DescentBB

Okay, this is one I can't seem to figure out.

I have two nics in the FTP server

1 comes into my house network and works perfectly. The other goes to the other data line and out to you guys

x.x.x.6 IP
x.x.x.248 Subnet
x.x.x.1 <----- default gateway

and 2 DNS servers


The problem is that I fire up the box, run the command prompt and enter ipconfig and all is well. I fire up BPFTP and it works fine too. After an hour or so no more traffic...
I run ipconfig again and the 2nd NIC has it's IPs still, but the default gateway is gone now.

If I go to that NIC in the "My network Places" and select repair, it works again. And shows the gateway in the command prompt; ipconfig. While it's not working I can go to the TCP/IP properties and check it while it's down, and all the ips are still there.

I have done the following to try and remidy this weird ass chit. and remember that NIC#1 works fine still, no matter what (this eliminates a bad TCP/IP stack as I thought)

The second NIC is a 3COM 905c tx standard PCI card. Very popular and robust card

Reinstalled the TCP/IP stack
Changed the slot the NIC was in
Changed the nic for another (Same result)
Changed the nic to a netgear FA311 (Same result)
Run full virus scanners (3) all with none found

Changing the nics and getting the same result eliminated the hardware variable.
Changing the TCP/IP stack takes care of that
having one NIC work consistantly and the second one fail is baffling

Im really at my wits end...

Server config is a AMD 1800+
512 megs ram
Windows 2003 server
onboard VIA NIC 10/100 (the one that always works)

Everything is bullet proof on this system, it never has issues. Just that damn default gateway static setting going to chit.

and the gateway is fine. I have 4 other static IPs going through it on another machine and not a hicup...

That NIC has a static IP? All of those settings are static, but it keeps losing the gateway anyway?

If there was any DHCP stuff going on I'd say to check your lease durations -- but I've never seen anything make a static gateway setting disappear. That's just weird.

Yeah, that sounds pretty strange. It may be a long shot, but have you tried another cable?

How long does it take before it craps out? Always the same amount of time? Does it seem to be at random, or when under high traffic load?

Has this been happening since you set this box up in this particular configuration, or since a recent change with software or some security patch?

Running ACPI with power saving mode on that PCI slot?

3com Hardware management enabled with power saving mode/wake on lan config?

Recently added Manporn to your FTP server and it's just being Ghey? j/k

QQ: Two routers? One for for dataline side and one for Lan segment? just need clarification

Lothar wrote:That NIC has a static IP? All of those settings are static, but it keeps losing the gateway anyway?

Yes

Tricord wrote:Yeah, that sounds pretty strange. It may be a long shot, but have you tried another cable?

no.. rule number 1 and I forgot all about it, I'll chack that later tonight

Tricord wrote:How long does it take before it craps out? Always the same amount of time? Does it seem to be at random, or when under high traffic load?

very random. 10 minutes to a day.. usually an hour or two.

BUBBALOU wrote:Has this been happening since you set this box up in this particular configuration, or since a recent change with software or some security patch?

This just started a week or so ago. No changes have been made to software configurations.

BUBBALOU wrote: Running ACPI with power saving mode on that PCI slot?

Yes, but that is a system wide config and once set does it with all cards for network. Point being that the other nic has it also. and no probs..

BUBBALOU wrote:3com Hardware management enabled with power saving mode/wake on lan config?

not installed

BUBBALOU wrote:
Recently added Manporn to your FTP server and it's just being Ghey? j/k

Yes, and your flick has had the most hits so far

BUBBALOU wrote:QQ: Two routers? One for for dataline side and one for Lan segment? just need clarification

Yes, Lan side is dataline 1 and dhcp controlled.
wan side is the Dataline 2 and the static nic with the issues. Same router, modem, network with another box using the same static perameters except for the actual IP for obvious reasons...

the nic could be bad cause i had one it would work fine then just stop talking untill i unplug it and plug it back in and it talk for a little bit and stop agen

as I mentioned in my original post, warlock, I used 3 all with the same results. Are all 3 bad?

Cable has been re-crimped on both ends... so far..so good.. More later

welp, that didn't work. default gateway just got lost again.

This is a reply I got on another forum. It doesn't make sense to me, but anyone know if there is any accuracy in it?

Are the two cards in your system on two different subnets, or using two different gateways?

If this is the case, that is the problem. I deal with this problem on a regular basis. Windows 2000 inherently has this problem and unfortunately cannot be solved. Windows Server 2003 has a warning built in for this. This used to work flawlessly on NT 4.0. For some reason, MS fucked it up.

You can have multiple nics in your system as long as they are all on the same subnet and using the same gateway. If you change that, one of the nics will stop working after some time. This breaks routing on a Windows box as you cannot route data from one subnet to the other. As far as I know, there is no patch available for this.

Do you every try to access the ftp box from the LAN segment, if so, does the gateway drop then?

Stress, that might be it. Since your first NIC is for LAN only, it doesn't need a gateway, does it?

The purpose of a gateway is to handle connections to hosts which are on a different subnet. You can reach hosts in the local subnet through both cards, but if you want an external host, it will not know which gateway to use over which interface, and it'll crap out.

So try that. You said you were using DHCP on the LAN card. Change it to static, enter the same info as you get from DHCP, only leave the gateway blank and see what gives.

I've changed the static nic subnet to 255.255.255.0 from the 255.255.255.248 it was on. So far so good. we'll see

Shouldn't make any difference.

well, it did.

Everything works now. Just changing the subnet fixed it.

Here's why

Windows can use two different subnets, or more, provided there is only one gateway address configured for all nics, static or DHCP.

If there is two or more gateway address's then the nics all have to be configured on the same subnet. You cant have both, only one or the other. I know it's silly, but hey, that's how it is.

I thought this was pretty weird, and this is something they never tought us in all of my schooling for MS certification or Cisco certification. Which makes me wonder about the school and the instructors used that I paid for my training. Anyway, the server is chuggin right along now and I have placed the static nic back to it's 255.255.255.248 subnet and places the once dynamic DHCP nic into a static config without a gateway, but a different subnet and all is well

I have to admit I thought this was far-fetched also, but it's the truth. And it's something that hould be changed.....

Well, nice to hear you got it sorted after all...

Thing is, when I think two NICs in the same machine, I think Linux, so I wouldn't actually have that problem

You cant even admit that you just learned something, can you?

Thanks everyone for your help.