Everybody loves troubleshooting, don't they?

This is a real life problem that was escalated to me by our second level helpdesk. Let's see you answers!



You have a remote location on your WAN. At this location, you have a Unix server and 10 unix clients who connect only to the Unix server. You also have 1 Windows 2000 professional workstation at this location. This location also has 1 network printer.

The Windows 2000 box, does not use a designated print server. It prints directly to the printer, over the network. The unix clients use the Unix server as their print server.

PROBLEM:
The Windows 2000 workstation cannot print. When the help desk connected to the workstation via PCAnywhere, they could not ping the printer from the workstation. When the helpdesk pinged any other address from the Windows 2000 workstation, all pings were returned. When the helpdesk pinged the network address of the printer from their own workstations, the printer was pingable. All the unix clients can print without any problems.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
The remote location uses only a single IP subnet. The unix server is never rebooted, unless necessary. The unix clients and Windows 2000 workstation are rebooted nightly. (I may have just made it too easy).


Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me what is the cause. Additional credit will be given if you can provide a fix for the problem, in addition you will be scorned by those who can't believe they didn't figure it out.

I told you it was real life.

Last edited by Joe Blacke on 01-22-02 at 08:47 PM

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I'll take a stab at this.
Seems like the printer may have a different subnet mask (is that possible) than the rest of the network. Assuming the printer is on and functional.

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Nope, it's not an addressing problem.

The Windows 2000 workstation could print fine, then one day it couldn't.



Remember all other workstation have no trouble printing. Only the Windows 2k box. The Windows 2k box can't ping the printer, but it can ping everything else (by name or by address). The printer is pingable from a workstation that is outside the subnet.

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Man, almost 50 views and only 1 person has offered a suggestion.

You might have to think a bit, but it isn't that hard.

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Was there any boot messages from the workstation about services not starting when it was rebooted?
I think we can rule out
layers one 2 and 3 on this as they have been tested out with the pings and the statement that addressing was not involved.
Other than an ACL on the nic in the workstation I`m not sure.
Hm this is a good one.

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"It is our decisions that show us what we truly are in life, not our abilities."

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Nope. No error messages on the workstation.

If it helps you any, the printer is in constant use throughout the day by the Unix clients.

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Quote
"If it helps you any, the printer is in constant use throughout the day by the Unix clients."

I don`t see how that could affect the ability of the workstatikon to ping it.

Well I suppose the win2K workstation could have and erroneous entry in its ARP table.
You could try the "arp inet_addr" command
and try to resolve it.
hehe "stab in the dark"

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Check out my music at
www.chodan.com
Rural Development in Eastern Ky.
www.centertech.com
"It is our decisions that show us what we truly are in life, not our abilities."

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quote:

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Originally posted by chodan
Quote


Well I suppose the win2K workstation could have and erroneous entry in its ARP table.
You could try the "arp inet_addr" command
and try to resolve it.
hehe "stab in the dark"

---

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Did they recently change any hardware on the Workstation?

__________________
Check out my music at
www.chodan.com
Rural Development in Eastern Ky.
www.centertech.com
"It is our decisions that show us what we truly are in life, not our abilities."

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Nope.

You were on the right track when you realized how two hosts on the same subnet communicate. They need mac addresses.

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