Topic: Connections get lost

[Niels van Dijk]

Hi

We're using 2 e-smith server to connect to the internet, fetch email etc.
However something very strange occurs: although a connection is set up correctly
and internet etc are available, after approx. 5 min the connection seems to be "lost"
in a rather strange way: we see data leaving the e-smith server (we're using a external TA),
but nothing at all returns... If we reset the server avery rthing works again without any problems,
but again only for approx. 5 min.
We already switch both the computer and the isdn TA's, but this didn't solve the problem.
the problem occurs with BOTH e-smith servers, although they are using different ISDN lines (even physically seperated).

Can anyone shed a light on this problem?

thanks in advance,

[Colin Mattoon]

That is oddly similar to a problem I recently encountered on an ordinary dialup line: After 3 to 4 minutes of connection, I could no longer send (or at least receive) data from my ISP. I could not ping their server, downloads would stall -- and yet when I plugged an ordinary phone into the line I could hear the modem tones. E-smith server would not hang up the connection (I left it up over night to see if it would disconnect -- after 7 hours, I forced a disconnect).

The problem disappeared immediately with a new modem.  The offending modem was a new ISA 56K 3com hardware modem.  I know it sounds co-incidental that you have swapped ISDN modems and the problem remained -- but after 25 years in non-computer electronics -- I wouldn't fall over in a dead faint to find two defective pieces of equipment -- and two that failed at about the same time.  That's common enough when batches of components are produced, particularly if they are contaminated during manufacture.