Router/Internet Ping Loss

[CVC]

I am stumped once again...

Have a 2003 server that is a domain controller, DNS, and DHCP server. We have a wireless based internet with a static IP that comes into a wireless router that is used to share internet wirelessly, but has the routing functions turned off. This goes to a gigabit switch, which is attached to the server.

The server has a static IP with the following:
192.168.1.100
255.255.255.000
192.168.1.1

192.168.1.1

The DHCP server has 192.168.1.1 set to be the gateway and 192.168.1.100 set to be the DNS.

Everything was working fine for about two months.

Now we are getting really odd errors that I can't trace. We started losing internet for about 5-10min or so, and then would get it back for a little bit, then lose it again. We tried resetting everything. This would seem to fix it for about 5-10 min, but then it would go bad again. Then replaced the wireless router, however this did nothing.

I then noticed that when we were losing internet we were also unable to ping the router. We replaced the cable, changed the port on the gigabit switch. We are able to ping the server and all other network computers when we can't ping the router.

Ended up replacing the router and changing its IP address to 192.168.1.99 and changing all the server information to match. This worked for about 48 hrs. However, we are beginning to have the problem intermittently again. This time it is only happening every 15 min or so and only lasts about 30 seconds. We are unable to ping the .99 router, which has our internet coming into it. I did keep the .1 router plugged in just for testing purposes, and when we lose internet now, we are still able to ping the .1 router.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Snurfen]

Have a look in the logs on the server, sounds like you may be having clashing IP's somewhere.

May sound like an odd question, but are all your gateways etc listed in the reserved range of the DHCP?

[CVC]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, some kind of IP issue.

Hm...no, I don't have the gateway listed in the reserved range. I have its IP excluded from being used to avoid conflict. I also have its ip listed in the Scope Options as a router.

I am not an expert at this, so maybe I am missing something basic?

[Snurfen]

IT's going to be something silly, and when you see it, your going to go "oops" - but isn't that always the way!

Can you cut and paste the results of a "Show IPCONFIG/ALL" from the server, and also, what IP address is the wireless device set as (and is THAT set to static IP address)?

[CVC]

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ****-server
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : ****.local
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : ****l.local

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-7D-93-C0-37
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

Yes, I have tried two routers and both of them have static addresses...one is 192.168.1.1 and the other is 192.168.1.99.


Here is a little update. As stated in the post above we switched to using a different router at .99 and this worked a little better, but still gave errors. However, it got progressively worse until we were unable to ping about 90% of the time. I then just swapped the 192.168.1.1 and now it is working steady with no packet loss. I assume it will do the same thing and start dropping every once in a while, and then get progressively worse until we almost have no internet.

[Snurfen]

Hmmm, bit of a head scratcher this one! Are all the clients set to Static IP's as well?

It's the "gets progressively worse" bit thats got me baffled.

Not knowing the physical layout of your offices (like there could be someone on an adjacent floor using wireless) I would ensure the wireless device is set to automatically choose it's channel, just in case you are getting bleed over from someone else's kit.