So I'm at this office with approximately 17 clients hooked up to 3 hubs, 1 router, 2 servers (1 redundant 1 file\print sharing), and the connection goes down daily. No one here knows anything about computers, and i know more about web dev. than hardware. We're using all mis matched equipment, sometimes it works sometime it doesn't. Does anyone have any ideas?

Do PCs crash? The server crash? Or just the network go down? If its the network going down... Does the whole network go down or just some users?

Its really strange, for the most part everything just stopps (the pcs don't crash), internet access stops, no one can access the file server, but the main server thats connected to the wall still works. Do you think it could be the hubs that are sending too much info or something? To get it back online, i just power down the hubs (unplug them) and restart them, a few minutes later everything is ok. But the whole office freaks out whenever this happens.

What make are these Hubs you are using? and what speed are they? Firstly I'd check the protocols on the PC's to make sure they are correct. In a purely Windows setup like yours all you should need is the Client for Microsoft Networks and the TCP/IP protocol (98 clients will also display the network card in the list). Make sure no machines are shared on the network or have file and print sharing enabled/installed except of course for the two servers. If you have any printers attached and shared from PC's you will of course need to keep print sharing enabled but ideally you would have print servers.

there is a linksys EFAH16W, 16 port 10/100, a 3com 8 port 10/100, and a kingston 16 port 10/100. the servers are the only ones sharing anything, including the printer. could it be that theres just too much going on in our network that it crashes? We have 1 dsl line 768 kbps running like 20 computers. thanks for the input. -squirrel

Unlikely, If it is setup correctly there shouldn't be a problem. I think the problem may be the fact that you are using different hubs. Ideally they should be the same or just use one with more ports. If I were you i'd replace them with 10/100 switches. Switches provide dedicated bandwidth to each node and are much more advanced than Hubs. Switches make it alot easier to diagnose any problems as they will be restrited the certain nodes rather than the whole LAN which is the case for hubs. If you want a budget option try Netgear, they are making some decent products these days. If you have abit more money then buy Cisco.

how did you connect these hub/switch. If I were you, i would use a cross over cable connect your linksys to 3com, and a cross over cable from 3com to kingston. plug your servers and printers to the 3 com. Make sure change the port setting for the interconnects are hard coded 100mb full duplex. or at least hard code in 3 com, the auto speed, auto duplex in both linksys and kingston. Eliminate the unwanted protocols in client machines. Maybe you just need tcp/ip. Too many protocols slow down your network. Or just get one high density switch, like 48 port instead of using 3 hubs.