Vista not cooperating with Multiple Gateways

Hello everybody. I've tried solving this problem on my own with Google and what not. I felt it was time to ask for help.

My problem is at my place of work. It's a small office, we have maybe 7 or 8 computers. 1 or 2 connect wirelessly, the rest are wired. I guess the situation before I got here was that they were going to try going wireless but it didn't work for whatever reason. (My boss used a Dummie's book to set up the server and network). So the current environment is that there are multiple gateways.

When I first started I had some Compaq computer and it was fine. Then I started getting very intermittent (almost non-existant) connection to the internet. When it did connect, it would go slow. My boss thought it was the Compaq's ethernet card or whatever. He bought a new comp, a Dell Vostro 220 with Vista Home Basic. Didn't solve the problem.

He thinks it's the multiple gateways causing the problem. It happens to the other computers running Vista. The boss' machine is XP, and has no problems.

We tried doing IP stack resets, turning off IPv6, tried manually adding routes. I did manage to get a half there connection after I did some manual adding, and was able to update my 4 month old virus defintions in AVG and sync my gmail for offline use before it stopped working again. Granted, it is working a little bit better, but not useable.

So I have copied the results of ipconfig /all and such to post here. I only know about networking to make my own home network cooperate, so for my own sanity, i took out the domain names just to prevent hacking and such although I suppose with mac address and ip addresses, maybe it doesn't matter. Just trying to cover my own butt. :-)

I appreciate any help:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ckc-scheduling2
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : {edited out}

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : {edited out}
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E
GBE NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-9B-1F-B7-52
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.18(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:28:00 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, June 05, 2009 3:27:59 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.60
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.87.76.178
66.240.48.9
66.180.96.12
192.168.0.60
192.168.2.60
64.238.96.12
192.168.1.60
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.60
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 192.168.1.60
192.168.2.60
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{edited out}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes


C:\Windows\system32>route print
================================================== =========================
Interface List
10 ...00 21 9b 1f b7 52 ...... Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E GBE NI
C
1 ........................... Software Loopback Interface 1
11 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 isatap.{edited out}
12 ...02 00 54 55 4e 01 ...... Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
================================================== =========================

IPv4 Route Table
================================================== =========================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.18 20
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.0.18 20
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.18 276
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.0.18 40
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.18 21
192.168.0.18 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.18 276
192.168.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.18 276
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.18 276
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.18 276
================================================== =========================
Persistent Routes:
Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.1 20
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.0.1 1
================================================== =========================

IPv6 Route Table
================================================== =========================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination Gateway
1 306 ::1/128 On-link
1 306 ff00::/8 On-link
================================================== =========================
Persistent Routes:
None

Those persistant routes are ones I typed in. Oh, also, the last step I did that helped a little bit was to type:

route DELETE 192.168.1.1

ip 192.168.0.1 is supposed to be the wired router, whereas 192.168.1.1 is supposed to be the wireless.

Here is a layout of how all the hardware is setup:

First, the make and model of all equipment.

* SMC Networks / Comcast Business IP Gateway
* Syswan Dualinks Model SW24
* Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall Model FVS-318
* Dell Powerconnect 2216
* Netgear Rangemax Next Wireless Router Model WNR854T


Starting from the SMC/Comcast Cable modem:

Three ports out of four ports used, unlabeled ports. I'll call them Ports A-C:
Port A -> Port 'Internet' of FVS-318
Port B -> Port 'Internet' of WNR854T
Port C -> Port 'WAN2' of SW24

SW24:
not plugged in to anything else

WNR854T:
Port 3 -> Port 2 of FVS-318
Port 4 -> Unlabeled port of Big Server (as in physically bigger, I don't know any other way to differentiate them, although the small server is only plugged in to 1 thing as you'll see later).

