Clients cant connect to server unless im pinging them

[customgt]

Hello, from a client, i cannot connect to the server with vnc or our accounting system unless I ping the client from the server. Then it will allow them to connect.

What do you think is going on here? They are on the same network....

 

[GrimR]

first thing that comes to mind is ARP when you mention ping.
Second thing would be DNS /DHCP and browser service. Check all entries.

 

[customgt]

Thanks for the reply.

It seems like the problem is with ARP on the clients.

If i add a static ARP to the client of the server ip and mac it works fine.

(arp -s serverip servermac)

Trying to figure out how to solve this, I dont want to have to do this on all my clients...

 

[itsp1965]

Is it possible a configuration error on your switch ports that might be causing this behaviour?

 

[LawnBoy]

If you're running STP on your switches it can cause this.

"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[customgt]

LawnBoy: Spanning Tree is off

itsp1965: its setup like everything else on our network. I actually moved it from a managed switch over to a non-managed switch and did the same thing...

Clients cant talk to the server, unless the server is ping them, or if I add the server ip/mac to the client arp table manually....

 

[itsp1965]

Are your clients using firewall software? If so have you tried disabling it (as a test) to say if you have the same results?

 

[customgt]

No we run trend micro client-server security system.
Our firewall is OpenBSD, which is its own box, no firewalls on the clients besides the windows one, which ive disabled and tried and all that good stuff. Dont think its a firewall issue, all the clients can ping each other, the server can ping all the clients, the clients cant ping that server some reason unless i manually add the arp of it to the clients arp table.

 

[customgt]

this server is a win xp home with vmware server running on it with win2k3 server running in it.

(yes dont laugh at xp home thier are good reasons for that heh)

 

[itsp1965]

Umm.. you kinda left this part out. Can your clients access the WinXP home component without issue? Then it could be an issue with Vmware networking that's at fault

 

[customgt]

WinXP home runs the VMware server. VMware server has an image of Win2k3.

From WinXP home and Win2k3 i cant ping them from clients. They both act the same. I can shut down vmware (win2k3) and WinXP home acts not differently still.

Ive disabled the virtual adapters and just let the physical adapter be enabled same thing.

I didnt think the vmware thing was an issue because of that....

 

[llevon]

Hi,

It is possible that the winsock is corrupt. Have you sued any malware removal tools on the XP Home server or clients recently?

Anyway assuming the XP Home server is SP2 try this command:
netsh winsock reset
If it isn't SP2 try installing it.

You might also like to try disabling your current NIC and installing a new one and testign connectivity.

Also look out for any VPN client software installed on either the server or clients. In some cases these have built in firewalls or can become corrupt.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[GrimR]

Not sure of how vm runs on XP Home. As you know home is not made for networks.
Not sure if adding the ip address and host name to the clients hosts file would be of any help.

 

[itsp1965]

There have been some known issues with the virtual switching used by VMware. Have you tried posting this in a Vmware forum?