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Managed switch died on windows small business server 2003 what to do now?

  • Hi there, I have a friend who runs a small business and uses windows small business server 2003 on an old dell poweredge server. It's only a small network with around 10 client desktop machines. The windows server was connected to a big ethernet switch which we think might have been a 'managed' one, for which we never had any password to access it so we don't know what settings it had in it. We dont know who set it up originally either sadly. The windows server was used for exchange email, dns, dhcp, calendar, and shared mapped drives at logon. The clients connected could also access the internet. The server and the desktop machines had access to the internet via a conventional adsl router which had the isp login and password in it which is safe. Forwarding rules were set up by me in the router for outside access and email functionality which were forwarded we believe to the managed switch. The rules in the adsl router forwarded packets to 192.168.16.2 Everything was working fine until the 'managed' switch we believe bit the dust. My friend went out and bought an unmanaged switch not knowing the old one was managed thinking it would work but it didn't want to know. Basically nothing works now which is why I think it was a managed switch. We have had a look at the servers manually configured ip address and settings which read as: ip: 192.168.16.250 subnet: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.16.2 dns: 192.168.16.2 The server is connected to the switch with one ip network card. It appears the switch had an ip address of 192.168.16.2, and was elected as the gateway and for dns. The internet adsl router's ip address is 192.168.16.1 What I would like to know is, how easy would it be to get things working again by taking the router out of the equation and what settings would I have to enter in? Would it be possible to reconfigure the server using the internet and email wizard present in sbs2003 to do the job or: Would a better option be to get another managed switch and configure it? If so what settings would I need to put in? I have googled online and found talk of routing tables and forwarding rules but I am unsure on what this means as my networking knowledge is not advanced level :( I know that all the traffic forwarded from the adsl router to the switch was allowed through so I don't think it had any blocking enabled, but I feel there may have been some routing or forwarding information there to enable it to work the way it did. Any help or ideas on this scenario would be very gratefully recieved. Many Thanks in advance.

  • Answer:

    This doesn't add up. If everything you have told us is correct the switch is not only a managed switch but a layer three switch. Quite simply there is no need at all for a layer three switch on such a small network - they are really for networks of a thousand machines minimum. Based on what you have said I can't see a reason why you would need a managed switch at all (since there is only one subnet and everything is on the same switch) yet alone a layer 3 switch. What is the make and model of this device? Either it is a truly bizarre and incredibly wasteful set up or you have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere.

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This doesn't add up. If everything you have told us is correct the switch is not only a managed switch but a layer three switch. Quite simply there is no need at all for a layer three switch on such a small network - they are really for networks of a thousand machines minimum. Based on what you have said I can't see a reason why you would need a managed switch at all (since there is only one subnet and everything is on the same switch) yet alone a layer 3 switch. What is the make and model of this device? Either it is a truly bizarre and incredibly wasteful set up or you have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere.

Andrew S

What you're trying to do (and what I'm trying to do) is figure out what the fellow who set this thing up originally did. That's not easy. Having said that... I think the old switch may have been doing some routing (sending Internet traffic to 192.168.16.1) and might have even been providing DHCP and DNS services, as well. These are services normally provided by a modern router. Perhaps the legacy switch was left over from a previous configuration (leased line or ISDN?). The simplest recommendation that I can make is to change the ADSL router's address from 192.168.16.1 to 192.168.16.2. (You can still use the unmanaged Ethernet switch: all it's doing is providing you with more ports, regardless.) The server, and presumably any other machine on the network, will then see the router as the gateway. It's easy to try, and easy to undo if it doesn't work. Good luck.

Joe

What you're trying to do (and what I'm trying to do) is figure out what the fellow who set this thing up originally did. That's not easy. Having said that... I think the old switch may have been doing some routing (sending Internet traffic to 192.168.16.1) and might have even been providing DHCP and DNS services, as well. These are services normally provided by a modern router. Perhaps the legacy switch was left over from a previous configuration (leased line or ISDN?). The simplest recommendation that I can make is to change the ADSL router's address from 192.168.16.1 to 192.168.16.2. (You can still use the unmanaged Ethernet switch: all it's doing is providing you with more ports, regardless.) The server, and presumably any other machine on the network, will then see the router as the gateway. It's easy to try, and easy to undo if it doesn't work. Good luck.

Joe

complex issue. look on to a search engine. this could help!

debbie

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