HELP: Router/Network Advice - drop connections

Am not sure where to go for help/advice/knowledge. I am hoping some people
can give some feedback/advice to my queries.

We used to have a Vigor DrayTek , on a 4MBit line, and a Windows 2000 Server
for web proxy, DHCP & firewall. Everything was fine (web surfing is fine,
MSN is fine, Remote Desktop is fine, etc). Until our Windows 2000 Server
died and we decided to try letting the router Vigor DrayTek to handle all
the DHCP & web proxy.

We started getting lots of MSN dropped connections, dropped Remote Desktop
connections & slow internet. Every now and then we can't access the internet
for a bit (probably due to saturation or bottlenecks).

We got a new router Vigor (next model) hoping it would solve dropped
connection issues. But it hasn't really. We still get dropped connections
from time to time. What is the best/ideal config/setup for a router to
prevent/stop these dropped connections for Remote Desktop & MSN? I mean,
before when we were using Windows 2000 Server, we never got a drop
connection from MSN or Remote Desktop. Now we get it constantly and it's
annoying.

Is there a Network Monitor tool to diagnose what's going on? On the router
should there be a maximum sessions, bandwidth limit, etc?

> We used to have a Vigor DrayTek , on a 4MBit line, and a Windows 2000
> Server for web proxy, DHCP & firewall. Everything was fine (web surfing is
> fine, MSN is fine, Remote Desktop is fine, etc). Until our Windows 2000
> Server died

Sounds like your Win 2k3 server was handing out the correct DNS servers to
your clients.

Until our Windows 2000 Server
> died and we decided to try letting the router Vigor DrayTek to handle all
> the DHCP & web proxy.

Sounds like your router is handing your AD clients thw wrong primary or
alternate DNS servers.

Post an IPconfig /all from one of the problem computers.


hth
DDS


"And Wan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Am not sure where to go for help/advice/knowledge. I am hoping some people
> can give some feedback/advice to my queries.
>
> We used to have a Vigor DrayTek , on a 4MBit line, and a Windows 2000
> Server for web proxy, DHCP & firewall. Everything was fine (web surfing is
> fine, MSN is fine, Remote Desktop is fine, etc). Until our Windows 2000
> Server died and we decided to try letting the router Vigor DrayTek to
> handle all the DHCP & web proxy.
>
> We started getting lots of MSN dropped connections, dropped Remote Desktop
> connections & slow internet. Every now and then we can't access the
> internet for a bit (probably due to saturation or bottlenecks).
>
> We got a new router Vigor (next model) hoping it would solve dropped
> connection issues. But it hasn't really. We still get dropped connections
> from time to time. What is the best/ideal config/setup for a router to
> prevent/stop these dropped connections for Remote Desktop & MSN? I mean,
> before when we were using Windows 2000 Server, we never got a drop
> connection from MSN or Remote Desktop. Now we get it constantly and it's
> annoying.
>
> Is there a Network Monitor tool to diagnose what's going on? On the router
> should there be a maximum sessions, bandwidth limit, etc?
>

I agree with what Danny suggested. Verify the router is sending the clients
the proper dns settings. If that's correct some ideas are below.

If you weren't having network saturation previously with the windows server
installed it's unlikely that the network traffic would suddenly increase
causing a bottleneck. You could rule this out by monitoring your bandwidth
usage on the router using free tools such as MRTG or openNMS if you wanted to
though.

I'm not familiar with your routing device but it's possible that the
firewall settings are being refreshed to frequently and dropping your
connections.

The router might be having performance issues as well. I'd enable any error
logging that is available on it and review.


Michael


"And Wan" wrote:

> Am not sure where to go for help/advice/knowledge. I am hoping some people
> can give some feedback/advice to my queries.
>
> We used to have a Vigor DrayTek , on a 4MBit line, and a Windows 2000 Server
> for web proxy, DHCP & firewall. Everything was fine (web surfing is fine,
> MSN is fine, Remote Desktop is fine, etc). Until our Windows 2000 Server
> died and we decided to try letting the router Vigor DrayTek to handle all
> the DHCP & web proxy.
>
> We started getting lots of MSN dropped connections, dropped Remote Desktop
> connections & slow internet. Every now and then we can't access the internet
> for a bit (probably due to saturation or bottlenecks).
>
> We got a new router Vigor (next model) hoping it would solve dropped
> connection issues. But it hasn't really. We still get dropped connections
> from time to time. What is the best/ideal config/setup for a router to
> prevent/stop these dropped connections for Remote Desktop & MSN? I mean,
> before when we were using Windows 2000 Server, we never got a drop
> connection from MSN or Remote Desktop. Now we get it constantly and it's
> annoying.
>
> Is there a Network Monitor tool to diagnose what's going on? On the router
> should there be a maximum sessions, bandwidth limit, etc?
>
>
>