Network hiccups :(

[latrosicarius]

Hi,

I have a fully Gigabit network, and my internal bandwidth and file-transfer rates are super, but every once in a while, I'll get a "hiccup" or something on the network, which is annoying when I'm trying to stream music constantly or watch movies from the public folders. The music will stop playing and I have to click stop/play again

Right now, Windows Server 2003 is set up as a DNS server + Active Directory + File Sharing. The server's IP address is static within the LAN, and the client computers are set to use the server's IP as the preferred DNS server.

Do you think the "streaming media server" role would fix this issue? If not, is there anything I can do to prevent these periodic hiccups?

Thanks!

P.S.: as you might know from this thread, I have a server with the following stats:

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (180-day trial)
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2GB Registered, ECC Corsair XMS RAM (2 x 1GB DIMMs, PC3200 DDR400)
MASTER: 80GB 7200RPM Western Digital HDD
SLAVE: Areca 1210 PCIe 8x 4-port hardware RAID controller w/
4 x 300GB 7200RPM Maxtor MaxLine III SATA HDDs in RAID-6
2 x BIOS-disabled built-in Gigabit LAN
D-Link PCIe 1x Gigabit network card

The network and client computers are 100% Gigabit complient (using CAT6 Ethernet cable & D-Link 8-port Gigabit switches + D-Link 4-port Gigabit router) All client computers are running Windows XP Professional.

[Moby-Dick]

I'm not sure streaming media would be solution to this ( its for a more shoutcast type of stream rather than anything else )

is there anything in the event viewers ( client or server ) that happens at teh same time as these glithces ?

what lease time have you got DHCP set to ?

[latrosicarius]

Thanks, I'll check the event viewer next time I get a hiccup. But I have not installed the DHCP role yet on the server. Is that something I should do?

[latrosicarius]

Hey, one just happened... i looked in the client event viewer, and none occured around that time. I looked in the server's event viewer, and this one was the only one close to the time it happened out of all the categories. (please see pic):

Do you know what that means? "downshift detected"? Thanks

[Moby-Dick]

thats a new one on me - I think the event is being trigged by hardware ( I'd guess your network card )

have you got a regular 10/100 card to try ?

[Moby-Dick]

Thanks, I'll check the event viewer next time I get a hiccup. But I have not installed the DHCP role yet on the server. Is that something I should do?

if you only have a few machines , then its probably easyer to keep them on static IP. DHCP isn't nessesary though. If you where running it , I thought it coudl be caused by very short DHCP lease times.

[latrosicarius]

thats a new one on me - I think the event is being trigged by hardware ( I'd guess your network card )

have you got a regular 10/100 card to try ?

You may be right. I don't believe it's the network card though (I do have two LAN ports built into the mobo that I could try tho)... It's possibly the Switch that I'm using b/c one of my room mates complained that the internet connectivity icon on his client PC's system tray periodically flashes up with a "no connectivity" message, that resolves itself within a second or two.

I havn't gotten this on my PC, but yesterday I saw it for myself on the server's system tray.

I have two more of the same kind of switches, still in their boxes. I'll give them a try. I may have to go with a more professional kind of switch (1U rackmounted or something). I hope not b/c I don't have a rack, and don't plan on buying one lol.

[latrosicarius]

if you only have a few machines , then its probably easyer to keep them on static IP. DHCP isn't nessesary though. If you where running it , I thought it coudl be caused by very short DHCP lease times.

Oh okay, I only have the server static on the router... I'll also static the clients, and see if it helps. ty

[latrosicarius]

Dude, you were totally right. It was the network card after all. I just realized that the "560Tx86" was the model number of my D-Link PCIe network card.

Well, I disabled it and am using the one built into the nForce4 chipset. I guess everything's good now... havn't had the problem yet

One thing was weird tho... at first I forgot to make the IP static on the new network "card" , my client PC was still using the old one for DSN. It could access the Network shared folders, but not the outside internet.

When I remembered to make it static, and update the client's preferred DNS IP to the new server one, it all worked again.... i thought this would be the complete opposite... as in, the clients should not be able to see the shared folder, but SHOULD be able to access the Internet, since they don't go "through" the server... they go through the switches&router directly. hmmmmmm

But thanks for your tip!

[latrosicarius]

Hey, still got the problem. After I stopped using the offending network adapter, the problems went down, but still got periodic interruptions.

Then I set the server up as a DHCP server instead of the router. The problems went down even more, but now they're still here.

The problem is, now there's no reference in ANY event log... not the server OR the clients. It's just weird.

What other problems could it possibly be?

Thanks.

EDIT: This looks weird right? I've never seen this kind of bitrate on the network. It keeps switching between 0% and 0.05% and NOTHING in between. Do you think some of my network hardware (switch, router, etc) is to blame? Is this a common problem?