Hey all,

About 9 months ago I installed my SBS 2008 server using my Open
License DVD (not OEM) and a custom answer file. It worked great and I
was up an running in no time.

Two weeks ago, after giving up trying to manually back out of a bad
driver update from Microsoft, I wiped my server's two RAID1 arrays and
started over from scratch. I used the exact same answer file and DVD,
but this time, there is something wrong with my network and I can't
figure it out.

SYMPTOMS:
Users complain that web pages time out most of the time.
Users complain that Exchange drops offline repeatedly.
Users complain that while editing a document on the server, their
computer hangs for 3-10 seconds.

STEPS TAKEN (in no explicit order)
I applied the hotfix to resolve the multiple processor/TDI issue and
it didn't change anything.
I configured TCP Chimney as indicated.
I have verified my DNS forward settings work.
I have purchased and installed new router/gateway
I have run packet loss tests from DSLReports with no errors
I have asked my ISP to run diagnostics on our T1 with no errors.
I have used SBSDIva's list of default services to ensure that I wasn't
missing any services (Thanks SBSDiva!)
I have updated my BIOS, firmware for my MOBO, firmware for my DVD
Drive, RAID controllers, and NICs
I have updated all of my drivers on the server with the latest
versions offered by dell.
I have even changed my router's public IP address in case I was having
a Denial Of Service attack.
Because my server has a dual GB NIC, I have disabled one of the NICs
I have swapped active NIC interfaces (disabling the active one and
enabling the other in case one was bad)
I have verified that all users' network settings reference my Domain
Controller for DNS
I have run every Wizard I could find in the SBS Console
I have configured DHCP with reservations for my users (IPV4
reservations only)
I have verified that UPNP is set on my Gateway and that SBS Fix My
Network is able to open ports it.
I am going to setup Wireshark to study port traffic today in case I am
being hacked..?



PROBLEMS: Everyone on my network is faced with terribly slow internet
access, though LAN traffic seems to be okay.When connecting through
RDP from the WAN, I am able to login about 75% of the time and
occasionally, I'll stay connected for a good 30 minutes, but usually,
it disconnects in about 30 seconds with no error. I have been on the
phone with Dell Enterprise Support and Microsoft Tech Support for
literally days...still not resolved. Sometimes it will reconnect right
away and then show the disconnect for half a second or two. Sometimes
it says my server is unavailable and sometimes it connects and
reconnects with no problems (though slow) for a long while (from the
Server standpoint)

NOTES
At a certain point, I finally decided that it had to be hardware
related with my server. I contacted Dell for help and they gave me
some files to download. I connected a workstation that I had logged
into locally (not joined to the domain) and tried to download the
files--no luck (same timeout issues) When I checked the router, I
noticed that the log indicated that it had blocked a ton of SYN/Ack
connections. If I tried to browse the web interface for the router, it
would show you one or two tabs and then time out even though I was
directly connected to it with no other devices connected) I determined
that the brand new router was hosed (and I have since verified that
outside my office network), so I connected a tired old WRT54G (running
DDRWT) and everything suddenly started working again--at least for a
couple of hours. Then everything ground to a halt again.

Resetting the router helps a little, but not for long. Rebooting the
server helps for 30 minutes or so, but then starts dropping. I can't
find any errors in my event log that directly coincide with these
outages and I am meeting with my boss to get the axe this afternoon,
most likely.

Any suggestions about where I should go from here? (Sorry about the
long post, I am hoping that this thread will be a useful reference for
myself and others with the same problems)

Thanks in advance for enduring this post--any suggestions, advice,
criticism, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Jase
p.s. I couldn't find the SBS 2008 group to post there, but I have
noticed that many of the problems/fixes listed above also exist for
SBS 2003, so maybe this is the best place to post...

Hi:

What a pain. Sorry you have had to go through all of this.

To start somewhere:

The sbs 2008 group can be found here:

http://connect.microsoft.com/SBS08

You could post back here, either with the information I am about to request,
or to close this thread and move your original post and the new information
to the SBS 08 group, just don't do both groups at once.

To start with: can you please give us the unedited results of:

ipconfig /all > c:\iptest.txt

And, have you run the SBS BPA and fixed everything it finds?

www.sbsbpa.com


--
Larry
Please post the resolution to your
issue so that others may benefit.

