Topic: Okay, this is getting stupid...

[Dave Wilson]

Everything tells me that this problem is coming from my server, but is it really?  Here's the deal:

I have a WinXP box whose IP is blah.blah.204.210
I have my SME 5.1.2 server whose IP is blah.blah.204.231

Initially I had the server on an AMD 500MHz system but this problem was happening there so I installed from scratch onto a Celeron 300MHz system and I am getting the same problem.

After the server has been up and running for a while I am suddenly unable to access it or its web pages from elsewhere on the internet.  My WinXP box however has no problem.

If I reboot the server everything goes back to normal.  I can visit my sites, I can admin my server, I can send and receive E-Mail, everything.  But that only lasts for a few hours and then it's all gone to poop again.

If it wasn't for rebooting the server fixing things I would say there is a problem somewhere else.  However, I am at a complete loss now; especially with the fact that I've reinstalled completely from scratch on a totally different set of hardware.

If anyone has any idea as to what the heck is going on please let me know.

Hardware in Use:
- 3Com Homeconnect DSL Modem
- Linksys 5 port, 10MB hub
- Celeron 300A with 64megs ram
- 3Com Fast Ethernet 10/100 nic

Topology -

- I have my modem plugged in to my uplink on my hub.
- My 2 systems are plugged into the hub and are assigned static IP addresses
- My server's default domain is davehosting.com

I hope that all helps.  I really need to get this fixed ASAP as I have clients relying on my service.

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.

Dave Wilson
www.davehosting.com
www.vorteximaging.com

[Charlie]

How do you connect to the Internet, analog modem, DSL, Cable ISDN, T-1?

[Dave Wilson]

DSL...Hence my need for a 3Com Homeconnect DSL Modem...  

[Henry]

I run a similar set-up and use the same 3Com modem as you do. Is there any reason you have the modem plugged into the hub instead of into a second NIC in the server?

Could that be the problem? It seems like something is getting filled and has to be flushed.

Henry

[Dave Wilson]

Well, I have the modem plugged in to the hub so that both my main computers can use the static IP addresses from my ISP and my SME Server can dish out DHCP addresses to other boxex I might add on later.

Unless you know of a way I can give both my main system a static address while my XP box is attached to the server through the hub?

Maybe I'll give that a shot right now and see what happens.  I'm just assuming it won't work...

[Bobby]

Dave,

Just came into this, late in the piece, but are you saying the maching handing out IP address will be doing so via the same hub that your adsl is plugged into?  The same hub that your public IPs are plugged into?

/B

[Dave Wilson]

Okay, let me clear this bit up.  I have a WinXP box and an SME 5.1.2 box.  I want both boxes to use one of the two static IP addresses my ISP gives me.  Then I want the SME server to give out DHCP addresses to any other system I may want to add to my network.  Therefore (as I have just learned through testing) I have to have my WinXP box and my SME server connected directly to my modem.  The only way I know of to connect to computers to one modem is through a hub.  I just tried connecting the modem to one Nic in my server then feeding out from the other nic in my server to the hub, but then my XP box cannot use it's static IP address.

Does that help?  I really could draw a picture if you guys want.

Thanks.

[Dave Wilson]

Okay, I have posted a diagram of my setup with another explanation of my situation.  Thanks to everyone who has tried to help so far and thanks in advance to any help I get now.

Check it out at http://www.vorteximaging.com/top.html

Hopefully it will stay up long enough for someone to see it and get a brainstorm.

[John Goodwin]

Hi Dave,

First, I do want to say that I'm in no way the expert in this area, but I will try to help if I can.  I'm really not sure why your setup works initially and then stops working, but I can think of a way around it.  I noticed that you only have one nic on the sme server.  My suggestion would be to change your setup slightly:

1.  Add an additional NIC to your SME server.
2.  Plug the DSL ethernet connection into the "external interface" NIC on your sme server directly.  You would need to setup the external interface with your static Publicly addressable IP address.
3.  Plug the "internal interface" ethernet connection into a standard port on your hub.
4.  Plug all of the other machines on your network into standard ports on the hub.
5.  Setup the machines on the network to use DHCP

Under this setup, the only machine directly connecting to your ADSL connection will be the SME server.  All other machines will be behind the SME server connection using NAT through the SME server to access the internet.  You will also be able to access the SME server through the domain name you used in the SME server setup.  Your XP machine would not need a publicly addressable IP because the SME server would be directing traffic to the XP machine using NAT.  The setup I have described is how my personal setup is configured (although I have a cable connection, not DSL, but I don't think that should really matter for the network layout.  Is there a reason you are maintaining multiple publicly addressable IP's on the network?

Hope this helps,
John

[Dave Wilson]

Hi John, thanks for the thought.  I tried that and it does work fine for connectivity (not sure yet how it works for keeping the server on the internet).  The reason I want my XP box to have an ISP assigned IP is that there are still things I would like to do with it such as FTP services and that I don't think will work in the scenario you've mentioned.

[Boris]

Dave, is power management enabled in the SME server's BIOS?

[Dave Wilson]

No, power management is not enabled.  And currently outside users have been able to access it for over 13 hours.  Yesterday I had times where it stopped being accessable after 4 hours, 1 hour and 7 hours.  Like I say, there is no pattern.

[Kelvin]

Hi Dave,

>The reason I want my XP box to have an ISP assigned IP is that there are still
>things I would like to do with it such as FTP services and that I don't think will
>work in the scenario you've mentioned.

If you want to run other services from the XP box, you could set up port forwarding on the SME server and this would allow you to run your FTP server (or any other service) on the XP box behind the SME server if you wanted.

Kelvin

[rob wellesley]

Dave,  You said....

"Okay, let me clear this bit up. I have a WinXP box and an SME 5.1.2 box. I want both boxes to use one of the two static IP addresses my ISP gives me. "

if you are trying to get both machines to use the same ISP provided ip no you effectively have a little subnet via your hub that both machines are in with the same IP no.

This is why your SME-server is dropping out.

Stick with what john said to do

Rob

[John Goodwin]

Hi Dave,

I think I may have found something that could be helpful.  There is a new howto for 1:1 NAT translation which allows you to forward traffic for a specific external IP address to a specific machine behindthe e-smith server.  Here is the link:

http://www.tech-geeks.org/article.php?story=20020206234827402

I didn't read it to closely, but it looks like this basicly allows you to do something similar to a DMZ, allowing a machine behind the firewall to be accessed publicly.  I haven't tried it, but it could be a solution.

Hope this helps,
John