Checking for a Split in the Chat Network

If users cannot see global channels on a server that exist on a chat network, the most likely cause is a network split. After you determine that a split has occurred somewhere in the network, check the server event logs to determine the location of the split and what caused it.

To check for a split in the chat network

There are many ways to detect a network split:

From a server on the chat network, start Performance Monitor and check the values of the following counters:

Server Bytes Received/sec and Server Bytes Sent/sec. If these counters are at zero, the server is not communicating with other chat servers on the network.

Total Server Disconnects. This counter can indicate that the server has lost its connection to one of the chat servers on the network.
Start Event Viewer and check the event log of one of the chat servers for messages that indicate server or portal disconnections. The following is an example of such a message:
```
The portal portal_name disconnected due to socket error.
```
From a chat client, connect to one of the servers on the chat network and type the following command:

LUSERS

The number of servers on the chat network should equal the number of servers indicated in the first LUSERS status line. For example:
```
There are 47 users and 0 invisible on 3 servers.
```
You can also use the LINKS command to examine the connection status of all chat servers that can be reached from the server you are connected to. The LINKS list should display the name of each server on the chat network.