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uucutech

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Really weird...trust me

Hello Experts

I have a very interesting problem on my hands.  I work at a main office, we have several branches throughout our valley.  When these branches lose power and their network equipment goes down it's a big pain.  What's an even bigger headache, is to find out that when their power is restored they have network connectivity to every host on the network except 1:  The print server.  This doesn't happen to every client at the remote branch mind you....just a few random ones.  The print server is s Windows 2003 server, a DC, and  as i mentioned before, a print server hosting about 40 different printers.  Does anyone have any input as to why a client  PC on one of our remote networks would not be able to ping this particular server after the power goes out and comes back on again at there branch?

any help would be greatly be greatly appreciated


Thanks!
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pseudocyber

When it happens, how do you fix the problem?  Can you unplug it and replicate the problem?
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The last time this happened our PC tech went out there with a Brand New machine....hooked it up and still could not ping the Printer server.......he then plugged the old computer back in and it miraculously worked....if this isn't weird i Don't know what is....I should also note that i cannot ping the affected somputers from the printer server as well.

Thanks!
OK this just in........I rebooted the Printer Server and this seemed to fix the problem.  I would still like to know, however, if anyone else has experienced this or has any idea why this would happen.......
A Domain Controller is a pretty busy thing.   Its possible that your Domain Controller is busy interacting with a bunch of printers that are all in various states of coming back on line after an unexpected power failure.   I would consider using another PC as the printer server.  Then see if your DC recovers faster after an unexpected shut down.
Take a look at the reboot cycle times on the workstations vs. the DC/print server.  It's possible that the problem workstations come back online before the DC.

Is the DC a DHCP server or do you use statically assigned IP's?   Also, are all the branch office workstations and DC connected to a common switch/hub?
check when this happens can the system ping otther ip address ?

If changed out the computer it not the computer!  
Could just be the server is trying to keep up with all the DHCP/DNS requests along with telling the printers what to do (getting the status from all of them).


It would be interesting to see if that particular port switch/patch cable is bad or has problems.


AC
Hello

Im not sure if this is related but when i clone workstations sometimes, the server cannot see that workstation but can see everything else on the network and workstation cannot see that server but all other servers on the network, if i reboot the server it can see it fine. Im running win2k3 server as well with sp1. Annoying thing is i might clone 15 machines and only 1 will not talk to the ghost server on the network but can see all other servers ?
uucutech, next time it happens check ip settings on problem machines. What if they booted up earlier than any DHCP server?
As a matter of best practice, I like to make sure ALL servers are statically assigned with IP addresses.  One less thing to fail.  I think the small increase in reliability makes up for the small decrease in manageability.
i noticed you have w2k3 with sp1 istalled.  there are some issues with network connectivity that microsoft publishes hotfixes for.  I ran into a similair problem with my some of my pc's on remote subnets not being able to see some servers.  didnt effect all the pc's just some.  was fixed by a hotfix.  i don't know when your problem started, but if it was after sp1 then try reading up on this article 898060
And as usual, I recommend you check the NIC and make sure it's set the same as the network side - either both Autonegotiate or both 100 Full.
Wow, Lots of responses since thursday.......This server is a  DC, DNS and print server....I have another DC for load balancing running DNS as well.  This server is not running DHCP and has a statcially assigned IP address.....it does not have SP1 installed (Someone else said they had SP1 installed on their win2k3 server) Porka:  Your problem sounds VERY similar to mine.  Pseudocyber.....I'm 99.9% certain that EVERY PC and server on my network is set to autonegotiate the duplexing mode for the NIC.  User's aren't allowed to toy with there network settings and I have never changed the Duplexing mode on the servers.  Any other ideas before i post for a refund of points?  :O
What about the port settings on the network side?
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beaconlightboy

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I was thinking the same thing.  The problem could reside with on one of the switches or routers between the hosts.  Our DHCP setup is kind of messed up......the clients do not get new addresses when they reboot and this is because each workstation has it's own reservation within DHCP, we have to have it configured this way due to the nature of our enterprise banking app.  I'm going to give the points to beaconlight boy......so far it's the only thing that sounds feasible at this point, and seeing as how i don't really want to recreate the problem I'll have to wait until the power goes out at a branch again to really be able to test this theory.  Thanks for all of your input.