Not any help or criticism of you but a suggestion that might help you long term. Bring in an outside contractor specifically to work on the network and get them to teach you a lot of the basics as they fix things. This will make things easier for you and you might find out that the network is just setup wrong or extended further than it should have been. The other alternative would be take some night classes in networking. I did both but started out with the first one years ago. Like you I did not have the basics down and missed things the contractor caught in the first 5 minutes. The night classes helped polish up enough that while I am not a network person I can usually find my way out of any hole I get thrown into. I got real lucky in that the contractor was also one of the instructors at a local college and was very good at both teaching and fixing problems.
Jon On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Jim von Stein <jvonst...@soastc.org> wrote: > Adding an entry to the rash of weird networking issues…**** > > ** ** > > I have a WAN setup for our organization with three sites, each with its > own subnet, Domain server and file server (all in the same domain). The > “main” site is connected to site #2 by multilink t-1 through two Cisco > routers and to Site #3 by a “Branch Office” (fixed) VPN connection through > a couple of WatchGuard Fireboxes (all traffic from Site #3 routed through > the VPN). Everything works, browsing, file sharing, Internet access, it’s > all good.**** > > ** ** > > I brought up a new Server 2008R2 in the “main” site on a DL360G7 box and > installed the Remote Desktop Services Host role on it. No errors or > (observed) glitches. Joined to the domain, etc. I’m only using one NIC at > the moment, fixed IP address, reservation in DHCP, DNS entries good on all > internal DNS servers.**** > > ** ** > > Now, the problem. The new server cannot “see” site #3 at all; a ping to > any box in that site returns “Destination host unreachable” from the IP > address of the server (not the Firebox). Tracert returns the same on the > first line. The server can talk to everything in the main site and site #2, > and approved users can RDP into it from those sites with no problem, but > any attempt to connect to the server from site #1 (Windows Explorer, ping, > RDP) times out (*not* “Destination host unreachable”). Mobile VPN > connections from “outside” also time out.**** > > ** ** > > The other, identical (except for File Services instead of Remote Desktop) > server in the same rack has no difficulty communicating with Site #3, and > everyone at Site #3 can see it with no problem.**** > > ** ** > > The Server 2003 Terminal Services box is also accessible from all three > sites (and outside).**** > > ** ** > > Any ideas? I’m a Social Worker who inherited the IT Admin job 15 years > ago, and my knowledge of the black arts of networking is pretty > rudimentary; this has got me baffled, and Google has presented only cases > that had obvious (and inapplicable) differences.**** > > ** ** > > Jim von Stein**** > > Information Services Administrator**** > > SOASTC**** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin