting turned off at night, and they would lose there routing table overnight. The server would be re-booted before people came in, and the routing table would slowly re-built itself till they were able to get on the internet. I'd be interested to have them try an ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew instead of re-booting the machines. (I've got a machine that's acting goofy on my home network, so I created a batch file that does this. If I can't get on the internet, I hit the batch file, and I'm on in seconds. Cheesy, but it works.) Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"What really happens is trivial in comparison to what could occur."
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