Macintosh computer on MS LAN

Hi everyone!

I am managing a small network of about 15 computers that connect through a
NETGEAR FVL 328 ADSL router/firewall. We have a 8MBit ADSL connection.

I have two "simple questions" I'd be greatful if anyone could answer.

1. One of the computers is a Macintosh (don't know version...) and
frequently it has major problems accessing internet. Is there a known
problem with connecting MACs to a LAN with mostly MS workstations and
servers? I read somewhere that Apple computers use LocalTalk LAN Technology,
which seems slightly different from standard MS Ethernet LAN.

2. Most computers experience sudden drops in network availability. These
drops usually last for a minute or two, and at this time www is unreachable.
I don't know if the drops are at the same time for all computers. All
computers connect directly to www via the router. There is however a server
in the LAN but it is mainly used as a file and mailserver. The DNS settings
on all computers are set to the main DNS servers provided by our ISP, and I
believe there has been some issues with them not working but cannot be
blamed for all "drops". Any ideas what could cause these drops?

Thanks,

Peter

Hi Peter!

My comments are inline with yours.

On 1/28/04 2:39 AM, in article #(E-Mail Removed), "Peter
B" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I am managing a small network of about 15 computers that connect through a
> NETGEAR FVL 328 ADSL router/firewall. We have a 8MBit ADSL connection.
>
> I have two "simple questions" I'd be greatful if anyone could answer.
>
> 1. One of the computers is a Macintosh (don't know version...) and
> frequently it has major problems accessing internet. Is there a known
> problem with connecting MACs to a LAN with mostly MS workstations and
> servers? I read somewhere that Apple computers use LocalTalk LAN Technology,
> which seems slightly different from standard MS Ethernet LAN.

LocalTalk is a very old Apple networking technology that's hardly in use
anymore. Ethernet for Macs is the same as Ethernet for Windows.

Macs and Windows machines can co-exist on a network without ever knowing the
other type of computer exists. But of course that wouldn't be any fun. For
the past couple of years Mac OS X has been shipping with Samba built in so
that it can communicate within a Windows network like another Windows
machine. The two types of machines are very compatible.

How is your LAN being managed? Do you have a DHCP server or are your TCP/IP
settings on your machines all static? Do you have the correct DNS entries
and domain suffix endings such as "yourdomain.com" entered into your
settings?

> 2. Most computers experience sudden drops in network availability. These
> drops usually last for a minute or two, and at this time www is unreachable.
> I don't know if the drops are at the same time for all computers. All
> computers connect directly to www via the router. There is however a server
> in the LAN but it is mainly used as a file and mailserver. The DNS settings
> on all computers are set to the main DNS servers provided by our ISP, and I
> believe there has been some issues with them not working but cannot be
> blamed for all "drops". Any ideas what could cause these drops?

Your "drops" could be caused by several things, but you need to pinpoint
exactly what's failing. It could be that your machines are unable to reach
the DNS servers, but the Internet access is fine. To test this, go to a few
websites ahead of time and gather their IP addresses. The next time you
experience a drop when trying to connect to
"http://www.whateverwebsite.com", enter the IP address instead such as
"http://192.168.0.1". If you connect, then you are failing to connect to
your ISP's DNS servers. They'll need to help you here.

Also, learn how to use the ping and traceroute commands in a Command Prompt
window. Ping will tell you that you can connect to something. Traceroute
will allow you to see the path your Internet connections are taking and you
can see where the connectivity is failing.

Using the above commands, establish a baseline of being able to connect to
machines within your local network, connecting to your ADSL router,
connecting to your ISP's DNS servers and connecting to outside websites.

Hope this helps! bill
--
William M. Smith
(Microsoft Interop MVP)
Talk back to Microsoft!
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

Thanks for your reply William!

> How is your LAN being managed? Do you have a DHCP server or are your
TCP/IP
> settings on your machines all static? Do you have the correct DNS entries
> and domain suffix endings such as "yourdomain.com" entered into your
> settings?

