I hate computers

Here is my sad situation.

I have four machines in the back room.

Velvet, the old linux server.
Phoenix, the new linux server.
Gir, my windows desktop.
Shiny, Lizard's laptop.

Gir and Shiny can talk to each other with no trouble. Velvet and Phoenix can talk to each other with no trouble. Phoenix can connect to Gir with no trouble. But when Gir or Shiny connect to Phoenix, they are fine for a little while, but if we do anythign intensive like playing mp3s off of samba shares on Phoenix, or tranferring large files, Phoenix cuts them off. Completely. Not just samba shares - all TCP/IP connections (ssh, etc.) are cut off, and Phoenix won't talk to those boxes for a minute or so after they get cut off. This means that the server I bought to hold large amounts of data won't share that data with my windows machines. No idea why. I tried upgrading to a new gigabit switch (phoenix and gir have gigabit cards), and I don't think it's network cabling, since the window -> velvet connections and the velvet <-> phoenix connections are solid (stay connected for weeks, etc.)

I've checked the process monitor on Gir, and I'm not seeing a huge spike in CPU usage or network usage before the cut offs. I played around with Samba settings to make sure Phoenix, not one of the windows machines, is the master browser for the workgroup.

I'm running out of ideas, here. Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

Ramble

I went out today and bought pretty much everything that I need for my Halloween costumes. I need to do a little sewing to make the Batman cape and cowl, but I have enough fabric leftover from previous costumes and unmade projects that I got to avoid fabricland this year.

I am also becoming a little unsettled by the changes in sizing in mens' clothing. I'm starting to have a hard time finding pants that fit - when I was 18, it seemed that most pants were sized "square" - the waist and inseam the same size, or close to that. Now that I'm back in that size range, the pants with the right waist size seem to assume that I'm about 5' 0". Also, some (but not all) manufacturers have redefined "large" so that, even though my torso is much bigger than it was when I was 18, I'm now wearing a medium.

I give into my yuppie urges today and bought a couple space aged exercise shirts - one with crazy warming fibres (seems to be warmed than my wool sweater), and another with crazy moisture dispersing fibres. Both include thumbholes stitched into the sleeves, which makes me absurdly happy. They also look like surperhero outfits, which doesn't hurt either.

On the downside, the apartment is in a mess, my network is broken and I didn't make it to the grocery store, so I have no food that I want to eat. I do need to eat something, though, before I go out to dance all night at DarkRave. I also didn't get laundry done, because there was a significant lineup in the laundry room when I went down, likely caused by one of the machines being broken. It looks like the broken machine flooded at least part of that floor.