Topic: DHCP and server manager issues with win 2000

[Tom G]

Hi,

I have been having a few problems trying to get sme server  5.5 to work with my win 2k box. Im a relatively inexperienced linux user, so please be gentle with me!

Heres a list of the kit im running the sme server on:

AMD k6-III 450
256 Mb Ram
10gb seagate hd
cd drive
3dfx voodoo banshee
2x NICs both 3com 3C905s (i cant remember the exact difference between them, but they are definitely different, i think one is a 3C905-TX)

The install was v. v. easy. sme seems to be a wicked product!

I have installed sme using dedicated server and gateway mode.

I have also configured the external network for connection to an NTL cable modem (which has not arrived yet, so i cannot test it). The external network is configured using DHCP, with account name as the identifier.

The internal network is configured to used DHCP, and i have accepted the default ip addresses, ranges and subnet masks.

The sme server and console appears to run fine on the sme box! i can browse and configure it to my hearts content.

The windoze 2000 box which i want to connect to the sme server is configured for DHCP.

The problems that i have (which i think are linked, but dont know) are as follows:

Firstly, after booting the windoze box and loggin in as admin, initally typing ipconfig, i get the result that windoze has found the sme server and has been assigned an ip address (the first one in the default DHCP range, i forget which specific one). Pinging the sme server gives a reponse of less than 10ms.

After leaving the windoze box idle for about 5 mins, issueing the same ping commands result in the request timing out. Ipconfig at this point shows initally an assigned ip of 0.0.0.0, then some random windoze assigned ip (assertained from the event log) Trying to renew/refresh/purge the DHCP lease/info doesnt work, i get messages saying that the attempt failed.

Secondly, attempting to acess the server-manager via IE, from a fresh boot of windows, initally works. A login window opens, I give the correct details, and the page appears to continue to load. However the page stalls and gives me a page unavailable message. If the ip info is looked at, again the origional DHCP assigned address is missing, instead in some randon windoze address is given.


I think these things are linked. I dont think its a network card/hub/network cable problem, as these components have all previously worked under various windoze installs.


Any help would be much appreciated as ive got to wire my new (shared) flat for the net. I dont want to have to use windoze internet connection sharing, as i disagree with the micro$oft monopoly and dont yet know enough about linux to switch to it.


Thanks

Tom

[Bill Talcott]

It definitely sounds like somewhere between the DHCP client and server the connection is breaking. It could really be anything from the DHCP client software, to client hardware, to wiring, to server hardware, to the DHCP server.

Windows assigns that odd IP address when it can't find a DHCP server, so that's normal, considering it can't find the DHCP server for some reason.

I had/have a weird problem where one of our SME's NICs just stops working. I haven't found anything that causes it, and rebooting fixes it for anywhere from a few minutes to a few months. *shrug* You can login as root and use "/etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart" to essentially reboot the networking stuff to see if that fixes your problem.

If you can, try testing with two different PCs. That should help you figure out whether it's a client- or server-side issue. Once you figure out which end is really causing the problem, you can start working on that. Swapping in hardware or whatever... I've heard of some weird problems with two identical NICs in an SME, so maybe try swapping in a different brand to see if it helps anything.

Maybe even try 5.0 or 5.12. 5.5 switched to new ways of doing a few things, so there still seem to be a few little oddities (based on comments here). A clean reinstall of 5.5 might even fix it. Even in the non-MS world, glitches can happen.

[don]

Hi mate,
            I was having a read and i think that you should have a look at the Windows setup.  Firstly start by enabling the network icon so it is visible on the bottom right hand of your monitor (next to the time).

This will show you when packets are being sent and received from the server.  Click on it and have a look that packets are either being sent or received.  Then see if more packets are being sent or if more packets are being received.

If more packets are being received then the problem is on the Windows end and if more is being sent than the problem is on the SME server end.

This is the first place i would start to troubleshoot.

Also run the netstat command in windows command prompt and see if you have any sort of connection in there.

Once again make sure that you have nothing in your network settings and that it gets IP, DNS, WINS etc from DHCP.

Hope this helps and good luck

DON

[Tom G]

Hi, just to update......

spent most of the night trying to get the server to work.

Two reinstalls of 5.5, and a reinstall of TCP ip on the windoze box, still no joy.
Swaped the network cards (non-identical ones, a realtek and a d-link) on the sme server but not the windoze box, will try that tonight. However the network cards works fine between two windoze boxes.

How do i go about manually downloading and reinstalling the networking modules in sme server. I origionaly downloaded the 5.5 as an iso and burnt it following the instructions in the FAQ. I dont think that the iso is broken.

The only problem with trying 5.0 or 5.12 is that ive only got a 56k dialup, and it was much hassly to grab the 5.5 iso origionaly (it took 6 goes last time!).

Can i download each of the modules individualy from the ftp site and burn them to cd, then use a floppy to boot the install and point the install at the cd with just the modules on it?

thanks for the help so far! much appreciated.

Tom

[Dave]

> I origionaly downloaded the 5.5 as an iso and burnt it following the
> instructions in the FAQ. I dont think that the iso is broken.

Did you check the md5 checksum on the burnt CD as well as the ISO file you downloaded?

> ive only got a 56k dialup, and it was much hassly to grab the 5.5 iso
> origionaly (it took 6 goes last time!).

I can appreciate that I pulled it over a single ISDN channel, it took about 10 hours.

Cheers
Dave.

[Tom G]

Hi,

Thankyou for all of you advice. I now own a working e-smith sme server!!! Its absolutely brilliant!

Thanks Bill, i did try swaping all network components, but it didnt work. I tried restarting the service, this didnt work either.

I had to endure the pain of the 56k dialup and nabbed myself a copy of 5.1.2.

it worked out of the box with the hardware that didnt work with 5.5! I guess that the problem has to 5.5. Either the 5.5 distro has somthing badly wrong with it or the iso that i downloaded was broken. Given that I have not seen any kind of negative fuss about 5.5 (more like a lot of happy people!) i think it is safe to assume that the downladed 5.5 iso was broken.

Im going to test this theory out soon, as im initating the 5.5 download again.

Again thanks for the help and support, without it I would probably have lost faith.


Cheers

Tom

[Dave Donaldson]

Tom -

Something's rotten in Denmark.  (or at least in Redmond)

I know you got it working with 5.1, but I'm tempted to think it's something to do with the Win2K box.  If you reinstall 5.5, and if it happens again, try swapping out the NIC in the Win2K machine.

Also, Win2K Pro drops it's ability to route to a NIC if the connection goes down, and it's notorious for being able to heal itself more than about five times.  After that, communications with the TCP/IP stack fails until you reboot.  So check the connection too.  Depending on the NIC, there may be some driver settings that are not favorable to your LAN.

dave...