Get a Health Check for SBS at:
www.sbsbpa.com


"jaseinatl" <jaseinatl@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:bc09d9e1-a67b-43b1-a918-bd49b6ea9831@newsgroup

> Hey all,
>
> About 9 months ago I installed my SBS 2008 server using my Open
> License DVD (not OEM) and a custom answer file. It worked great and I
> was up an running in no time.
>
> Two weeks ago, after giving up trying to manually back out of a bad
> driver update from Microsoft, I wiped my server's two RAID1 arrays and
> started over from scratch. I used the exact same answer file and DVD,
> but this time, there is something wrong with my network and I can't
> figure it out.
>
> SYMPTOMS:
> Users complain that web pages time out most of the time.
> Users complain that Exchange drops offline repeatedly.
> Users complain that while editing a document on the server, their
> computer hangs for 3-10 seconds.
>
> STEPS TAKEN (in no explicit order)
> I applied the hotfix to resolve the multiple processor/TDI issue and
> it didn't change anything.
> I configured TCP Chimney as indicated.
> I have verified my DNS forward settings work.
> I have purchased and installed new router/gateway
> I have run packet loss tests from DSLReports with no errors
> I have asked my ISP to run diagnostics on our T1 with no errors.
> I have used SBSDIva's list of default services to ensure that I wasn't
> missing any services (Thanks SBSDiva!)
> I have updated my BIOS, firmware for my MOBO, firmware for my DVD
> Drive, RAID controllers, and NICs
> I have updated all of my drivers on the server with the latest
> versions offered by dell.
> I have even changed my router's public IP address in case I was having
> a Denial Of Service attack.
> Because my server has a dual GB NIC, I have disabled one of the NICs
> I have swapped active NIC interfaces (disabling the active one and
> enabling the other in case one was bad)
> I have verified that all users' network settings reference my Domain
> Controller for DNS
> I have run every Wizard I could find in the SBS Console
> I have configured DHCP with reservations for my users (IPV4
> reservations only)
> I have verified that UPNP is set on my Gateway and that SBS Fix My
> Network is able to open ports it.
> I am going to setup Wireshark to study port traffic today in case I am
> being hacked..?
>
> PROBLEMS: Everyone on my network is faced with terribly slow internet
> access, though LAN traffic seems to be okay.When connecting through
> RDP from the WAN, I am able to login about 75% of the time and
> occasionally, I'll stay connected for a good 30 minutes, but usually,
> it disconnects in about 30 seconds with no error. I have been on the
> phone with Dell Enterprise Support and Microsoft Tech Support for
> literally days...still not resolved. Sometimes it will reconnect right
> away and then show the disconnect for half a second or two. Sometimes
> it says my server is unavailable and sometimes it connects and
> reconnects with no problems (though slow) for a long while (from the
> Server standpoint)
>
> NOTES
> At a certain point, I finally decided that it had to be hardware
> related with my server. I contacted Dell for help and they gave me
> some files to download. I connected a workstation that I had logged
> into locally (not joined to the domain) and tried to download the
> files--no luck (same timeout issues) When I checked the router, I
> noticed that the log indicated that it had blocked a ton of SYN/Ack
> connections. If I tried to browse the web interface for the router, it
> would show you one or two tabs and then time out even though I was
> directly connected to it with no other devices connected) I determined
> that the brand new router was hosed (and I have since verified that
> outside my office network), so I connected a tired old WRT54G (running
> DDRWT) and everything suddenly started working again--at least for a
> couple of hours. Then everything ground to a halt again.
>
> Resetting the router helps a little, but not for long. Rebooting the
> server helps for 30 minutes or so, but then starts dropping. I can't
> find any errors in my event log that directly coincide with these
> outages and I am meeting with my boss to get the axe this afternoon,
> most likely.
>
> Any suggestions about where I should go from here? (Sorry about the
> long post, I am hoping that this thread will be a useful reference for
> myself and others with the same problems)
>
> Thanks in advance for enduring this post--any suggestions, advice,
> criticism, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Jase
> p.s. I couldn't find the SBS 2008 group to post there, but I have
> noticed that many of the problems/fixes listed above also exist for
> SBS 2003, so maybe this is the best place to post...

Ensure you have installed Windows 2008 SP2

Larry Struckmeyer [SBS-MVP] wrote:

> Hi:
>
> What a pain. Sorry you have had to go through all of this.
>
> To start somewhere:
>
> The sbs 2008 group can be found here:
>
> http://connect.microsoft.com/SBS08
>
> You could post back here, either with the information I am about to
> request, or to close this thread and move your original post and the new
> information to the SBS 08 group, just don't do both groups at once.
>
> To start with: can you please give us the unedited results of:
>
> ipconfig /all > c:\iptest.txt
>
> And, have you run the SBS BPA and fixed everything it finds?
>
> www.sbsbpa.com
>
>