i'm running an SBS 2003 Premium R2 installation on an ASUS P5K Deluxe board that has 2 built-in NICs, one Realtek and one Marvell Yukon. the server has Active Directory-integrated DNS running. There is no ISA server installed at this time, nor is Windows Firewall enabled. i have the Marvell plugged directly into an ADSL modem with a static, external IP address and the Realtek plugged into a Linksys router with static, internal IP. all clients are static IPs, DHCP & RRAS are disabled (though the "DHCP Client" service is enabled to allow DNS updates. DHCP on the Linksys is enabled but set to IP range above that used by the clients. SBS is updated to current patches.
power management is turned OFF on both adapters. the NICs are set with the LAN adapter's default gateway set to the server's internal IP, and the WAN adapter's gateway set to the DSL modem. i tried setting the WAN adapter's gateway to blank and using a static route table entry, but i lost web connectivity even when i could ping the adapter (like after a restart), so i had to go back to setting a default gateway for both. i should point out that i've been using this setup for several months with no problems. this connection dropping thing is very recent.
the problem i'm having has only started within the last two weeks or so, but i can't for the life of me figure out what's going on, and it's getting the boss upset because mail isn't coming in regularly. the problem is simple: the external NIC stops responding to internet access after about 2-3 hours. if i restart, it's fixed, but it stops again after awhile. i can ping the WAN NIC from the LAN, and internally OWA works fine, but externally...nothing. also, i can get to the internet from the server with no problems, but i can't get any outside access to the server, such as Remote Desktop, OWA, ping, no incoming mail, etc.
i've tried disabling the NIC and enabling it again instead of a restart, but that didn't change anything. there is no newer driver than the one i have installed. i installed a PCI NIC and set it up as the WAN adapter, disabling the Marvell, but it also stopped working within 14 hours. i've tried restarting the "network connections" service, no luck there. one interesting symptom i discovered today is that when make any changes to the network connections in the "Network Connections" window, the icons don't update their status unless i use F5 to refresh.
i'm out of ideas at the moment. i am restarting again to get the mail coming in, but i need to figure out what's going on with this and get it resolved. any help would be appreciated.
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