Hi there, This is quite a queer issue i have.System: Newly installed Windows SBS 2003 R2, fully up to date with all patches, no ISA firwall. Configured for AD, DNS, Exchange, DHCP, running 2 NICS for firewall between internal and external cards. The usual basic SBS config in other words. Newly installed Vista Business workstations fully up to date, no firewalls. Newly installed Canon IRC3380 Multifunction.Know facts: Server and workstations functioning together perfectly, no issues with connectivity, can ping any machine from any machine including server. Workstations can ping printer and indeed have the printer installed locally functioning correctly.Problem:Server cannot ping Canon Multifunction, except on random and few echo responses.Comments:I'm stumped, i have tried cables, switches, network speed, netbios settings, firewalls. It does not make sense that the server can correctly ping anything but this printer, yet the workstations have no problem. This is especically confusing as the workstations are assigned a default gateway of the server, so all traffic is passing through the server.Further to this in my logic, the server would not know what the printer is, it should only see another NIC on the network to send an ICMP echo request and recieve one back.To make this worse, during troubleshooting it would magically recieve responses without changing any config, then die again.My thoughts were that there was a hardware fault in either the server or the printer, however the workstations functioning correctly with both printer and server means that this fault would have to be specific to the communication between a server OS and the printer. And there again, i would not have thought the server could know what the device is, only that it is a NIC on the network.I'll take any suggestion anyone has, thanks.

This issue sounds very strange.The OS barrier you are speaking of can not logically be the case, because the ping command is not OS specific... I am still thinking there must be something wrong in the physical setup here, without really knowing how the network is designed.Can you try something out?Try taking a laptop (if you have one) and plug it into the same port as the printer is connected today, check what IP it gets from the DHCP and try ping towards the laptop?If it still fails, this must mean that there is a physical netowrk problem between the server and the printer, but not between the printer and the client.I assume you have tried toa) change the ip of the printer (yes, sounds like a long reach, but this actually work very often)b) connect the printer to another port in the switch/router.Please keep us posted!~ Axel Aubert

Thanks for the quick response.Indeed i have tried different ports on the switch, with dhcp, static assigning of address both on the printer and through reservation in dhcp and an IP that is completely out of the range of the address pool as to avoid conflicts.Interestingly it just occurred to me that the dhcp would have had to be failing...If i were to plug a laptop into the switch, regardless of port it would replicate a workstation, and receive an IP within the address pool and function just fine (theoretically anyway).I've actually run a 20 metre cable, straight to the switch in multiple ports with no success.To clarify the network...Modem >>>> External NIC >>>>>Server localhost >>>>>Internal NIC >>>>> Switch >>>>> Workstations and network attached devices.

This forums is Exclusively dedicated for Windows 2008 Server Issues, it would be great if you can post your Query in SBS 2003 forumThanks for understanding http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?query=sbs+2003&dg=&cat=en_US_d02fc761-3f6b-402c-82f6-ba1a8875c1a7&lang=en&cr=&pt=&catlist=&dglist=&ptlist=&exp=&sloc=en-us Syed Khairuddin

Terribly sorry, i havn't found yet were it actually tells me that, only this bit."Microsoft TechNet>Forums Home>General "I seem to have mistaken GENERAL for WINDOWS 2008.