Limited or no connectivity.

[Domino]

Uptime? About 2 weeks. The power for the entire school was shut off over half term.

Since then ive had nothing but problems.

 

eeek just seen this!

 

Is that normal for you? the machines that are having problems aren't all cabled back to the same couple of switches are they?

[boomam]

I assume you've checked the event logs locally for the machines, and the DHCP and WINS logs on the DC?

As said, the DHCP logs, unless im looking in the wrong place, is usually in the normal system logs, of which there are no entries. Same with WINS.

There is the odd DCOM and NETLOGIN error in regards to certain machines, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Why do you have machines without virus protection?

I inheritted this network over a year ago, i was under the impression that every machine had McAfee on it, but i found out a week or so ago, when i was in the process of removing McAfee, that only a few did! :-o.

Luckily, when McAfee is completely gone, i have a newly configured install of NOD32 to blast out. .

 

 

 

 

Nothings come up in the virus scan, gonna try removing/adding to the domain.

[boomam]

Cant re-add, errors, if i expand the error, it says TCP/IP protocol not installed?

Which is consistant with the fix i have to apply, but doesnt tell me the cause.

 

Any more ideas?

 

Ive found a KB article that outlines the problem, including the fix i do, but not even MS know of the cause?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259

Edited March 3, 2008 by boomam

[boomam]

eeek just seen this!

 

Is that normal for you? the machines that are having problems aren't all cabled back to the same couple of switches are they?

 

The power cut off?

No, they were replacing all the power distribution boards in the school so everything went off last half term during the work.

 

The machines having the problems, that i know of, all go to different switches.

Obviously, all the machines in one room go back to the same switch, but its happening all over the school.

[Michael]

That's a good KB you've found there boomam, let's just hope after all that effort that it works!

[boomam]

The fix in there?

Ive been aware of that since friday, thats the fix im on about.

But im unsure as to why it happened in the first place, or why its happening on previously fixed machines?

[boomam]

Its still happening.

Ive had it happen to 7 machines this morning alone. .

 

Any more ideas?

[DMcCoy]

This error is specific to only a few issues that I know of. Failed network authentication or not receiving an IP address. I know you aren't using all your addresses but do check in the dhcp snapin.

 

In DHCP management: Right click on the dhcp server, then Display Statistics. can you screenshot/type the info here, I'm wondering what the numbers are like (in particular NACKS)

[boomam]

Ive just been on the phone with a guy at our LEA that i know, and we've run through a multitude of server and workstation tests and are still none the wiser. .

Next thing is a virus scan on the HDD of a machine at DOS level.

[Michael]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but have you tried giving a workstation a static IP?

 

You just need to enter an unused IP, subnet mask, gateway and primary DNS. Secondary DNS is optional. Does the workstation successfully communicate with the server? i.e network drives etc... And can you ping your primary DNS and gateway ok?

[boomam]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but have you tried giving a workstation a static IP?

 

You just need to enter an unused IP, subnet mask, gateway and primary DNS. Secondary DNS is optional. Does the workstation successfully communicate with the server? i.e network drives etc... And can you ping your primary DNS and gateway ok?

Yes does 'connect' with a static IP, but it still wont see the server, thinks theres no TCP/IP stack.

And pinging it does work, but i get a wierd ping code, where it thinks the IP of the server is some wierd nordic characters. .

[Michael]

I seriously think it's re-imaging time. There have been some excellent answers to this problem and I'm amazed it still isn't resolved. What I find really strange is that it's effecting so many machines, yet there are a few (which I presume) are still working absolutely fine?

 

Working on the presumption the servers are ok, have you tried adding a computer which has never belonged to the domain? I'd be interesting to see if it works or not. If it doesn't work, then you'll know for certain whether the problem's server related.

[_Bob_]

I seriously think it's re-imaging time.

 

Yes I'm afraid I'd have to agree. The only time I've seen ping commands etc return odd characters is on systems with nasty rootkit type malware installed. They appear to overwrite the basic networking commands in an effort to prevent removal. If your AV scanners aren't turning anything up yry flattening it and starting again.

[spc-rocket]

The power cut off?

No, they were replacing all the power distribution boards in the school so everything went off last half term during the work.

 

The machines having the problems, that i know of, all go to different switches.

Obviously, all the machines in one room go back to the same switch, but its happening all over the school.

 

Hi there,

 

Have you tried resetting winsock, i'm not sure if this is only for internet related problems, but its worth a go.

 

The procedure in xp sp2 is easier.

 

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winsock.htm

 

Its just that you mentioned the tcp/ip not being installed that i thought of this as i fixed this type of issue on a home pc recently.

 

HTH,

 

Ash.

[boomam]

The winsock reset/reinstall is along the lines of the fix that i know of.

 

I'll start re-imaging the machines as/when they get the problem.

Looks like i'll have to put the cause down to 'unknown' .