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tenoverFlag for United States of America

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Funky new client setup- Need help ASAP

I went to a new clients offices this afternoon to check out "wierd internet and email problems"....Well, it sure is wierd.  There's only 8 employees who 3 offices and one big "main" area with desks.  They have a DSL modem sitting underneath one of the desks.  Now,  this little DSL modem is plugged directly into a little Linksys "Router/Firewall" that is also just sitting under the desk, and there is one PC and a printer plugged into the router/firewall as well.  This is the only PC that is not having any issues.  The rest of the PCs and the 2 servers are either plugged directly into a Cat5 wall jack or into another little switch/router under some desk, and all these machines can't reach some sites, can't send email, etc....They do not have a mail server, and I went over their internal DNS, which looks fine (W2k).  all machines on the network are Windows 2000.  I, for the life of me, can't find where any Cat5 cables dump out into a comm closet or anything, so I'm stupmed as to how to fix this.  Basically, I think I need to get the modem plugged into a switch, and have all PCs plugged directly into that switch, correct?  But if I can't find where the jacks are terminated, what should I do?  I ned to do this tomorrow morning, so some quick help would be much appreciated.  Thanks.
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master_chris

Indeedly correct. All Pc's should be plugged into a switch.

You say that they have a ADSL modem, plugged into a Linksys Router/Firewall with one PC running off it.  There needs to be another hub/switch running off it because it needs to be connected somehow.

On these other machines in the office, do they have an active network connection. Do they have ip addresses?

Also if all PC's are running into the wall Cat 5 jacks, they most likely run back to a switch. Like a phone switch.

Chris
When you say "can't reach some sites" do you mean can't reach ANY sites or so SOME work?  If SOME work, then there must be a way they're getting out.

It sounds like you need to do some topology investigation.  And, it sounds like you need to do it manually.  This means find a cable and either - a) lift the ceiling tile and look to see in what direction the wire goes and start tracing it like that, b) get someone to tug on it while you're in the crawlspace underneath and find it and trace it, or c) have someone tug on it while you're in the attic and trace it.

Now, if the cables run through the ceiling and there's an upstairs, then you need some special tools.  I call them a Toner and Probe but different people call them different things.  Basically, you put the toner on the wire and it puts a musical tone on the wire.  Then, when the probe gets close to the wire, it picks up the tone and amplifies it.  This lets you identify wires by "toning them out".  They really need to hire you to do some basic documentation of their network and identify what connects where and do some diagrams.

When you do find the hub or switch they're all using then you could run a crossover cable from it back to the Linksys and it should work fine.

Hope this helps.
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ASKER

Yeah, that's what I thought....The only computer that can get out to ALL Sites is the one plugged directly into the little router/firewall that is plugged directly in to the modem.  All other PCs/servers can access some sites, but not all.  Here's a thought-
When looking at their setup, all PCs are setup to use "192.168.1.1" as their Gateway, which is the Linksys router/firewall.  Now, I found at least one more Linksys "router" that they have plugged in under another desk that (I think) they thought was just a little hub, at least that's all they're using it for, and I'm thinking that router probably also has the default 192.168.1.1 address....Could that be the issue?  Some clients see that little router and not the other one?
You could take the second one, then run a crossover from a LAN connection to a LAN connection on the first and it will be a router/switch and the second will be a bridge/switch.
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pseudocyber

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I just cannot believe that the router would be causing some sites not to be resolved, while others work just fine.  Sounds more like a dns issue to me.  If they are using outside DNS, point the PC's to that DNS server using static addresses, and make sure that the Gateway is correct.  It could be the ARP cache in the second router too, so you may want to try clearing this.

FE
What kind of internet connection is it?  I ran into this issue recently with a vpn branch office connection where some sites would load and some wouldn't.  To resolve it, we lowered the MTU on the tunnel.
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It's a DSL (PPPoE), and I already tried lowering the MTU.....
Did you lower the MTU according to the guide at my website.??  

Ck the Broadband Cable and DSL section:

www.doverproductions.com
I think we had to take it down to 1300 ...
Did you do it on the PC's and the routers?
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Along with what Focusyn is saying, you could just go to one of the machines that's working intermittenly and flush the dns (ipconfig /flushdns) and clear the browser cache (tools/internet options/delete files/delete all offline content) and THEN see if they can get to a site they could before.

An interesting idea that Focusyn brought out - if the two routers were connected together and have the same IP, there will be an IP conflict between them and the results would be pretty unpredictable which one would work at any given time.
Good analysis.. I agree with both...  :)
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Thanks guys, that's exactly what I was thinkg=ing, I was just having a hard time putting it in words.  I've already tried everything you said except for the /flushdns...I'll ask a user to try that right now.  
I had the same problem when I connected two routers together.  I was attempting to use one as a router and the other as a switch but they just kept conflicting with each other.  I had all kind of odd behavior.  The machines quit talking to each other and they would sometimes connect and then at other times would drop internet connection.  I would recommend taking a switch with you and replacing the 2nd router with it (not connected to the modem).  I am 90% sure that will solve your problem.
I'm hard pressed to make a recommendation on a recommendation, since we didn't hear back from the author as to what he did or didn't do, what did or didn't work, and what the disposition is.  At any rate, I think pseudocyber deserves at least a split for the frequent and useful non-redundant input.
Thanks Focusyn - I think you deserve a split too! :)
Yep..  agreed