Hi Guys, I dont really know how to describe my issue without confusing you people.. here is what seems to be going on with one of my Windows 2008 R2 dc'S. Every now and then when the server reboots it becomes un-responsive and stops pinging and we have to login through the console and disable and enable to network card and only then its starts responding (I have updated the network card drivers and the network card firmware with the latest version from the Dell website) Today it did the same and this time I wasn't able to login through the console and since the DC has no local admin I thought I was doomed! But then I restarted the computer in Directory Services Restore Mode and I was able to login and when I went to the network connections what I found out was that the "Local Area Connection" cards had changed by that I mean earlier the primary LAN connection had a name "Local Area Connection 3" and now it had "Local Area Connection 6" and was set to DHCP so it had clearly switched the networks cards...and since all our servers are assigned a static IP adress there is no DHCP scope configured for the VLAN the servers are in. But my question is that why did that happen I mean all of a sudden after a reboot why did it change the network card by itself whereas we did not do anything with the server ports.. the server is plugged into the same GB1 and GB2 ports as before. Does anyone know why this happened? Thanks

Hello, please make sure to use ONLY ONE NIC and disable all other NICs on the server, then post an unedited ipconfig /all so we can verify some settings for the DC. Personal i have never seen any "swapping" NICs.Best regards Meinolf Weber MVP, MCP, MCTS Microsoft MVP - Directory Services My Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/mweber/ Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

I removed the ghost NIC's using this article http://itproguru.com/expert/2010/09/how-to-find-a-lost-missing-hidden-or-removed-network-card-nic-or-other-device-and-even-remove-it/

Hi, Im glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. And thanks for sharing the solution here for other community member who may have the same issue. Best Regards, Aiden Aiden Cao TechNet Community Support