LAN Population very slow when router NOT connected to the Net

Hi gang!

It's time to get some answers and I couldn't think of a better qualified group to ask then you great folks.

For a long time now I've noticed that whenever I pull the plug on my router connecting my LAN to the net that when I go to browse my LAN it takes quite a long time to populated my local systems for browsing or remoting into them for management.

I plug the router up to the net and population is very fast as is connecting remotely.

Can anyone shed any light on this odd behaviour and tell my why it's behaving like that?

TIA!

All pcs will find they cant reach the net and all brackgound task and pc will keep retrying flooding the network

samuria said:

All pcs will find they cant reach the net and all brackgound task and pc will keep retrying flooding the network

Thanks for the reply. Is there any way of shortening the lookup time for the net so as not to bog down the system excessively looking for it? Is there a timing reg setting for that?

When you connect from one computer to another, do you use their hostnames or their local IP addresses?
What's your network architecture? What other devices are on it?
Are you using a domain or simple workgroup between computers?

If using host names takes too long and IP addresses is fast, it could indicate a DNS issue or some related misconfiguration.

Alejandro85 said:

When you connect from one computer to another, do you use their hostnames or their local IP addresses?
What's your network architecture? What other devices are on it?
Are you using a domain or simple workgroup between computers?

If using host names takes too long and IP addresses is fast, it could indicate a DNS issue or some related misconfiguration.

Hostname, I generally explore and either click on the system on the right pane (because it's faster populating) but after a connections the left pane after it gets populated. My LAN is dynamic, so it changes although I do reserve the MAC addresses on the LAN router. My main security on the router is only allowing known MAC addresses to utilize the network.

As for architecture, it's very basic. I only have 11 functional systems that "could" connect. I usually am only running my primary system and occasionally may have 4 connected. So the utilization is nowhere near at capacity or stressing the LAN or router. Once every couple of times a year I fire them all up to do LAN wide updates & checks.

My setup is all hardwired CAT6 (everything is Cat6 1GB) as follows.

NET
|
Cable Modem/Router (Comcast, wireless disabled)
|
My LAN Router (DIR-655, wireless disabled)
|
Endpoint nodes (Servers/Terminals/Laptops/LPT)

When the CM/R is connected, population is acceptable
When I unplug the LAN Router from CM/R is when I see slow population issue. It should be acting like a simple switch (which it does) at that point because there is no uplink connected and nothing to route coming in. I know I'm missing something, just not sure what at this point.