Starting An Office Network -a few questions

[ripcurlksm]

Hello, I have a small office network of a few computers running Vista, along with a network printer. Currently everyone has internet and until recently were able to access the network printer. I have a few questions.

Network Hardware:
D-Link Switch (DES-1108) > LinkSys Router (WRT54GS) > Cable Modem

Questions:
1) (general internet connection) The internet has been working decent in our office, but last week and also this morning we had to reboot the entire hardware chain to get back online. I have used Windows Vista's "Network and File Sharing Center" to see the network map, and I can see that the internet is broken (by a red "x" on the network map), when I click the "x" it runs a few tests and pings the hardware and then everything works again.. What is the best way to ensure the internet stays on and doesn't require pinging the hardware every few days? Perhaps my network can be setup better, which also leads me to my question #3 below..

2) (network printer) Since the network hardware all got rebooted, I can not print on our network printer. I can see it is "Ready" in my "Printers" area, also if I try to "Add A Network Printer", it is being recognized by the network. Doing a network scan I can see it is assigned a local ip address. When I try to print it goes into the print queue, and after a few minutes it says Error. This printer worked fine before the network hardware was reset, what am I doing wrong?

3) (Office Network/Workgroup) Should all of our office computers be on the same workgroup? We can all connect to the internet and share the network printer already.

4) (Throttling) We all connect to the internet pretty quick, but I notice that when I use FTP, my upload speed is slow... ~35kb per sec, can I tweak the DLink switch to get my upload speed for FTP higher?

Thanks for your help!

[ripcurlksm]

no one?

[*Bill G*]

Ok, lets attempt each one:

1) It would be good to know where the point is of the broken connection? On a general note, if the internet fails, a quick reset of the cable modem and router would normally sort the problem.

2) You mentioned that the printer has a IP address, therefore I am assuming that it is connected to a printer server of some description. If the printer server is receiving the job and queuing then the problem maybe with the printer. Check the usual suspects e.g. cable from the server to the printer and try and restart the printer.

3) Yes, put all your computers in the same workgroup. This is not so much of an issue with Vista as it will allow you to browse and connect to multiple machines in different workgroups. But older version of windows may struggle, best to keep it simple, may also reduce network traffic and broadcasts.

4) Your upload speed is determined by your internet provided. As most ISP services are asymmetrical this means that your upload speed is considerably less then your download. Based on a 2Mb connection 32Kb upload is about right. Nothing you can do on the router that will change this. If the upload speed is to slow, it may be worth asking what your options are from your provider. In some cases they may offer a business package with a lower contention rate and a greater upload speed. If you need true symmetrical connection e.g. both the up and down speeds are the same, you will need to pay a lot more.

Hope some of this helps.

[ripcurlksm]

Bill, thank you.

1) Vista's "Network and Sharing Center" shows a network map like this when the internet is down, with a red "x" indicating where the break is. I understand I can reset the cable modem, but I am trying to avoid getting phone calls at 6am from our office asking why the internet is down. I would like to find a way to lock the connection in if possible. Here is what my network sharing center network map looks like when broken

My PC ----> Network --- X ---> Internet

2) There is no printer server that I am aware of, our entire office is connected to eachother through an 8 port switch. The network printer is plugged in the switch, just like any other computer through a CAT5 cable. It looks like the printer isnt receiving the job at all, the printer works fine, but it went down after the cable modem was reset, perhaps it was assigned a different ip address? How do I set up a printer server?

3) Cool

4) Thanks, I noticed on the switch when I bought it, it had duplex mode and I was wondering if I could give it a boost.

[refdesign]

Vista has somekind of persistence, I noticed in my home network. Even if the switch it is powered off you still can browse on a remote computer (in my case the remote desktop still works... weird isnt so??)

A common cause is the DHCP server ... if any.
So if you have a DHCP server - usually the router hosts something like that - ensure that it is doing his job:
- right click on the network icon in the notification area of the task bar
- select "diagnose and repair" option

If windows says "no problem" then the DHCP server is working, otherwise you'll get some usless messages with the final meaning that it doesnt work

If my assumption is right and you are running a DHCP server, diagnose it and comeback

[*Bill G*]

Ok, just had a quick look at the switch on the Dlink website.

The switch does not act as a DHCP server in this case but purely as a switch for traffic. The router would connect to a router which would provide the DHCP connection and the connection to the internet via the WAN port on the router.

My thoughts are:

After you reset everything, the DHCP server has allocated an IP address to each machine which may not have been the same address you had when your first setup the network. Therefore each computer now has a different IP address. Although this is not normally a problem, it can causes issues with devices that are access via IP, and example being a printer. When you set your computers and connected them to the printer it may have via a TCP port rather then by name. If this is the case then you will either need to allocate a static IP address for the printer on the router which matches that of the TCP port on your printer driver on your computer. Or create a new TCP on your machine to connect to the printer.

I would suggest that you create static IP addresses on the router for your machines. This makes things easy when addressing network issues.

The diagram is showing a connection to the network but not the internet. A number of things to check:

1. Check you computer has a valid IP address e.g. 192.168.x.x rather than 167.x.x.x using IPCONFIG from the command prompt
2. Attempt to ping the router, this is done by using the ping command from the command prompt. The router is usually the default gateway which should be shown when you do the ipconfig command. e.g. ping 192.168.1.1. If you get a response then the network is working fine.
3. If point 2 is true then the problem could be with the link between your router and the broadband connection. As this router provides a RJ45 link to the WAN I think I am correct in saying this then connects to a ADSL or Cable modem. You therefore will need to check that the router as a IP address for the WAN. To do this you will need to log onto the Linksys router. The normal default address is 192.168.1.1 which you would type in IE. Log on to the router and check the WAN IP address is not 0.0.0.0, if it is then try Renew. If nothing happens then the problem is with the modem or your ISP.

The full duplex option on the switch will allow 200Mbps transfer over the network. Unless your machines and router support a 1Gb network card or connection, I would say best left at 100Mbps.