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not able to connect to server

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We are running server NT4 sp6 and we have a program that runs from the server. The problem is that at different times/days/weeks some of the workstations cannot connect to the server for this program. If you do a find for the server it does not find it but you can ping it from the command prompt and get a response. This does not always affect all users and does not seem to follow any pattern as far as time. If we reboot the server the problem usually goes away and everyone can connect again until the next time it happens. If the computer is already connected and has the program open they are able to stay connected but the computers around them can not connect during this time if they are not already connected to the program. The workstations can still access other servers, printers and internet. The workstations are running Windows XP and Windows 98se. This is happening on two different servers in different buildings. We have 6 servers running this program and only 2 of the servers have this problem. I can not find anything different between the servers or program. All of The servers are even identical down to the hardware. The program is installed independently on all servers so they do not connect to each other to run this program. I ran netstat and everything looks ok and I don’t see anything in the event logs. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated before I go totally gray over this.

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Is this an off-the-shelf package or a program developed inhouse?

Does this program have any licensing restrictions, depending on the number of connections?

Does the program use any sort of database locking? Have you checked its memory usage and CPU usage? Are other applications affected when the problem occurs?

Is the program dependent on any services running on the server or other servers?

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Poster rated this answer. Please see my comment. It isn’t eating up memory or CPU. The computers that were connected when the problem happens are still able to use the application but they can no longer access any other shares on the server and the affected PCs can not access any share on the server. Thank you for responding.

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The software is Follett which runs Faircom Server. It is Library software. It has been running on 6 servers for over 5 years without a problem. Also, when this problem happens the workstations can not connect to any shares on the server not just the program and 4 of the servers do not have the problem so I have pretty much ruled out the software.

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The problem may be triggered by some network anomaly like occasional transmission errors caused by electrical interference from inhouse power cabling, e.g. caused by faulty airconditioners.

Does Faircom server have a maintenance tool available on Windows NT you could use to check which users are connected to Faircom, rather than just using the NT Server Manager to check which users have files open in the Follett or Faircom data directories?

Looking at a software release document from http://www.faircom.com/support/ctreeDocs/pdf/prevdoc/UPD611w.pdf, Faircom seems to have had a problem in the past with dropped connections – see “2.4 Faircom Server Detects Dropped Clients”.

Are you using the latest version of the Faircom server for NT? The provider of your Library application may have some knowledge of possible problems encountered by their other clients in the Windows NT environment.

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Poster rated this answer. We don’t have a problem with dropped clinets, once they are connected they stay connected. When we have this problem if the client closes the program on the workstation they can not reconnect and there is no way to tell when it might happen as it has gone as long as 3 weeks without happening and then other times it may happen several times a day. Also, during this time the workstations can not connect to the server for anything not just the program. Since they can still connect to other servers on the network and to the internet during this time. My belief is that if it was the program they would still be able to connect to shared folders that have nothing to do with the program but they can’t. The workstations and the server can ping each other and get a response but if you do a search for the server it can not be found. If you are connected to the program when this happens you will stay connected and be able to use it but you will not be able to access anything that you are not already connected to.

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Hi
Please give error details in the Event Viewer in the concerned servers when the problem occurs. Then only the problem can be diagnozed.
I think the problem is the incompatibility of Windows NT 4 Server with Windows 2000/XP Profesional Clients in one network after Microsoft stopped giving patches for Windows NT.
See the following URLs for more info:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11189-0.html?forumID=3&threadID=169229&start=0
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11186-0.html?forumID=34&threadID=169273&start=0
I Think you should upgrade your server to Windows 2000/2003
Thanks

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Poster rated this answer.

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Hi
Please give error details in the Event Viewer in the concerned servers when the problem occurs. Then only the problem can be diagnozed.
I think the problem is the incompatibility of Windows NT 4 Server with Windows 2000/XP Profesional Clients in one network after Microsoft stopped giving patches for Windows NT.
See the following URLs for more info:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11189-0.html?forumID=3&threadID=169229&start=0
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11186-0.html?forumID=34&threadID=169273&start=0
I Think you should upgrade your server to Windows 2000/2003
Thanks

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Poster rated this answer. The workstations for one of the servers having this problem are running Windows 98se and have been for several years without any problems. There are no errors in the event viewer on either of the servers.

