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Network Connections Folder Empty / DNS Down / Network Down / RPC will not Start

I came into our office friday and our Dell PowerEdge 1800 was making a squeeling noise.  I couldn't get it to stop the noise so i rebooted.  The server would not shut down so i had to do a hard shutdown.  After i examined a few things i noticed the DNS server would not start and there was a RPC error.  After looking furthur into the problem i relized that all network connections on the server and all clients were missing.  I can not add a new connection as the wizard runs and then nothing happens.  I checked all NIC cards and uninstalled them and reinstalled them with no change.  We have a laptop that is also on the wirless netowork and it was in sleep mode and still was affected.  I asked a friend that does a lot on our server and he though it might be something with the GPO.  I am at a loss of thought.  Any help would be great.

Configuration:

Static IP from ISP
Firewall
DNS server (Serving static and DHCP)
Two NIC cards in Box
Small network of four computers.
Clients are DHCP

I am a beginner and have someone coming to help Monday night.
If you can lead us in the right direction we would be appreciative.

Jeremy
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Avatar of Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
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prodogg

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Yes, the noise went away.  During the first few reboots it made the same noise when loading.  I think the server was looking for the network connections at that time.  Now the noise has gone away.  I though it was a hardware failure.  Maybe a hard drive.  I ran diagnostics on the hard drive but it revealed no errors.

Jeremy
It could be a fan.  But I doubt that has to do with your problem... I was just wondering if it was a hard drive, then there certainly could be issues there.

At any rate, please post a complete IPCONFIG /ALL so we can assess your NIC config.

Jeff
TechSoEasy
It would also be helpful if you'd post the results from a SYSTEMINFO.

Jeff
TechSoEasy
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ASKER

I removed the NIC cards and reinstalled them so there IP addresses are now preassigned.

NIC  Intel Pro 1000 MT
DHCP = enabled
Auto config IP - 169.254.66.1
subnet mask - 255.255.0.0

NIC  Intel Pro 1000 MT Server
DHCP = enabled
Auto config IP - 169.254.63.114
subnet mask - 255.255.0.0

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ASKER

Question still open
I'd still ask that you post a COMPLETE IPCONFIG /ALL along with a SYSTEMINFO

However, just from what you posted above... you shouldn't have DHCP enabled on your server's NICs.  You need to manually assign the IP's.

See http://sbsurl.com/twonics for an example of how to configure these.  You must then run the Configure Email and Internet Connection Wizard (CEICW -- which is linked as Connect to the Internet in the Server Management Console > Internet and Email) to configure your network settings.

A visual how-to is here:  http://sbsurl.com/ceicw and a full networking overview for SBS is at http://sbsurl.com/msicw

Within that wizard you'll see a "more information" button on each screen that has invaluable help in deciding which options to select.  
Be sure to check those out as well.

Jeff
TechSoEasy