Help - ftp / ip connection keeps dropping with home network

[dna_alexov]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I sure hope so.

I believe I have a network problem with my home network, either due to
bad router settings, cables or PC/Windows settings. To simply, I have
three PCs (a laptop, server1 and server2) all on a home Linksys router
server through cable modem. Note that I actually have two Linksys
routers - one is a 8-port which feeds to a 4-port (so I have 11 total
PC lan connections possible but at the moment I only have the three).
The settings on each PC is as follows:

laptop: ip=192.168.1.102, defaultgateway=192.168.1.1, submask
255.255.255.0
server1 ip=192.168.1.101, defaultgateway 192.168.1.1 submask
255.255.255.0
server2 ip=192.168.1.106, defaultgateway 192.168.1.1 submask
255.255.255.0

I can connect with the laptop to either server (one at a time) no
problem and can transfer, etc. Though if I go to one server and try to
connect to the other server, I get connection time out errors. Also if
I use flashfxp and connect to both servers, it works - but once I try
to copy files from one server to the other (once the connections are
established), one of the servers disconnects. Once the server
disconnects, I can not longer re-connect and must reboot the server to
be able to connect again. Another odd thing is if all 3 are On and
have their IP address, I find if I ping one server it works but 50% of
the time if I then ping the other it fails (when it fails I have to
reboot the server at which time the ping works, or sometimes if I wait
5+ minutes the ping will work even if I did not reboot). The same goes
if I try to connect with my laptop into one of the servers - I find I
can connect to one, but if I then disconnect and connect into the other
server and then disconnect and try to again connect into the first
server, this time the first server will time out and fail the connect
(once that happens I have to reboot the server).

So basically, my issue is that my 3 PCs have a valid IP address that
are working, though the connections get dropped at random times, and
always when the two server IPs are trying to talk to one another. I
though never have issues if I only want to talk from one server to my
laptop.

BY the way, my operating system is xp.

Thanks

 

[John Wunderlich]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I sure hope so.

I believe I have a network problem with my home network, either
due to bad router settings, cables or PC/Windows settings. To
simply, I have three PCs (a laptop, server1 and server2) all on a
home Linksys router server through cable modem. Note that I
actually have two Linksys routers - one is a 8-port which feeds to
a 4-port (so I have 11 total PC lan connections possible but at
the moment I only have the three). The settings on each PC is as
follows:

laptop: ip=192.168.1.102, defaultgateway=192.168.1.1, submask
255.255.255.0
server1 ip=192.168.1.101, defaultgateway 192.168.1.1 submask
255.255.255.0
server2 ip=192.168.1.106, defaultgateway 192.168.1.1 submask
255.255.255.0

I can connect with the laptop to either server (one at a time) no
problem and can transfer, etc. Though if I go to one server and
try to connect to the other server, I get connection time out
errors. Also if I use flashfxp and connect to both servers, it
works - but once I try to copy files from one server to the other
(once the connections are established), one of the servers
disconnects. Once the server disconnects, I can not longer
re-connect and must reboot the server to be able to connect again.
Another odd thing is if all 3 are On and have their IP address, I
find if I ping one server it works but 50% of the time if I then
ping the other it fails (when it fails I have to reboot the server
at which time the ping works, or sometimes if I wait 5+ minutes
the ping will work even if I did not reboot). The same goes if I
try to connect with my laptop into one of the servers - I find I
can connect to one, but if I then disconnect and connect into the
other server and then disconnect and try to again connect into the
first server, this time the first server will time out and fail
the connect (once that happens I have to reboot the server).

So basically, my issue is that my 3 PCs have a valid IP address
that are working, though the connections get dropped at random
times, and always when the two server IPs are trying to talk to
one another. I though never have issues if I only want to talk
from one server to my laptop.

BY the way, my operating system is xp.

Some details are missing on how your machines are connected to the
various routers and how the routers themselves are
connected/configured. Ideally, you would want to replace your 4-port
router with a 4-port switch -- but a 4-port router can be made to
look like a switch if properly connected.

The first step would be to connect all three machines to the 8-port
router and remove the 4-port router and see if that setup works (I am
assuming here that the 8-port router is the one that is connected to
the Cable Modem). If it does, then more than likely your routers are
improperly connected.

The 4-port router should connect to the 8-port router using LAN-port
to LAN-port (a cross-cable or "uplink" connection on one end _may_ be
required). The WAN port on the 4-port router should be left
unconnected. Before connecting routers together, the 4-port router's
configuration should be changed to:
1) change its IP address to 192.168.1.2 (to avoid conflict with the
8-port router which will want the 192.168.1.1 address),
2) turn DHCP off (the 8-port router will handle DHCP) and
3) on the "Advanced Routing" tab, the "operating mode" should be
changed from "Gateway" to "Router" (assuming your Linksys model is
similar to mine).

Good Luck,
John