Problems with network connection to shares

[pthomass]

Hi Yall,

In our office network, there are abhout 12 computers and 2 LaCie ethernet

drives. The idea is that all users can store their data on one of the LaCies.

A BackupComputer backs this data up to the other LaCie drive. Now the problem

is as follows.

The connection with the LaCie drives and the backup computer (also the other

computers) gets lost sometimes. We get a message saying that an error has

occurred while reconnecting H: to \\Lacie-1\data and that the connection

cannot be restored. However if we go via explorer to the drives we can see

all folders and files and use them.

The biggest problem is that the backup software has lost its connection to

and is unable to see changes made on the source drive. So the mirroring

function stops.

I've tried solving this with DOS commands.

NET USE H: \\Lacie-1\data /user:administrator admin_psw /persistent:yes

NET USE H: \\Lacie-1\data /user:administrator admin_psw /persistent:no

NET CONFIG SERVER /AUTODISCONNECT:-1

All these commands seem to fail because the connection still gets lost.

Systems are:

Some WinXPpro SP2 computers

Some Win2000 Pro SP4 computers (backup computer is one of them)

2 LaCie ethernet drives with each 500 GB and WinXP embedded

The LaCie drives have different IP adresses, Different names and every

computer logs in under a different username and psw. Even the backupcomputer.

All is connected through switches:

Siemens Scalance X108

Siemens Scalance X208

These are industrial switches

Each computer has a Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit controller. I turned of

the powermanagement of these so that the computers doesn't try to save power

by turning them off.

Can anyone help me?

[homecomputeraid]

Are you in the south pthomas? :)

From a quick glance on the Internet, it appears that your switches, while industrial grade and reliable, are only capable of 100 mbps? If that's the case, and you're using Gigabit cards, I'd personally check to make sure there are no speed mismatches. These settings should be visible in your NIC properties. Judging from your post, it sounds like you have the technical ability to find these, but if you need help finding it, please post.

Also, make sure you have certified Category 5, Category 5e, or Category 6 cable between all devices.

Run an extended ping to a device you're having problems with (ex. ping 192.168.1.6 -t), and see if you have a huge variation in response time, or dropped packets. Either of those would indicate a cablint or device problem. If your response times are consistent and you have no dropped packets, I'd say you're on the right track checking into things like power savings settings on the end devices.

What backup software are you using? Dantz Retrospect by any chance? If so, upgrading to the latest version helped me with a similar issue backing up MAC's to a Windows 2000 PC.

[pthomass]

First thank you for your reply.

Second, I'm not from the south, I'm from Belgium ;)

I've pinged to my LaCie drives and it still says

Respons from 193.190.57.102: bytes=32 time<1 ms TTL=128

The cables are category 5 and 5e.

I changed the IP adres of my backupcomputer to a static IP by going to Internet-protocol TCP/IP and manually setting the IP adres, Gateway, subnet and NDS servers.

The NIC properties still need to be checked, I'll do that now. (If I can find it. Just in case, can you explain how to do it?)

My backupsoftware:

I'm still testing this with demosoftware from SmartBackup and wit a mirroring program Ghostfiles.

Ghostfiles is a very very simple program and only mirrors the file that changes. Smartbackup on the otherhand detects a change but then checks the entire folder. And this takes up a lot of time. So now I use Smartbackup to do a complete backup and ghostfiles for the mirroring. And why these 2 together? Because my system is not failsafe yet and ghostfiles doesn't run all the time. So a full backup now and then is necesarry.

Do you suggest Dantz Retrospect? It needs to have a mirroring function.

[homecomputeraid]

Sorry, the Yall made me think you were from the Southern US. :)

Are these response times typical, or is there variation in an extended ping?

Respons from 193.190.57.102: bytes=32 time

It shouldn't matter for this because your switches seem to be 10/100, but if you want to take advantage of the Gigabit NIC's in the future (with a Gigabit switch), make sure you use cat 5e or better, unless you cat 5 is certified for speed, attenuation, etc.

The cables are category 5 and 5e.

For the NIC properties, it varies a little by vendor. Your screen shots may look a little different from mine when you get into the advanced properties. On the XP machines, right click on My Network Places, then select Properties from the menu that pops up. You'll see the main Network Connections window:

Then right click on the connection that represents the adapter you want to configure (usually Local Area Connection), and again select Properties. The Local Area Connection properties window will open:

Click on Configure on the upper right side of the window, and the Ethernet Adapter properties window will open:

Click on the Advanced Tab and select Media Type in the left side, then use the dropdown to select the correct speed and duplex setting:

The procedure's the same for the 2000 machines.

I don't necessarily recommend Dantz Retrospect. It works well for the things I do. I don't know if it does images though. It's relatively inexpensive for a backup solution. (about $250.00 US). I use Computer Associates ARCserve for my regular Windows Server backups.

[pthomass]

Hi,

I checked all the things you mentioned, and they are all fine. Auto sense was selected and the extended ping is also fine.

But I think I found the solution to my problem. The network was DHCP enabled so that every computer gets an IP-adres from the server. The LaCie drives were given a fixed IP-adres but the backup computer not. So now I gave it a static adres and the backup software runs perfect. It's been mirroring for 5 days now.

Problem was that a DHCP server checks it's dynamic IP's every 20 minutes, this caused the connection from the backup computer to be cutt of for a short time. But enough to let the backup software lose it's connection to the LaCie drives.

None the less, thank you for your help.

Best regards

Peter

[homecomputeraid]

Thanks for letting us know the resolution Peter.

Sincerely,