Connections Drop After Switching Networks

[Guest]

I'm hoping that someone can help me to troubleshoot / understand / correct an
issue I've been having for quite some time. We have three laptops running XP
Pro SP2 that are used by consultants. We're having an issue where when we
first boot up on a new network, we are unable to maintain connections to
servers. Once we reboot on that same network, everything's fine.

Here's an example to illustrate the problem:

1) go to client site
2) connect laptop to network and boot
3) get IP from DHCP server automatically
4) connect to server using stateful protocol (SSH, telnet, ftp etc.)
5) wait a minute.... (anywhere from 3-300 seconds really) connection dropped.
6) reboot
7) get IP from DHCP server automatically
8) connect to server using stateful protocol (SSH, telnet, ftp etc.)
9) remain connected indefinitely (within reason and configured timeouts)

The same thing happens at each client and our internal office network
whenever we first connect the laptops to it. Turning off the Windows
Firewall doesn't help. Seemingly, the only thing that works is rebooting.
This has been happening with each laptop from day one. Two laptops are
Toshiba Satellite tablets running tablet edition and the other is a Dell
Inspiron.

Can anyone provide me with some insight into why this is happening? I'm at
my wits end.

.... Allen

 

[V Green]

Wireless? Wired??

Check power saving setting for NIC's.

Disable them (leave NIC on all the time).

 

[Guest]

'V Green', thanks for the reply.

Wireless is an option at our office but we always use wired at client sites.
All of my testing has been using wired connections. All power saving
options have been disabled.

.... Allen

 

[V Green]

What does IPCONFIG have to say about the DHCP
lease duration at the first connect (the one that goes
south after awhile)?

 

[Guest]

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : March 31, 2006 12:26:06 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : April 8, 2006 12:26:06 AM

 

[Socrates]

Have you tried right-clicking on the adapter to "repair connection"
instead of rebooting?

Check the firewall settings in the host computer for UpnP and any other
required settings in the exceptions tab.

www.amw1.com/tips

 

[Guest]

A repair provides a new DHCP lease but doesn't resolve the problem.

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : March 31, 2006 9:12:16 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : April 8, 2006 9:12:16 AM

It's not that my connection to the network drops it's that my connections to
servers using stateful protocols like SSH or telnet drop. Stateless
protocols like HTTP aren't affected.

All of these connections are on the local network, there's no firewall being
traversed. The host systems are mainly Unix-based systems.

Another example of the problem is my instant messenger connection. I use
Trillian as an IM client and have connections to MSN, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ
accounts. The MSN and AOL connections keep "bouncing" while the other two
remain. Here's a snippet of my log file showing the connection to MSN
dropping and re-establishing itself.

[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Lost connection to network (Error Code: 10054).
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Reconnecting to MSN as "<obfuscated>"
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Will attempt 10 connections with 60 second
intervals.
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Connecting to MSN as "<obfuscated>", attempt 1.
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** You have successfully logged on to MSN Messenger.

.... Allen

 

[Guest]

I've been able to duplicate this with every laptop I have running XP Pro SP2.
We suspect this is an SP2-specific "feature". Is there anyone out there
that can confirm or disprove this independantly?

.... Allen

 

[Guest]

Allen,

Thanks for the quick response.

Restarting a second time hasn't seemed to work on this end, connections
still drop in 30 - 45 minutes.

As you reported, there does not seem to be an issue with maintaining a
connection to resources on Windows based systems, mapped or otherwise, only
to those systems that are running Unix. In my case it is HP-UX 11i.

Event ID 1000 log errors indicate "An existing connection was forcibly
closed by the remote host" and " Current user is not allowed to re-use
password information from ~Baan Client config file~"

SP1 is deployed throughout my location with no related problem. The Lenovo
notebooks are the first SP2 builds in use here, and so far all reporting the
same problem with connectivity to Unix.

Thanks again.

Ed Ireland

Yours is the first confirmation I've received of someone else having the
problem but I suspect it's just not something that many people will
experience and pick up on.

Booting a second time while connected to the 'new' network seems to resolve
it. I've resorted to running a virtual machine with Windows 2000 for when I
really need the stability.

I have not yet had an opportunity to test whether it happens with SP1 or not
but I may soon be in a position to do that. When I do, I'll post back with
that information.

I'm happy to share any thoughts or findings - hopefully we can get this
figured out.

... Allen

Allen,

I'm having a similar problem with Lenovo Laptops running SP2 dropping
connections to Unix based systems. I'm not seeing much support information
for the 10054 problem, have you had any success ?

Thanks, Ed Ireland

A repair provides a new DHCP lease but doesn't resolve the problem.

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : March 31, 2006 9:12:16 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : April 8, 2006 9:12:16 AM

It's not that my connection to the network drops it's that my connections to
servers using stateful protocols like SSH or telnet drop. Stateless
protocols like HTTP aren't affected.

All of these connections are on the local network, there's no firewall being
traversed. The host systems are mainly Unix-based systems.

Another example of the problem is my instant messenger connection. I use
Trillian as an IM client and have connections to MSN, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ
accounts. The MSN and AOL connections keep "bouncing" while the other two
remain. Here's a snippet of my log file showing the connection to MSN
dropping and re-establishing itself.

[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Lost connection to network (Error Code: 10054).
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Reconnecting to MSN as "<obfuscated>"
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Will attempt 10 connections with 60 second
intervals.
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** Connecting to MSN as "<obfuscated>", attempt 1.
[March 31, 2006 - 09:21] *** You have successfully logged on to MSN Messenger.

... Allen

:

Have you tried right-clicking on the adapter to "repair connection"
instead of rebooting?

Check the firewall settings in the host computer for UpnP and any other
required settings in the exceptions tab.

www.amw1.com/tips

 

[Guest]

After the reboot, try running 'top' on the unix system in one login session
and then login again. I've found that the persistent traffic generated by
the top command will help to keep the other session open. This is true for
me only after the reboot. Prior to the reboot, my sessions are disconnected
within seconds or a few minutes at most regardless of activity.

 

[Guest]

Allen,

Saw this article on oplocks and wondered if you were using Samba
?http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/locking.html

Ed

 

[Guest]

Hi Ed,

There is no Samba in use in the scenarios we have been working with. Sorry.

.... Allen