Our LAN uses both DHCP and static IP. Some computers have static IP (such as
mine) and others don't. The entire LAN has 192.168.0.X IP numbers wih the
ADSL Router on 192.168.0.1. We are several companies splitting the same ADSL
link and we are all joined in the same LAN. My firm has a server (sibmaster)
on 192.168.0.2 (static) and we join it's domain (sib.lok), but we have a
direct link to the router! So our domain is not "beneath" the server. My
computer's full name would hence be PETERB.sib.lok.

None of the other companies has any servers and only join workgroups with
their respective companies name. (as you can see we trust eachother well
:-)).

Back to your query about whether we have the correct domain suffix etc. We
don't have any such things, and I don't/didn't think it was neccessary.
Also, if this was the problem, shouldn't it be a constant problem, i.e. I
would never get access to www? Would you agree with me on this?

> Also, learn how to use the ping and traceroute commands in a Command
Prompt
> window. Ping will tell you that you can connect to something. Traceroute
> will allow you to see the path your Internet connections are taking and
you
> can see where the connectivity is failing.

I use tracert all the time. Infact, I have noticed that executing tracert
against the main DNS server on 10.0.0.1 can help getting the connection up
again. Why and how that works is still a mystery to me. A ipconfig -all
shows both 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 as DNS servers so that shouldn't be a
problem.

Thanks for the tip about storing a webpage-ip.. I have written down
www.google.com now and will try it the next time I experience this.

Thanks again!

On 1/29/04 7:58 AM, in article #GVt$$(E-Mail Removed), "Peter
B" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Back to your query about whether we have the correct domain suffix etc. We
> don't have any such things, and I don't/didn't think it was neccessary.
> Also, if this was the problem, shouldn't it be a constant problem, i.e. I
> would never get access to www? Would you agree with me on this?

Yep, I'd have to agree. This certainly wouldn't cause intermittent problems.

> I use tracert all the time. Infact, I have noticed that executing tracert
> against the main DNS server on 10.0.0.1 can help getting the connection up
> again. Why and how that works is still a mystery to me. A ipconfig -all
> shows both 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 as DNS servers so that shouldn't be a
> problem.

Are you 10.xxx.xxx.xxx addresses the real addresses of your DNS servers with
your ISP? This would indicate you're connecting from a private LAN through
another private LAN and then to the Internet. More potential for trouble
spots here.

Is your router handing out the DNS entries or are these hard-coded on the
machines (even the ones with the DHCP leases)? You might try hard-coding the
DNS on a couple of machines to see if this makes a difference.

Also, your ADSL may need a line quality check. I'd be your local provider
could do this if you make a request.

bill
--
William M. Smith
(Microsoft Interop MVP)

Thanks William!

I added the DNS servers statically on my machine and even added a second
DNS-server that isn't my ISP's. So far there has been no problems with
www-connectivity...

I will try this on the MAC as well soon enough.

/ P


"William M. Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:BC409BA3.351EC%(E-Mail Removed) ...
> On 1/29/04 7:58 AM, in article #GVt$$(E-Mail Removed),
"Peter
> B" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Back to your query about whether we have the correct domain suffix etc.
We
> > don't have any such things, and I don't/didn't think it was neccessary.
> > Also, if this was the problem, shouldn't it be a constant problem, i.e.
I
> > would never get access to www? Would you agree with me on this?
>
> Yep, I'd have to agree. This certainly wouldn't cause intermittent
problems.
>
> > I use tracert all the time. Infact, I have noticed that executing
tracert
> > against the main DNS server on 10.0.0.1 can help getting the connection
up
> > again. Why and how that works is still a mystery to me. A ipconfig -all
> > shows both 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 as DNS servers so that shouldn't be a
> > problem.
>
> Are you 10.xxx.xxx.xxx addresses the real addresses of your DNS servers
with
> your ISP? This would indicate you're connecting from a private LAN through
> another private LAN and then to the Internet. More potential for trouble
> spots here.
>
> Is your router handing out the DNS entries or are these hard-coded on the
> machines (even the ones with the DHCP leases)? You might try hard-coding
the
> DNS on a couple of machines to see if this makes a difference.
>
> Also, your ADSL may need a line quality check. I'd be your local provider
> could do this if you make a request.
>
> bill
> --
> William M. Smith
> (Microsoft Interop MVP)
>