PDA

View Full Version : Strange WinXP networking issue.


Atragon
04-11-2004, 06:38 PM
I'm running an old box with WinXP as a file server, and the OS is completely stable, however, after 5 days and 16 hours of uptime, the computer starts dropping its existing network connections and refusing to make new ones.

For example, I usually run a VNC server and an IRC client on it, as well as sharing the contents of my big drive. What usually happens is that I suddenly am unable to access the shared folders. Then within a few minutes, the IRC session gets disconnected, and trying to reconnect gets an error message 'unable to resolve host.'

At the same time, if I try to ping by IP or Domain name, I get an error message. I also get an error message when I try to run ipconfig.

Additionally, when I try to open task manager, I get an error stating that the process failed to initialize.

Around this time the VNC connection dies and reconnecting gives me an error message stating that the client failed to find the host.

A simple reboot fixed it this time, but I'm wondering what might have caused this. Since this is the second time it's happened...exactly 5 days and 16 hours after boot.

Matrox462
04-12-2004, 11:23 PM
What is your network setup as far as hardware goes? What NIC are you using? Worse comes to worse, if it's the card that's giving you trouble with your old box, you could try buying a new 10/100 one for $15

Also, maybe an updated driver might help?

Atragon
04-12-2004, 11:37 PM
Network setup is a Linksys BEFSR41 router, at the moment the NIC is an AOpen 10/100 PCI card. Drivers are the default windows ones. I think I'll slap in a gigabit NIC and use that for my connection and see what happens (I've got a small stockpile of gigabit NICs I picked up for cheap along with a gigabit switch I haven't had time to setup yet (it's managed).