FVS-318:
Port 1: Wired
Port 2 -> Port 3 of WNR854T
Port 3: Wired
Port 4: Wired
Port 5 -> Unlabeled port of Big Server
Port 6: Wired
Port 7: Wired
Port 8: Wired

Powerconnect 2216:
Port 1: Office Printer
Port 2: Port labeled 'Gb' of Big Server
Port 3: Unsure. Seems to run off through the office to be wired.
Port 4: Unlabeled port of Little Server

Hmmm, I noticed that the Modem is plugged in to the FVS-318 directly AND through a port on the WNR854T. So I unplugged the cable going from the WNR to FVS and now I've got my own personal desktop working and the front desks, but everybody else's computer is not working. Usually, my computer has the most problems. In fact, for the past 4 months, I've used Remote Desktop Connection to connect to the Server to get online and do anything.

Many thanks for any help

A network diagram is worth a thousand words, but in the absence of one...

- It is a little pointless to have the machines configured with both routers concurrently. It does not cause traffic to be load balanced or even split up between the gateways - one of them is always the active gateway. A mechanism called "black hole router detection" can cause failover between the two gateways when certain conditions are met (a percentage of established TCP sessions is failing), but that can have weird effects which are difficult to troubleshoot in a SOHO setting.

- By themselves, multiple gateways won't cause "slow". There's something else going on.

- Don't have "circles" in the wiring. I'm too dumb to follow your description of how things are wired, but it sounds like everything is connected to everything else. In general, you want a "hub and spoke" wiring topology where it's not possible to follow connections and end up at the exact same spot you started without ever backtracking over the same wire twice (circles in the diagram).

- I'd suggest ripping out the wireless one evening and just getting the wired connection going on all machines. You should also flush the route tables (route -f) and reboot to make sure the client machines are as clean as possible. Until everything is working wired with no persistent routes, I wouldn't even think about adding the second (wireless) router into the mix.

- Once you do decide to add the WAP back into the mix, think about having it downstream from the wired router with its router/DHCP functionality actually disabled - all it needs to do is to act as a wireless bridge between clients and the wired router. That way there's only one DHCP server, only one gateway, only one IP address range, and no need for persistent routes or other fancy IP configuration.

these forums make it so hard to delete double posts...

H2SO4 said:

A network diagram is worth a thousand words, but in the absence of one...

- It is a little pointless to have the machines configured with both routers concurrently. It does not cause traffic to be load balanced or even split up between the gateways - one of them is always the active gateway. A mechanism called "black hole router detection" can cause failover between the two gateways when certain conditions are met (a percentage of established TCP sessions is failing), but that can have weird effects which are difficult to troubleshoot in a SOHO setting.

- By themselves, multiple gateways won't cause "slow". There's something else going on.

- Don't have "circles" in the wiring. I'm too dumb to follow your description of how things are wired, but it sounds like everything is connected to everything else. In general, you want a "hub and spoke" wiring topology where it's not possible to follow connections and end up at the exact same spot you started without ever backtracking over the same wire twice (circles in the diagram).

- I'd suggest ripping out the wireless one evening and just getting the wired connection going on all machines. You should also flush the route tables (route -f) and reboot to make sure the client machines are as clean as possible. Until everything is working wired with no persistent routes, I wouldn't even think about adding the second (wireless) router into the mix.

- Once you do decide to add the WAP back into the mix, think about having it downstream from the wired router with its router/DHCP functionality actually disabled - all it needs to do is to act as a wireless bridge between clients and the wired router. That way there's only one DHCP server, only one gateway, only one IP address range, and no need for persistent routes or other fancy IP configuration.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I will report this back to my boss. It is pretty crazy looking at the server cubicle... We need to simplify it...

Our temporary fix:

Unplug the cable going from Port 3 of the WNR854T -> to Port 2 of FVS318.

Use that connection for boss' daughter's laptop (which used wifi usually).

Fix the configuration for the wifi later. Wireless router is still hooked up to cable modem and server, and IS broadcasting. So it's definitely a configuration problem that he'll have to figure out since it's his network. Only 1 desktop relies on the wifi and and the boss' laptop (but he has a wired desktop in his cubicle).

Voila. Now I just ask him where my bonus is...