Multiple NICs On 2003 Causing Problems

Hello, I have 3 NIC cards in my server runnning 2003
Enterprise Edition. This server is an active directory
domain controller, DNS server, and DHCP server. Each NIC
card has its own IP address. My problem is this: When I
attempt to browse the network neighborhood it is extremely
slow and on my XP machines I get permission errors. In the
event viewer I get error NetBT 4319. I have read at
eventid.net that this is a problem with NetBIOS
broadcasting the machine name across the network causing a
conflict. Now, I have sone this before with 2000 server
and had no problems....

Anyways, they suggest to disable Microsoft Client And File
Sharing on all but the one NIC. So, I say what the heck
(though this should not have to be) and it works! The
speed of nethood browsing is normal and no
permission/unavailability errors. I think everything is
fine... well... it is not. I now am not able to edit any
group policy objects such as the Domain Controller Policy.
I get an error: Failed to open the Group Policy Object.
You many not have appropriate rights. Details: Windows
cannot find the network path. I go to see if disabling the
Microsoft Client and the File Sharing caused this by
enabling the services on the second and third NICS again-
lo and behold I can open group policy snap ins.... but the
network lookup problems come right back.... There should
be some "normal" way to fix this and I have been spending
hours and hours trying to repair. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!! Thanks

You're not supposed to run multiple NICs in a Domain Controller. SBS is an
exception and is commonly used with two NICs, but using three is just
begging for trouble. If those three NICs are all in the same subnet then you
are really shooting yourself in the head.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com




"CBerry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:009701c46d5e$f9e2a4b0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello, I have 3 NIC cards in my server runnning 2003
> Enterprise Edition. This server is an active directory
> domain controller, DNS server, and DHCP server. Each NIC
> card has its own IP address. My problem is this: When I
> attempt to browse the network neighborhood it is extremely
> slow and on my XP machines I get permission errors. In the
> event viewer I get error NetBT 4319. I have read at
> eventid.net that this is a problem with NetBIOS
> broadcasting the machine name across the network causing a
> conflict. Now, I have sone this before with 2000 server
> and had no problems....
>
> Anyways, they suggest to disable Microsoft Client And File
> Sharing on all but the one NIC. So, I say what the heck
> (though this should not have to be) and it works! The
> speed of nethood browsing is normal and no
> permission/unavailability errors. I think everything is
> fine... well... it is not. I now am not able to edit any
> group policy objects such as the Domain Controller Policy.
> I get an error: Failed to open the Group Policy Object.
> You many not have appropriate rights. Details: Windows
> cannot find the network path. I go to see if disabling the
> Microsoft Client and the File Sharing caused this by
> enabling the services on the second and third NICS again-
> lo and behold I can open group policy snap ins.... but the
> network lookup problems come right back.... There should
> be some "normal" way to fix this and I have been spending
> hours and hours trying to repair. Any help would be
> greatly appreciated!! Thanks

Thanks for the help, I was not aware you could not run
multiple NICS. I never had a problem with 2 on the same
subnet on 2000 ADV server. What if I want more bandwidth
to the same server?
>-----Original Message-----
>You're not supposed to run multiple NICs in a Domain
Controller. SBS is an
>exception and is commonly used with two NICs, but using
three is just
>begging for trouble. If those three NICs are all in the
same subnet then you
>are really shooting yourself in the head.
>
>--
>
>Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
>www.wandtv.com
>
>
>
>
>"CBerry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:009701c46d5e$f9e2a4b0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hello, I have 3 NIC cards in my server runnning 2003
>> Enterprise Edition. This server is an active directory
>> domain controller, DNS server, and DHCP server. Each NIC
>> card has its own IP address. My problem is this: When I
>> attempt to browse the network neighborhood it is
extremely
>> slow and on my XP machines I get permission errors. In
the
>> event viewer I get error NetBT 4319. I have read at
>> eventid.net that this is a problem with NetBIOS
>> broadcasting the machine name across the network
causing a
>> conflict. Now, I have sone this before with 2000 server
>> and had no problems....
>>
>> Anyways, they suggest to disable Microsoft Client And
File
>> Sharing on all but the one NIC. So, I say what the heck
>> (though this should not have to be) and it works! The
>> speed of nethood browsing is normal and no
>> permission/unavailability errors. I think everything is
>> fine... well... it is not. I now am not able to edit any
>> group policy objects such as the Domain Controller
Policy.
>> I get an error: Failed to open the Group Policy Object.
>> You many not have appropriate rights. Details: Windows
>> cannot find the network path. I go to see if disabling
the
>> Microsoft Client and the File Sharing caused this by
>> enabling the services on the second and third NICS
again-
>> lo and behold I can open group policy snap ins.... but
the
>> network lookup problems come right back.... There should
>> be some "normal" way to fix this and I have been
spending
>> hours and hours trying to repair. Any help would be
>> greatly appreciated!! Thanks
>
>
>.
>

"CBerry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:035101c46df5$a4d62810$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the help, I was not aware you could not run
> multiple NICS. I never had a problem with 2 on the same
> subnet on 2000 ADV server. What if I want more bandwidth
> to the same server?

Then you run faster NICs and faster cabling, or you do Server Clustering.
Two nics don't do that. You can buy specialized NICs that come with special
software to make the two NICs work together, but you can't do that with
Windows itself.

But even if you do that you still get the speed cut back as soon as it hits
the first switch or hub. The hubs always "share" that bandwidth among ports
and not "combine" bandwidth,...while switches will always "switch" packets
to the matching MAC addresses they are intended for which means it will only
use the one port and cable associated with the MAC address of the
destination NIC, so...you only use one NIC anyway. I suspect that very
"high-end" switches have ways around this, but hubs just aren't usable at
all.

You had trouble with two NICs in the same subnet on 2000 but you just never
knew it. It causes there to be two Default Gateways in the routing table,
each on a different NIC without a way for the System to tell them apart and
know which one it is supposed to use. But if instead you just put two IP#s
of the same subnet on a single NIC this doesn't happen.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com