Network adapter disconnects?

[LadySlinger]

For the past week I have been manually rebooting one of our servers. It is Windows 2003 Server Standard and its only function is to filter incoming and outgoing emails (via a program).

In the last week I have noticed that that network adapter stops responding. Its usually between 5 and 7 pm at night and sometimes after 3 am.

I looked through the event log and cannot find anything related to the incident, so its difficult for me to know where to start. I determined it was the network adapter (or maybe the NIC itself) by trying to ping when this happens. I have no response.

Once I reboot, everything works fine. The Network Adapter is a Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet. I did make a change to the Power Management of the NIC and unchecked the "Allow computer to turn off this device to save power" since I believed that was the issue. However its still periodically/daily stops responding.

 

[kmcferrin]

Have you tried updating the drivers? Turned up the logging?

 

[itsp1965]

Since the occurrence doesn't seem random in nature, maybe you should verify with the folks who manages your switches to see if there have been any issues on the switch side. I recently ran into a problem with random disconnects in a VLAN env that uses HSRP (which essentially allows you to use one default g/w although you may have multiple g/ws). Upon hard coding the default g/w for the VLAN my server was on, everything was fine. Hope this helps.

 

[LadySlinger]

I ran updates to the drivers last night, but I was already up to date.

The switches have been working normal. I wonder if it has something to do with the firewall???

 

[lhuegele]

Consider replacing the NIC.

 

[LadySlinger]

The server did come with a second NIC, so I'm switching to that.

 

[max8699]

Funny i have exactly the same problem with one of our servers. Overnight the server looses connection to the internet. The staff were rebooting the server in the morning to get it back online again, but i went to try and find a solution last week and found that if i unplug the cat 5 cable wait 10 sec's then reconnect it, it find the internet connection again.
I've updated the Bios and the network drivers, but the problems presists.
the server has two nic one on a 10.0.0.x network the other is on the 192.168.0.x network.



Regards
Max

 

[LadySlinger]

I think the other NIC died. This one survived the weekend without me logging in and rebooted it.

 

[technome]

possibility for others with the issue....

Power utility companies do power grid switching after hours, in NYC mostly after 1 am, worst on Sunday am

Are your servers/firewalls/switches on battery backup units with good batteries. Some BBUs with low batteries cause voltage anomalies.
The most affected devices are firewalls and switches due to small power capacitors in their power supplies.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm