Server > switch > Router madness

English Network/Internet
1

I have setup a web server it all seems to work accept it looses connection to the world wide web about every hour but not the local LAN.

I will elaberate:
The server is run in a VM on VirtualBox, I created a bridge to the nic card and a tap to VBox it works it pulls an IP from the adtrans router. I also have an other comp also connected to the adtrans router and a second router that connects to a normal DSL connection.

Periodicly the server can NOT be reached, if the IP is pinged it times out.

Now if I remote into the other computer with 2 connections I can ping and remote into the server over the local LAN.

And when I give the server a command that reaches out to the net (like pinging an outside address) the server becomes visible again the the world.

So to break it down the server can always be reached by local LAN but looses outside connectivity after about an 1/2 hour. Then comes back instantly when I initiate an outbound command from the server.

I am pulling my hair out trying to figger out whats going on.

2

Could it be some sleep state on the Virtualbox host is affecting your Guest? This could be explained that the nic of the host can wake up if it ‘sees’ packets for itself but wont wake up if there is a packet for the guest.

Is the host Linux/Windows/other?

3

Have you tried giving the VM a static address? Usually the router has addresses outside the dynamic range that can be used?

I can’t swear to it but I think I’ve seen people on the VirtualBox forum mention this issue. You might want to browse there.