Here's one for the smart guys and gals

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:02 pm

I have been having trouble at one of the offices I keep up and running and it is driving me a little crazy any ideas welcome

setup

dsl modem router
switch
win2k domain server
6 workstations 1 year old hp office machines running xp

first, this building is seriously haunted electrical wise - it is from early 1800s with lots of mystery wires and the power in the area it is in goes out 3-4 times a week for various times

they have also had damage to the phone lines from lightning and electrical surges

last summer during a mild thunderstorm, the building next store was hit by lightning and it blew the chimney off - no other lightning strikes in the areas - the whole place acts like there is iron or copper ore in huge quantities underneath

----
the problem - one of the work stations can only intermittently connnect to the server (to use time management software. etc.)

the work station usually has no problems hitting the internet, but can't get to the server to log on to the apps on an intermitent basis

just gets variations of the network not available message

____

last week I played with the workstation and could not get logged onto the server - I concluded that it might have been a self inflicted software issue although this person never downloads garbage - the computer scanned clean with norton and spysweeper - so i swapped in an old trusty replacement (6 yr old HP running win 98) and was able to log on to the server with no problem...of course, the guy comes back to work today and it ain't working

, and none of the usual things will get him onto the server....

I had thought it might be a hardware problem with computer #1 )bad nic or a problem with the switch (bad port) - I am left with the idea that it might be a bad cable or a bad port on the switch because of the intermittent nature - what drives me crazy is that to get to the internet he has to go through the switch and that has never been a problem ........

my only idea at this point is to run new cable and swap out the switch and see if that fixes it....no one else on the system has any connectivity issues...

the normal rigs are 1 year old compaq office pcs running xp - haven't had any issues with any of them (14)

any ideas appreciated ...TIA

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:17 pm

i sure they dont want to afford the cost of doing this. but im sure the building is loaded with old knob and tube wiring .maybe if there lucky some one ran a single 14 gage wire for a ground wire - i'd have a electrical contractor come in and rewire the whole place .
if its as old as you say your asking for a fire in the walls .its just a matter of when - your pulling more power then that system was design for im sure .
and the damage to the new equipment will cost more then to have the place rewired and wall repairs . i not seen the building but the age of it from what your saying tells me . im sure has the old cloth wiring and is falling apart from just age also mice use to love to bite the cloth wrap and use it to make nests !
also back then they use to use lightning arrester rods on the roofs and i bet some of them have been removed if not all of them .
and im sure this place has had a large no. of people work on it over the years -and the codes change all the time and sometimes they miss problems - i spend the money and time and have 2-3 diffrent eleticans look it over and give you there opions not just one in a old building like this .im sure they use the same guy all the time -dont mean to sound ruff here . but che may not really understand the older wiring and you guys would never know !

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:05 pm

this placed has been rewired a couple of times as far as I know and the landlord loves his money.....i was up in the attic trying to trace some phone lines and it was pretty funky....realistically, there's not much hope in getting the landlord to do much ..... i'm sure it would help though

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:13 pm

call the city in im sure that get him to do something

hate to sound nasty but this time the city maybe your friend

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:21 pm

Could be the switch or the cable, or just a bad port on the switch (have you swapped him to another port to see?).

You can have a bad cable that allows Internet access, but gives you problems connecting to the server. You could be getting 50% packet loss which is making the server connection barf, but you'll never notice while casually browsing the internet.

Magexx9 · Post by **Magexx9** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:26 pm

Gotta go with FlyingPenguin on this one. If you don't have a cable tester, call around and see how much it'd be for someone to test the cable run, or run a new one.