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It sounds as if you are suffering a memory leakage from the affected servers. If these are constantly running they a set shuts down and reboot would be a good idea as now MS is no longer supplying any patches for NT you have no need to regularly shut them down and reboot so any memory leakage will be exacerbated.
If you use the system tools you can schedule a shutdown & reboot while no one is in the office and hopefully this will cure your problem.

From your description it appears as if some units are unable to connect to the affected servers at all when this happens is this right?

NT will work quite happily with both Y2k and XP although both have to be running in Mixed Mode and not native Mode and if the application hasn’t been rewritten for newer versions of Windows you’ll be like me stuck with NT for a very long time to come so you’ll need to have a regular shutdown & reboot sequence running to prevent the problems that come with NT if it is left constantly running.

If the application has been rewritten for the newer versions of Windows it about time you start thinking about Budgeting for an upgrade of both Hardware & Software in the near future but then again that also all depends on your current tax cycle and where you are in it.

I have a specialised application that only runs on NT4 and nothing newer and because it is a small client base world wide it isn’t going to be rewritten for newer versions of Windows so currently the companies why use it are stuck with NT but I’ve found porting it to Linux works better and doesn’t come with the NT problems. It might be worthwhile as a project to test a Linux installation along side the NT installations and see which works better for your needs.

Col

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Poster rated this answer.Unfortunately, upgrading to a new OS is not possible – hopefully next summer. Shutting down and rebooting does not always take care of the problem and there always seems to be enough available memory. When this problem occurs the workstations can’t access any folder on the server not just the program. During this time the workstations can ping and get a response from the server but if you right click on My Network Places and do a search for the server it can not be found. The same thing happens if you do the search on the server for the workstation but yet the server can ping and get a response from the workstation.

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Looks like you have a licensing issue. Maybe, sometimes you have more clients than the licenses installed on server.

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Poster rated this answer. First thing I checked and I have more than enough licenses to cover all workstations and then some.

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I had a similar problem with 98. I ended up creating a batch file to stop the WINs service, delete the wins database and restart it again. Thus forcing the WINS database to recreate. It solved the problem for me.

Hope this helps

Rob

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Poster rated this answer. The WINS server is run on another server and none of our other servers are having a problem. Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying?

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Have you also checked the available Swap File capacities?

While you might have what appears more than enough Physical & Virtual RAM NT still has major memory leaks that means that either or both Physical or Virtual RAM can &B Does run low to such an extent that some programs can not open.

What you also have to remember is that every workstation that uses the program on the NT4 Server uses some of that Servers RAM which may not be freeded up when those workstations log off.

Col

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Poster rated this answer.I see what you are saying and I checked the swap files. But wouldn’t rebooting the server take care of the memory leak and then be able to go awhile before it happens again? We have had the problem recur sometimes within an hour of rebooting and sometimes they have gone for several weeks before it happens again. The one server usually has no more than 40 workstations connected at a time and has over 100 licenses. The other server is in a small library and it is unusual for it to have 10 workstations connected at the same time. Also, if the memory was that low I shouldn’t be able to run any programs on the server locally should I? Also, shouldn’t there be something in the event logs?

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Disable “License Logging Service” on all servers for a period of time and see if you’ll have the same issue.

There is no problem to work with this service disabled (just be sure that you purchased all necessary licenses for your environment)

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You said that you have all necessary licenses for clients but sometimes one connected client requires/logs more than one license per client (for “per seat” license mode). For this issue you can make groups of licenses where you can add a group of users/computers. In this manner you will control better the licenses/users.

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Poster rated this answer.Thank you for responding. Sorry about the delay getting back to you but with the holiday it was a long weekend. I disabled the license logging service and rebooted for good measure but unfortunately the problem occurred again less than 4 hours after doing this.

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When you say you can ping the server and get a response, are you pinging by IP or by Computer Name (netbios)?? If you are pinging by IP and getting a response that’s fine, you can ping any computer in the world if you know the IP. The problem sounds like a WINS server problem. Like it or not, WINS on an NT4 box is flakey at best. Try adding the servers name and IP address to the affected clients “hosts” file for a period of time as a sort of test. I would try this approach to narrow the problem down, and at least eliminate another (not that you haven’t been diligent) variable.

