Server drops Internet Connection...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Smither
  • Start date Start date
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Brian Smither

....or something. What would be the best way to chase this down?

Earthlink sent a client of mine a UHP E200ER "brouter" for a new DSL
install. I've got it connected to a NIC in Win2k Server that receives an IP
from the brouter. The brouter couples with the NIC's MAC address to limit
one connection to the DSL service at a time. (That is, the control pages
served by the brouter says that it has to unconnect the current computer on
the LAN in order for another computer on the LAN to access the DSL
account.)

However, a second NIC in the Win2K Server serves the other computers in the
LAN. All other computers receive their IP connection from the DHCP server
in the Win2K server. Everything works real happy. Until...

Everyone loses Internet access. That could mean that the DSL signal was
lost (sync loss, PPPoE connection lost, idle-timeout expired, etc), the
brouter's lease to the Server expired (I think it's set up for a week), the
Server's lease of IPs to the clients expired (I think it's set up for 24
hours), or something else.

I've been able to bring back the connection by repeatedly accessing the
brouter's setup page from the server and forcing a drop/reconnect to the
DSL connection after a power-cycle. But today, my client said she power-
cycled the brouter several times with no resumption of DSL access.

As I asked, is there an effective way to troubleshoot loss of DSL?

I plan to install a "keep-alive" ticker on the server. If, in this
environment, the Server is in a "logged-off" state, I assume this "Internet
Connection Sharing" (although the person who initially set this up didn't
say whether he used the ICS Wizard or did something else) survives as a
service?

I'm leaning towards some sort of timeout, although one of the client
machines accesses e-mail accounts every 10 minutes.

If I go back to the prior Internet access method - Netopia ISDN router -
everything works great for days.

Brian Smither
 
Check the bindingorder of your nics on the server in Network Connections,
Advanced, advanced. Make sure your internal nic is on top.
On the properties of your internal nic there should be a blanc gateway. DNS
on both internal and external nic should point to your server-IP. On your
external nic make sure that only TCP/IP is bound.
In the DNS-server you put the ISP-DNS-numbers in the tab Forwarders.
Are you using RRAS as well? In that case, make sure you've done the regedits
in 292822.

Marina
 
What the hell happened between Friday and Monday?

Everything was working great Fiday afternoon. Office workstations could
access the Internet and send and retrieve e-mail via a Win2K Server machine
(HP-PAVILION). The Server machine is connected to a "brouter" supplied by
Earthlink. The brouter connects to a PPPoE DSL service.

Earthlink gives the brouter an IP address and Earthlink DNS server numbers.
The brouter gives a private IP address to the HP-PAVILION within it's
subnet (172.16.1.x). The HP-PAVILION gives LAN addresses to all office
machines as well as gateway and DNS numbers via DHCP.

I come back Monday morning and nothing! The setup does not work. I'm going
to blame it on the HP-PAVILION because of the following successful
experiment.

I connected the brouter directly to one of the office workstations. It
worked fine. I connected it back to the server, nothing.

I am able to connect to the brouter's Web-based config page and the brouter
does get a public IP address. Not even the HP-PAVILION server can access
the Internet.

So what the hell happened between Friday and Monday?

I wrote about this problem earlier and Marina Roos sent back a terse set of
settings to check. I followed the below instructions as best I could
figure:

I right-clicked My Network Places and selected Properties. In the Network
and Dial-up Connections window, on the Menu bar, I selected Advanced, then
on the drop-down menu I selected Advanced Settings...

On the Adapters and Bindings tab, Connections area, I made sure that the
connection named "Internal LAN" is at the top of the list, followed by the
connection named "To the Internet", and last is "(Remote Access
Connections)".

On that same Adapters and Bindings tab, I highlighted the "To the Internet"
connection. I made sure that Bindings for "To the Internet" has File and
Print Sharing unchecked and only TCP/IP checked under Client for MS
Networks.

Still in the Network and Dial-up Connections window, I right-clicked the
connection labeled "Internal LAN" and selected Properties. On the "Internal
LAN" Properties page, I highlighted Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and clicked
the Properties button. I made sure there was no Default gateway address
specified.

I clicked the Advanced button on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties)
page. On the Advanced TCP/IP Settings page, DNS tab, I made sure that only
the IP address of the "Internal LAN" connection is listed. I clicked OK,
the OK, then Close.

I did the same for the connection labeled "To the Internet". (I selected
"Obtain an IP address automatically" since the E200ER Brouter will give the
server a 172.16.1.x IP address and a 172.16.0.254 Default gateway address.)

Starting the DNS Administration applet, I highlighted the Server's machine
name and selected Properties. On the Forwarder's tab, I added the two DNS
numbers provided by my ISP. I clicked OK.


 
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