SBS 2003 Losing Network Connection

Clarifications

#1). I would make sure any anti-virus/anti-malware software - and software firewalls are all disabled on client PC's and the server for a time. Your router should provide protection from the outside world if that is the only point of entry into the LAN.

#2). The next step is to monitor the server closely when a client PC starts up the app to see exactly what happens. Don't resort to rebooting unless you have to. You may have to perform these tests after business hours for the sake of the users, but you need time to examine the server while this condition exists so you can find out why it's not communicating.

#3). When it happens, Is the NIC disabled? Can you ping the router? What do you get if you type IPCONFIG /ALL ? Has a service stopped running? Check the event logs for clues. Work backwards from the NIC until you find out why you can't reach the router.

#4). Be patient and remember that you're not trying to fix a problem - you can do that by rebooting the server at any time. You're trying to discover what is causing it to happen. Focus on that and the solution will present itself shortly after.

Seems to be your saviour, give them a call!!!

You may need to give the Server a hand to help communications, it may be worth a try.

Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility (KB 926505)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9bf2f1e4-1b2c-471b-a284-e0c8c169fac3&displaylang=en

Try observing your error logs in the SBS 2003 when your SBS box starts acting up. It would be better to observe the errors that occured in the past so that you would have a clearer picture of whatever happens prior to and after the incident. It sounds like there is some service that is affected upon starting up this client-server software. Isolating that service could provide valuable clues to what's wrong.

Contiuous PING stops - Request timed out - about 3-5seconds after client starts app. Pinging the servers IP address and loopback both get replies. Connecting client directly to server has the same result. Don't know if they installed the client s/w on the server (don't know if it will work that way).

No difference, can still Ping the server ip and loopback, any other address times out.

communicate? is it http over RPC? there are issues with RPC over HTTP with Small Business Server.....

most importantly, Vista does have issues with Small Business Server if you don't patch the vista machines. best to run WSUS on the SBS box regardless of how many workstations you have. It will find all needed patches and install them so you don't have to figure out what you need.

next question. did you run the connect to the internet wizard from the "things to do list" in the tasks pane [left pane] of the management console? did you join the Vista machines using the web browser and http:///connect computer ?

if you don't use connect computer to join computers to the SBS domain, the computer accounts are not placed in the correct OU. This might cause problems with clients accessing the server with appropriate rights.

you MUST install the application on the server and the clients using the domain admin account OR NT Service Account. If you don't use the domain admin account, the application will not run.

Is this application terminal services? SQL? application or just a shared folder?

Hi MNE;

As i have posted my case (same situation like yours), i've find the solution. It's about Active Directory gets inaccessible when the server resources are too low.

The reasons of SBS network inaccessibilities are;

1- Memory consumption is the most important reason. You should manage consumption on SBS server more carefuly than an independent Windows Server. Especially if you require to run a special network application (accounting, etc.) together with Exchange, ISA and SQL server...

2- Driver versions can also affect memory consumption. Check especially if storage drivers has a new release published by the vendor.

First of all checking for new version of drivers is a good start.

For Exchange server on SBS2003 R2;

Try to configure your antivirus software (if allows) exclude the exchange related directories. Some of av software can increase exchange's memory requirements. This should be monitored seperately. The rest of the memory management can be handled by Exchange depending of the hardware. (Better to have at least 3 GB of RAM on the server machine)

For SQL Server 2005 on SBS2003 R2;

Monitor sqlservr.exe process's memory usage with task manager. If you have 5 clients for your SBS network, that mean is also you have 5 clients for SQL server, may be less. (for accounting software) Limit SQL server memory usage on the SQL Management Studio by entering the properties of each server listed in the tree. Then memory options. Most of memory options setted by default to zero which means dynamic setting is in effect. This can allow SQL server to eat all memory. We should limit it;

Minimum server memory (default 0 - can be 64 MB for startup performance)

Maximum server memory (default 2147483647 - can be 512 MB for 5 users if no replica defined, can be 1024 MB for 10 users but should be checked for performance at the client side.)

I assume this settings will be defined on your accounting software database. You should also configure other database instances;

SBSMONITORING

MSFW (ISA server uses that which can consume too much memory depending on your firewall and monitoring configuration.)

WSUS

SHAREPOINT

Some of databases above may not be installed on your server. I wrote them just for you check.

The amount of memory i've advised just taken from my environment. 10 SBS Clients, 6 active SQL clients and 1024 MB for SQL max server memory is a good value for me on the server which has 4GBs of memory. You have to try of course.

i hope this could help...