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I've got a windows 2003 server box that can't hit the internet....

1) ran the nic diagnostics - ok
2) ran the cable diagnostics - two shorted pairs - figured out it had to be in the wall plug, so bypassed that, diagnostics ok now - show clear
3) I can hit the local network fine (workgroup)
4) We have a firewall appliance from HQ which sits between us and the net is supposed to be a dhcp server - for some reason it is not handing out valid adresses. When you set the ip protocol for get automatically, it goes into a 192.168.1.x , but the active network is actually 10.1.10.x. When I manually configure the nic (on the 10.1.10.x) it hits the local network fine, but no internet.

This box has 4 nics installed, and I'm sitting with 3 disabled and one live.

As far as I can tell there is something funky with the way ip addresses on the web won't resolve - looked thru the online help and it talked about hosts files, but I looked at that and can't make any sense of it. When i was running the various diagnostics and trying stuff I did get some messages about having more than one network enabled and conflicts - I have all the nics set to the same ip, unused ones disabled, .........

I'm sure it's something simple, but I really don't know the ins and outs of this OS well enough.

btw. when I use the same ip, etc. as a working machine (this one) - same result.

TIA

what is your gateway?

+1 on the gateway. if your DHCP server is messed up, then most likely your gateway address is incorrect as well. do a full ipconfig /all and check it out.

not sure if this is what you mean but goes like this

computer>cisco firewall/router (10.1.10.1)>cable modem>comcast static IP

every other computer 20+ (1 winserv2003/rest xp) hits the internet fine so it has to be something with this machine. just not sure where to look at this point.

no issues getting on to the local workgroup and nic passes diagnostics, gotta be something with the IP addressing...I think. If i knew I wouldn't be asking ...

also I can't get into the firewall/router b/c I'm not allowed to have the password...lol...keeping the haxtors out of the server farm in charleston....of course they never bothered to lock down access from unknown IPs..

If you can browse the local area network but not the Internet then it definitely sounds like a Gateway or DNS issue.

QUESTIONS:

- Are you sure that your network is not running on a domain server with a proxy requiring you to log onto the server for web access (can you normally just connect any computer to a network jack with DHCP enabled and get on the Internet?).

- When you manually configured the IP on this box, did you enter the gateway address (same as the router IP which you seem certain is 10.1.10.1)?

- What did you set the DCHP server address(es) for when you configured the static IP? It's usually the address of the gateway (10.1.10.1) but as a test you can use the addresses for OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

- You really should not configure all the NICs with the same IP. Even if disable, Windows does not like to see multiple NICs with the same IP. Could cause issues. I would set any NICs you aren't using to automatically obtain an IP.

- Is this a new OS install? On some OEM installs the server is totally locked down (even more so than the default Microsoft install) until you run a configuration wizard.

- Can you ping yourself at 127.0.0.1? If not, you have an IP protocal issue, or corrupt IP stack, etc (basically an OS issue).

- Go to the DOS command prompt and type PING http://www.yahoo.com. Does it return four pings? If so, then TCP/IP is working properly and maybe it's a browser issue.

- Have you/can you try a different switch port? Even though you can browse the LAN you may still have a bad port on the switch.

- Are you aware that under Server 2003 IE is locked down by default? You should have been prompted the first time you opened IE to allow a partial unlock of IE (it will allow browsing but all scripting will be disabled). This will only allow IE to run in a very limited and safe mode on the server (which I would recommend - servers are not for casual browsing). You can restore full IE functionality by following instructions here but I don't recommend it because you'll be leaving a server wide open to ActiveX scripting attacks (instead I would recommend using Firefox if you have to do some basic browsing like for software updates): http://www.visualwin.com/IE-enhanced-security/

Hope this helps...

QUESTIONS:

- Are you sure that your network is not running on a domain server with a proxy requiring you to log onto the server for web access (can you normally just connect any computer to a network jack with DHCP enabled and get on the Internet?). >>yes

- When you manually configured the IP on this box, did you enter the gateway address (same as the router IP which you seem certain is 10.1.10.1)?>> yes, and that is the gateway used by the other computers that are hitting the net

- What did you set the DCHP server address(es) for when you configured the static IP? It's usually the address of the gateway (10.1.10.1) but as a test you can use the addresses for OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

>>I tried both the gateway and the opendns....no go

- You really should not configure all the NICs with the same IP. Even if disable, Windows does not like to see multiple NICs with the same IP. Could cause issues. I would set any NICs you aren't using to automatically obtain an IP. ok, fixed that

>>ok, i will change that, i was just at the point of trying stuff

- Is this a new OS install? On some OEM installs the server is totally locked down (even more so than the default Microsoft install) until you run a configuration wizard.

>>no, it's a dell server that has been humming along smoothly for the last 9 months with no issues - I noticed the problem because AVG wasn't updating and I couldn't get to the AVG site to download the update

- Can you ping yourself at 127.0.0.1? If not, you have an IP protocal issue, or corrupt IP stack, etc (basically an OS issue).

>>will try that can ping myself, open dns servers, pcabusers

- Go to the DOS command prompt and type PING http://www.yahoo.com. Does it return four pings? If so, then TCP/IP is working properly and maybe it's a browser issue.

>>will try that I only get three pings

- Have you/can you try a different switch port? Even though you can browse the LAN you may still have a bad port on the switch.

>>changed ports

- Are you aware that under Server 2003 IE is locked down by default? You should have been prompted the first time you opened IE to allow a partial unlock of IE (it will allow browsing but all scripting will be disabled). This will only allow IE to run in a very limited and safe mode on the server (which I would recommend - servers are not for casual browsing). You can restore full IE functionality by following instructions here but I don't recommend it because you'll be leaving a server wide open to ActiveX scripting attacks (instead I would recommend using Firefox if you have to do some basic browsing like for software updates): http://www.visualwin.com/IE-enhanced-security/

>>>I had it set up so that AVG, etc. were trusted sites on IE. In trying to figure this out I downloaded Firefox on another machine then installed it on this one. Same problem


Thanks for all the help everyone ! The more it gets narrowed down the sooner it gets fixed.

the only thing I didn't try so far was start>run>bill gates is my $%$$^


I AM STARTING TO THINK THAT THIS SERVER IS UNBALANCED AND REQUIRES APPROX. 160 GRAINS @ 3000 FPS TO CORRECT PROBLEM

Updated

Okay, since this rig used to work fine, and you can ping web sites my suspicion would be you have a corrupt TCP/IP stack. A virus that intercepts the stack and is removed without repairing the registry is usually the cause.

You can test this if you have a Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4W) handy, or a copy of Ubuntu Linux. You should be able to boot either OS from the CD and have internet access. If so then you know it's not a hardware issue, it's an OS issue.

Go here: (Windows XP instructions would apply to Server 2003): http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/811259

Might be easier to do a clean OS install though. This is why I image the boot drive on all my client's servers every 4 months as part of their preventative maintenance plan.