Networks·41,424 discussions

Windows 2003 internet stops working with second network adapter enabled

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I have a home network running windows 2003 as the server, it has 2 Network adapters one to connect to the internet and another for the internal network, I use Internet connection sharing.

Everything works ok most of the time but occasionally the internet on the server (windows 2003) will stop working, I’ve discovered it starts working again as soon as I disable the network adapter for the internal network, this happened a few times and I would just reboot and everything would work again but now it’s happened again and seems permanent.

It looks like the server is trying to use the internet through the wrong adapter, but why would it get confused? ICS is enabled on the other adapter connected to the modem.
Why would this happen randomly?

Thanks heaps!

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Clarifications

In reply to Windows 2003 internet stops working with second network adapter enabled

Clarifications

Same here

In reply to Windows 2003 internet stops working with second network adapter enabled

Please let me know if you find a solution. 3 of our 2k3 machines all have the same problem.

Personally

In reply to Windows 2003 internet stops working with second network adapter enabled

I’ve always found ICS to be crappy and unreliable. The best choice might be to install the Routing/remote access component on your server which gives you far greater control. Alternatly since your network is so simple you can use the Windows route command to make sure any packets destiend for your local network route to the internal adapter and all other packets go out the external.

Routing

In reply to Personally

Thanks Kjell, I had toyed with the idea of configuring the routing manually, but really don’t know where to start. I’ve just got a 192/255 network internally and an 206/240 external. Which routes would I have to add?

Well

In reply to Routing

You can check Some Microsoft guides to setting up the RRAS service on Server 2003, they’re pretty straight-forward, and I’ll be happy to help if you run into specific problems.

One question I have though is why you want the computers on your home network connect through the server instead of a router? It’s certainly possible to do it this way, but using a simple home-router is usually faster, and far easier to set up.

Basicly you set up

In reply to Routing

a default route sending all unknow traffic out your wan interface. Lan traffic should stay on your switch. Incomming rules are all up to you, though NAt will need to be configured on the WAn interface in the outgoing direction. Start with the default outgoing traffic, make sure lan traffic works, add nat. you should have internet now, then add in any static maps to allow incoming access if you want.

ICS on Windows 2003 server

In reply to Windows 2003 internet stops working with second network adapter enabled

Hi, Why don’t you use wingate for internet sharing. It should solve your problem. Whenever ICS is enabled, it automatically changes its ip address and it creates these kind of issues. Even I had the same problem and later installed the wingate for internet sharing.It was working fine for me without any issues. Thanks, Krish

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