Question
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Topic
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Windows XP Internetworking problems
LockedHi guys,
I have a very peculiar but interesting problem with two of my workstations in a 45 NIC LAN. I tried to find a resolution for this problem but, nothing helped. I really hope to find an answer here.
The configuration:
– 39 workstations, all MS Windows XP Pro SP3
– 6 servers – mixed: MS SBS 2003 R2, MS 2003 SRV R2, Linux (Debian and RedHat)
– 2 unmanaged 3COM switches with 24 ports each
– 1 Internet connection used for Internet access and one VPN tunnel with a second branch for data transfer and replication
– The Internet connection is ADSL using a CISCO router 8xx series and a SecureComputing SG-560 firewall
– All the workstations receive dynamic (reserved) IP configuration from the DHCP configured on the MS SBS server; the IPs are in a non-routable classThe problem:
Two workstations lose the Internet connection but not the gateway, while the LAN data transfer works excellent. As symptom, pinging a NIC on LAN – the gateway, returns <1 MS response time without interruptions; pinging a host on the Internet (www.google.com) works fine but, after a random time, it fails for some minutes returning "Time Out" (not Destination Host Unreachable"); than it restarts returning good response times, by itself. I need to emphasize that the gateway is present in the configuration (ipconfig) all the time.
The problem is really annoying since it disrupts the Internet access for these workstations.What I tried:
- connected the workstations directly to the SG-560 firewall on its own 4-port switch
- changed the IPs
- reinstalled the NIC's driver
- replaced the NIC using a new IP; the NIC was a different brand so it used another driver
- reset TCP/IP stack (using netsh command)
- reset WIN stack (using netsh command)
- cleared the ARP cache
- power cycled all the networking equipmentsSo far, nothing helped.
NOTE: the workstations don't differ in any way by the other workstations in the LAN, as configuration and updates. All the workstations are IBM or HP. the workstations with problems are: one IBM, the other HP.
Should any of you have any ideas, please let me know. I really appreciate any help since I reached the bottom of the sack.
Thank you very much.