This is in a small office with 11 computers, all running windows xp, and connected with our windows 2003 server.

I am trying to run online back-up with geek squad, but randomly (at any given time) the connection will drop and it will start all over. I talked to tech support for a month and we have narrowed it down to the problem being on our network. What could cause this? I am running the back-up on a windows xp pro machine, that is connected to the domain. Any thought on what can be done? I was told to look into ISP, NAT, or our switch.

This computer is hooked up to a Plug and play Switch > which goes through a amp net connector > which goes to our Dell Power Connect 2216 router > which goes to another device called a Route Finder (I dont know what this is) > which goes to the cable modem... Where would I start and what settings would I look at.. I am lost and don't know where to start. Thanks!

Connect the machine directly to the modem and try the back up. It could be an unreliable connection from your ISP.

How long does it work before it resets?

Ps. Why in God's name are you using GeekSquad?

I was price shopping around and geek squad gave me 25 gigs, with the feature to encrypt data being sent, compress the files, and back up nightly for 50 dollars a year... ok so I will directly connect the modem tomorrow night to the computer and see if I can do the back-up.. If indeed it is a ISP problem can they fix it?

So I dont have to move the entire PC machine over could I put the ethernet cable from the cable modem, directly to the port on the amp net connector (this is what routes the bandwidth through the walls to the correct outlet) and then have a plug from that wall jack to the computer? If not I can stay real late and move everything over and see if it works....

Thanks for the speedy response!

Ok so I hooked up the computer directly to the cable modem, ran the back-up, and the same problem "connection to the server was reset" happened! So that eliminates any problems with any hardware...which leaves me with the ISP and the actual cable modem...Should I call them and see whats going on with that upload? I was thinking maybe they are blocking it thinking its torrent files.

brian

if your data is encrypted, your isp cant see its contents so they wont suspect torrents. also, if its one outbound connection, that doesnt look like a torrent to an isp.

did they mention how they narrowed it down to a network problem?

does it take a long time for the connection to drop or does it happen after a few minutes? if its a short amount of time, you could try running a datacapture to see what packets are making it to their destionation and what happens when the connection gets interrupted. you can also try running a traceroute to your destination and then run one right after the connection drops. while the traceroute wont "prove" anything, you can see if your connection was going via LA one minute and then the next minute its going via NY. you can also try running a constant ping to your destination and try to correlate any abnormalities with that ping to drops in your backup, however your backup provider may not like that so make sure to get clearance from them before sending a whole bunch of pings at them.

does this disconnect happen at all times of day? its possible that your isp does routine maintenance at the time that you normally run your backups (i.e. at night) which would cause your connection to be interrupted.

basically, what im getting at is that internet is never a reliable connection so any interruptions (hardware failure, routing changes for whatever reason, congestion) may produce unexpected results.

and one more thought....i dont know the best way to check this but can you run some streaming media for extended periods of time without any interruption? maybe its just the length of the connection. try asking your isp to see if there's any max length of a connection before it gets reset.

HTH

I just spoke with my ISP and they pulled up a two week history and they said ntohing is wrong with our connection, and that they are not blocking the upload. The problem happens at any time of the day, at any time during the upload. I will run a ping to the destination during the next upload and well see whats going on with that.. whats the best way to to get the I.P. address of the server I am uploading to? Thanks!

p.S. any other ideas while I am looking into bob's method?

Bob, I had an open cmd ping going at the destination the files were being uploaded, and yep you guessed it, the connection to the server was reset but the ping command kept an active connection.

I wonder if its a problem with the file? The file is NOT in use, the two I am trying to upload is:
1. 612 MB database file
2. 917MB text file

The text file is the biggest one i have ever seen, but the files are not in use, and besides you would think a server would not care whats being uploaded. I can upload numerous smaller files without a problem, but that doesn't help me at all because the two main ones I need wont back up!

UPDATE** During the second attempt the ping cmd read "Request timed out" and the update reset the connection... What doesn't make sense is that the connection has 30 seconds to re-establish but could not find the connection again, although PING replied a during the next hop.

can you generate a really large file of garbage and upload that not securely? it's possible that for whatever reason your connection is dropping, but when ip connectivity re-establishes, the SSL part doesnt re-establish, presumably because you're hitting a different physical server eventhough the virtual may be the same. transfering a bunch of junk that's not over an encrypted connection may prove (or disprove) my theory.

ping doesnt keep a connection - it sends and receives icmp packets but there's no actual handshake. when you disconnected the first time, did the ping response time increase (or decrease) at all?

is there any way you can try this backup from a different isp connection or better yet, a different isp, perhaps from your home? the data doesnt (and shouldnt) be real data. it just has to be a really large file.

When I get home I will back up a 2 gig file on my home connection and see what happens, but it will be on the same ISP. I will make sure that its not encrypted... thanks for the help bob

OK so check this out...

I tried downloading UBUNTU from two different servers, one using firefox and one using IE EXPLORER

The firefox download stopped around 400MB...just completely froze


The IE Explorer made it to 84% and then guess what error I got? Yep I just got "The connection to the server was reset" and the download stopped...coincidence or shall I call the ISP back?

well, i may have been barking up the wrong tree before...that's the one test i didnt tihnk about. i also never asked how you get your files to the remote site. is it straight upload via browser?

try googling The connection to the server was reset - you'll get a whole bunch of replies, including repairing internet explorer as well as increasing the timeout.

wow, i was pretty off.

The download that just gave me the error was via browser DOWNLOAD, but the upload problem with geek squad is there own software they have....

bump