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Network Client-Server Disconnects

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7 replies

by friet001

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We have been having a problem with any and all client-server software
getting randomly disconnected serveral times a day. The only changes
that were made to the network from everything working fine to this
state were as follows:
1)Promoted current BDC to PDC (new server that had been fine as a BDC
for over a month w/o issues).
That is right...it's the only change that was made, but now
applications that rely heavily on a constant connection to our
server(s)--namely the PDC--are locking up and giving us "network or
disk errors" (these apps are Crystal Reports and MS Access mainly).
If anyone even has a clue as to what may be causing this, please post
to the board.
We run a 100Mb switched (Cisco 2900)ethernet network, both the servers are on the same switch (they were not previous to this problem), and all workstation/servers involved are running SP6.

7 replies

by tmaclennan

I have observed problems with my Cisco switches and Compaq servers/workstations when the server/workstation is using a 10/100 NIC and the switch has 10/100 ports and both are set to autonegotiate speed and duplex. Take a look at the switch ports to see whether the switch has autonegotiated to Half duplex, then look at the server NIC and you may see that the server (or PC) is running at full duplex. This situation is similar to what you get if one person is talking on the phone to another personwhio is using a speaker phone -- unless the person with the handset shuts up, they can't hear what is being said from the speaker phone. If you find this is the case, lock down the switch port to 100/full (usually you can do this on the fly). It would then be a good idea to lock down the server (or PC) NIC speed the next time you get a chance to reboot it.

by jason

Your PDC is more than likely being over utilized and then dropping connections.

by leonardd

I would agree with "tmaclennan". I had the same problem with an access database and it turned out to be the HP 10/100 hubs would get confused, the network would get flooded w/ retries, then access would crash! I was able to correct the problem by manually setting both the ws and the "hubs" ports to 100MB. I also had both servers on the same (switched hub)network. By moving one of the servers to another network the problem went away.

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