Workstations Lose Internet Access When Server is Disconnected

Ok

In all three scenarios there you can hit an external IP.

Can you do the same ipconfig and tracert on a machine when you can't get internet access.

 

@grunger

Room G Workstation with Server disconnected
ipconfig /all
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name...............: frontdesk2​

Primary DNS Suffix......: <domainname>.com​

Node Type...............: Unknown​

IP Routing Enabled......: No​

WINS Proxy Enabled......: No​

DNS Suffix Search List..: <DomainName>.com​

Ethernet adapter Server Local Area Connection:

Connection Specific DNS Suffic..: ​

Description.....................: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller​

Physical Address................: 00-1E-0B-B8-B1-DD​

DHCP Enabled....................: Yes​

Autoconfiguration Enabled.......: Yes​

IP Address....................: 192.168.1.132(Preferred)​

Subnet Mask.....................: 255.255.255.0​

Default Gateway...............: 192.168.1.1​

DHCP Server....................: 192.168.1.1​

Lease Obtained..................: Friday, May 03, 2013 12:08:36 PM​

Lease Expires...................: Friday, May 10, 2013 3:01:21 PM​

DNS Servers.....................: 192.168.1.131, 192.168.1.1​

Tracert 8.8.8.8
Tracing route to 8.8.8.8 over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1ms <1ms <1ms 192.168.1.1​

2 104ms 23ms 23ms fl-71-2-40-129​

3 * 26ms 40ms fl-64-45-123-134​

4 23ms 23ms 22ms 173-248-56-236​

5 23ms 24ms 23ms 208.110.148.94​

6 29ms 29ms 51ms 208-110-248-193​

7 29ms 29ms 29ms 208.110.148.101​

8 29ms 29ms 28ms 72.14.119.248​

9 28ms 29ms 28ms 209.85.153.118​

10 39ms 39ms 39ms 216.239.38.192​

11 39ms 38ms 39ms 209.85.148.31​

12 * * * Request timed out.​

13 39ms 38ms 38ms google-public-dns-a-google.com [8.8.8.8]​

Trace complete.​

Thanks!

 

There is a guy on Neowin forums called Budman who is a genius with all things network related, if you can't find your answer here I'd highly recommend starting a thread over there, he's generally on them like a hawk

 

In all of those tests the machines in question can reach an external IP.

I suspect you have a DNS issue.

Try repeating all the tracert commands with a FQDN (www.yahoo.co.uk)

I'd say the .131 address (the server) is working and forwarding DNS lookups, when this is removed they attempt to use .1 and that isn't forwarding DNS lookups hence the FQDNs fail to resolve and you appear to loose internet access.

Push a public DNS to your clients via DHCP. (8.8.8.8 and 4.4.4.4 will work)

 

Just wanted to drop an update note for those who've tried to help with my issue. I had to finally make a move one way or the other, so I began disconnecting/reconnecting and documented along the way.

Long story short, the router in this setup which was locked by the previous team and inaccessible (due to unknown login details) was apparently configured to in a way that caused my initial troubles.

Upon reconnection/reconfigure of things, I used the modem to manage Static IP and DNS Servers from ISP and simply used the new router for wireless and extending connection to the main switch.

I had a small issue with IP conficts, but resolved that by setting the workstations to internal static IPs. I also had a major issue with the newly reset ISP modem where the office would lose access everyday at a random time and could only be resolved by power cycling the modem. I replaced the modem with a new one provided by the ISP, who were less than happy to do so.

Today was the first non-issue day since I started the reconfiguration last Friday and coincidentally was the first day with the new modem.

Special Note
I sincerely appreciate all the assistance from you all. This is the most responsive forum I've requested assistance from in recent memory and want you to know that your time and knowledge was well utilized.

Thank you!

 

Nice, glad you got it together enough to rip apart the old setup.