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Sorry to be so long, but I want to be thorough... I am the administrator for a small business network that has 15 desktop computers and 4 laptop computers, all running Windows 7 Pro. Within this network are 3 computers being used as "servers" for various applications. When all computers are first powered up they all show on the network. After about an hour, some of the computers "disappear" from the network display but still function within the network. One of the computers being used as a server continues to "see" all the computers in the network, while the other computers (servers, workstations, laptops) can only see a portion of the computers on the network. Those computers that see a limited number of network computers all see the same ones. I have checked services, Network Discovery, power settings and all the possible setting discrepancies I can think of, but I can't find why this is happening. I have scrutinized the computer that "sees" everything but can find no settings that vary from the others. The computers that don't show up can be pinged and also found using the network path. All computers have network access as well as internet access, but I'm sure this issue is compromising workstation performance and productivity. I have a Time Warner firewall (SonicWall) going to a Cisco SG300-28PP network switch, then to a patch panel with cabling to the workstations (except for the wireless that use WAP). Any ideas about what this problem can be? I'm not a novice at this but apparently there's more to learn! Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Confused
Posted 2016-05-18T18:03:25.400
Reputation: 11
No need to applogize for the length of your question, it's really not that long. So here are a few more questions for you to answer. 1) Have you looked into the firewall rules on each machine? Is the firewall turned on or off on each machine? 2) Are you using DHCP to assign IP addresses? If so, what is the lease time? 3) does each machine on your network have a unique name assigned to it (meaning you dont have 10 computers named user-pc or something similar)? What device is assigning DHCP on your network? I am going to guess the sonicwall is doing that. – Richie086 – 2016-05-18T22:45:10.310
Are all computers on your network in the same Workgroup? What IP address range/subnet are these computers in? Do you have any configuration set on the Cisco SG300-28PP switch (not sure if you are aware, but that model is managed meaning you can login and configure various parameters)? When you say "server", what exactly are they being used for? Quickbooks? Files? Web Server? – Richie086 – 2016-05-18T22:50:54.940