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Poster rated this answer. Thank you for responding. I am able to ping by name or IP and get a response. I am down to the point of just mapping the workstations to the server so they connect when they log on in the morning since when this happens the workstations that are already connected are able to stay connected. It is just computers that aren’t connected that can not connect or find the server but yet they can ping the server by name or IP and get a response and the server can do the same. The boss isn’t crazy about having open connections that aren’t being used but I really don’t know what else to do. It just seems odd that it only affects two servers each in a different building. Can’t figure out why the rest don’t have the problem. But even when the problem occurs they can still connect to any other server. This holds true for the servers themselves also.

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You said:
“When this problem occurs the workstations can’t access any folder on the server… if you right click on My Network Places and do a search for the server it can not be found. The same thing happens … on the server…”

Something disappearing from My Network Places indicates a browsing issue (and therefore usually a WINS issue in NT), but just because something is gone from My Network Places doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible via the network.

When this issue occurs, on the affected client machine try clicking Start -> Run, then enter \\servername and press OK. Are the shares visible? Try it again using \\serveripaddress. Again, can you see the server shares?

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Poster rated this answer. I got a connection failed message using IP and using Name. I then ran netstat on the server and there are several Mac OS 10.4 computers that are showing up and actually run for several or more windows before netstat goes to the next nbsession IP if that tells you anything. THank you for taking the time to respond.

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Ok… shot in the dark, but maybe it is an IP conflict or routing issue. Have you tried a tracert to the affected servers from the affected client? Could you try doing an “nbtstat -a ” from one of the clients? It should report the MAC address of the server at the very bottom of the report. Does this change (or even work) while the issue is ongoing?

The next thing I would try would be to install Network Monitor (Windows component) on the server and capture some network traffic to see if that gave any more hints.

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Poster rated this answer.I tried tracert and nbtstat -a and both worked both when there was a problem and was there wasn’t. I have now downloaded and installed ethereal and ran it while there wasn’t a problem and I am now waiting for it to happen again so I can run ethereal when they are having connection problems.

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Poster rated this answer.I tried tracert and nbtstat -a and both worked both when there was a problem and was there wasn’t. I have now downloaded and installed ethereal and ran it while there wasn’t a problem and I am now waiting for it to happen again so I can run ethereal when they are having connection problems.

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How do you give out the IP addresses to each workstation? Do clients use DHCP or are they all manually configured?If so, which location has the server running DHCP and are there enough addresses in the pool for each workstation in each location?

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Poster rated this answer.The server is using a static IP and the workstations are using DHCP. There are enough addesses in the pool and the workstations and server are able to connect to the internet and also other servers even when they can not connect to each other.

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Poster rated this answer.The server is using a static IP and the workstations are using DHCP. There are enough addesses in the pool and the workstations and server are able to connect to the internet and also other servers even when they can not connect to each other.

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How do you give out the IP addresses to each workstation? Do clients use DHCP or are they all manually configured?If so, which location has the server running DHCP and are there enough addresses in the pool for each workstation in each location?

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Poster rated this answer.

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Poster rated this answer.

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How do you give out the IP addresses to each workstation? Do clients use DHCP or are they all manually configured?If so, which location has the server running DHCP and are there enough addresses in the pool for each workstation in each location?

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Poster rated this answer.

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Poster rated this answer.

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After so many days I still say the problem is as I metioned in my previous answer. I am facing the same problem in our organization. Please study the links I posted in my previous answer.

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Poster rated this answer. There are no errors or messages relating to connections in the event viewer on either the server or the workstations. We also have Win98 workstations that have this problem with another server. We are running other NT4 servers that these same workstations Win98 and XP can connect to at all times even when they can not connect to the server that has their program on it.

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Poster rated this answer. There are no errors or messages relating to connections in the event viewer on either the server or the workstations. We also have Win98 workstations that have this problem with another server. We are running other NT4 servers that these same workstations Win98 and XP can connect to at all times even when they can not connect to the server that has their program on it.

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In my experience with 98 on a network using DHCP. 98 often loses the plot. I have had it allow you to logon but Outlook wont connect. runing “winipcfg” will show that it hasent picked up an IP Address. It is easier to reset the WINS database than to have users run “winipcfg” then release and renew.

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Poster rated this answer.These are both 98 and XP. They are getting IPs from DHCP and are able to connect to other network resources and the internet.

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