connectivity issues 1

[EchoAlertcom]

I am looking for a little help

We are setting up 3 servers in a datacenter behind a new PIX 501 Firewall. We also have a laptop plugged in to the LAN. We have the PIX and a new 8-port Netgear switch. The patch cables are new. 2 of the servers came from a different datacenter and were working production servers without any communication weirdness. The other server is a new server.

I have checked Link Speed and Duplex settings.

The issue is the servers aren't always able to communicate with each other on the LAN, however can still communicate with something outside of our LAN like a web site or ftp. The issue seems to come and go with nothing seemingly pushing it to either state. Everything will be working fine. (All on the LAN) We may have telnet session to one server and a Windows Terminial Server connection on another. I'll notice the the Terminal Session disconnects and I will ping one of the other machines and get good responses but not another. If I then ping from the good one to the bad one it fails.

I have plugged the 4 machines into just the switch, with no change in the issue. I plug 4 machines into just the firwall with no change in the issue.

It is like there is a bad physical connection but the issues move around to different machines like a ghost.

One example of how I'm testing:

PC1 is connected to PC2 via Terminal Server
PC3 can ping both PC2 and PC1
PC2 cannot ping PC3

After a few minutes (10 maybe) everything works fine.

After a few more minutes (5-10 maybe) the problem shifts. Maybe this time PC1 cannot ping PC2. Or maybe the Terminal Session disconnects.

When pings fail, sometimes 1 out of 4 will be successful. Sometimes they will all fail.

I have seen sporatic communication issues before but usually it can be narrowed down to a specific device, cable or connection.

Eventhough I have switched the patch cables out. They were all new in the package. Tonight, I am bringing back patch cables from the office that I know for a fact work everyday without issues.

I would appreciate any help at all.

Sincerely,
Steve

 

[Serbtastic]

Check for duplicate IP addresses on your network. Also, have you checked the event logs on all machines?

 

[EchoAlertcom]

Hello,

I have checked for duplicate IPs and we are good there.

I did find a entry in the System log stating that NBT had trouble registering a name with one of the other servers. So I ran nbtstat -R and will see if that was it.

Thanks for the help.

Steve

 

[Serbtastic]

What WINS server setting do you have setup for the 3 machines? Check the WINS db and ensure all 3 are correctly registered.