PCA Forums

Work lan is getting weird again and not sure what's up - any ideas highly welcomed

diagram is this

1. Comcast business class modem/router
2. hooked up to two dumb switches
3 with two files servers running Win2003
4. with two network printers
5. with about 30 pcs predominantly Win7 but a couple of XP boxes
6. network is set to "workgroup" on all machines.

When this system is happy everybody is in "workgroup" and there are no issues.
The problem now is that some machines are in "workgroup" ok, and others are not. Seems to vary for no reason.

This happened about a year ago and I replaced the oldest switch and everything was fine.

I've tried rebooting everything, etc.

The switches we are using under $200 linksys by cisco ones. The older one is probably 5-6 years old. Replace the switch? Can't think of anything else.

TIA

what is running your DHCP server...the router? i'd make sure there are no IP conflicts. after that, the switches would be suspect. can you remove one switch at a time to see if it eliminates the issue (if you have enough port density on one to handle all?)

router - no ip conflicts (that I know of anyway) all manually assigned- switches are only 24 ports...

I could check all the pc's to see if somehow they are on a different set of ip's - but there's no reason that would happen .

When I started taking care of this stuff about 9 years ago, we had 9 computers...lol. I'm gonna be really glad when it is no longer my problem...in 26 days.

Ran into a similar problem recently. My fix may solve yours. Edit the HOSTS file on all the Win7 systems to include the NETBIOS name and IP address of every PC that's sharing files or printers (needless to say, they must all have manually configured static IPs).

Actually, I now go as far as to edit the HOSTS file on ALL the PCs on the network just to avoid problems. Windows always looks at the HOSTS file first when trying to resolve a NETBIOS name on the network. If it finds the name in the HOSTS file it doesn't waste time broadcasting a request for the IP from the network.

Apparently Win7 and XP/2003 don't always communicate NETBIOS name resolution properly between each other (we used to have similar problems between Win98 and WinXP so this is really an old skool fix).

I just write one HOSTS file and put it on all the PCs on the network.

Solved some major lag I was seeing on one client's network with SQL queries that would take from 5 - 20 seconds. The program would just freeze for 20 seconds waiting for a response from the SQL server. This only happened on some of the Win7 PCs that were performing queries to XP or Server 2003 PCs running SQL Server.


Hope this helps...

FP that sounds reasonable - is the NETBIOS name the name given to the computer when you set it up, i.e JohnA ?? Needless to say I would prefer not to have to go around to all the computers for that information.....

yes, it's the computer name you assign...same spot as the workgroup/domain setting. if you know all the IPs, you can just whack to each pc from any of them on the same network:

start | run ...then enter \\pcname_or_IP\c$\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

The network path trick that b-man posted SHOULD work (you'll need the credentials for that PC). If not, you just go physically to the PC and drop a copy of your modifies HOSTS file in the following folder:

c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\

You can make one HOSTS file and use it on all the PCs.

For example:

this is a perfect example of when a domain controller should be added...30+ workstations is at the limit for sneaker-net management and updates.

b-man - you're absolutely right - when this system was set up to years ago, that's the way it was set up. After some equipment failures, and the total inability to find anyone reliable to work on it, I took it on with about about 15 stations just using the big box as a file server. I tried to set it up using our win2k03 server, but it seemed like every time I did something, I screwed up permissions and finally threw in the towel, and kept it as simple as possible.
I've been running this system and a smaller one at another office as a "sneaker-net" for what seems like an eternity. We have never had any $$ to hire anyone, and in fact have barely avoided layoffs for the last 5 years. Nobody's had a raise in 5 years. Last year we were able to replace almost all our desktops after about 7 years. I had been replacing parts like Dr. Frankenstein

I have absolutely no idea what they are going to do when I head out the door for good in about 3 weeks (the same day as my boss who is the only other one with any real skills). I'm just trying to leave it functional on my way out. Our board of directors hasn't even begun interviewing for the boss job which opens up in 3 weeks which is completely ridiculous since our two offices make us the biggest law office in this part of WV.

edit: All that said, I think Newegg will get an order today and hopefully that will fix it for a while

lol That's crazy John.. btw, what part of WV? I might be available! lol j/j I'm sure the commute for me would be balls.. Unless it's Charlestown haha

I was going to suggest and AD to manage this. Much beyond 15 stations and you need to start doing as FP suggested with the hosts file. Simply takes too long for everything to talk to each other.

If you weren't leaving in 3 weeks I would offer to help you get it set up properly. Maybe just try the hosts file for now, though.

slapped in a new switch and everything is ok for now. Appalachian engineering at its finest! We have 3/4 AC units down and it is approaching 90 in the office, so I'm about done for the day! I'm out of the office for a few days so maybe they will get it fixed by the time I come back. Our landlords give new dimension to the work "cheap."

Office is in Martinsburg in the Eastern Panhandle....


thanks everybody!