Intel 810 chipset and TCP/IP

[Guest]

We are having problems with lan communication on 15 computers built for a customer.

1) Product description:
a) Number of Computers: 15
b) Motherboard: Tekram S381-B Rev. 1.0 motherboards with the Intel 810 chipset.
c) BIOS: Upgraded to version 1.06C
d) Processors: Intel Pentium III 750/100
e) Ram: 64mg and 128 mg
f) Video: onboard
g) Sound: sound onboard
h) NIC: Have tried several 10/100 nics (3Com 3C905b-TX, Genius, generic with Realtek chipsets.
i) OS: Windows 98, Milenium, DOS

2) Problem Description: When the lan is configured to use TCP/IP protocol (exclusively) and transferring large files from the problem computer after a few minutes the transfer speed slows down until coming to a complete stop with a "connection no longer exists" error message.
a) The problem does not occur when the problem computer receives a very large file from another computer without this motherboard.

b) If NetBEUI or IPX protocol is added to the lan the problem goes away.

c) If the problem computers motherboard is exchanged with another similar Intel 810 chipset motherboard from another manufacturer the problem goes away.

d) Exchanging nics has no effect on the problem.

e) The problem also occurs when using Symantec's Ghost in pure DOS.

Can anyone help with this problem? You might observe that the problem can be fixed by changing the lan protocol, but our customer will not accept this and is requiring us to either make the computers work with only TCP/IP protocol or replace the computers.

 

[jlanka]

1) Does the problem only occur when you are PUSHING files from the "problem computer" or pulling files as well? i.e. your problem statement in #2 is too ambiguous as to all possible cases.

2) What protocol are you using to transfer the files? FTP? Have you tried different transfer protocols? (Actually I'm not sure of the name of the transfer protocol being used when you drag files from one explorer window to another, but I'm pretty sure it's not FTP)

3) Have you timed the point of slowdown? Does it consistently occur at the exact same time interval from start of transfer?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Guest]

1) I have no idea about protocal used as this is a file transfer between 2 computers on a local network. I use Windows explorer or Save as dialog box to copy or save a file on another computer on the network.

2) It only hapens with outgoing files, never with incoming files (if the sending computer dosn't have the Tekram motherboard). If the sending computer has the Tekram board then problem occurs.

3) It seams to be amount of data transfered and not time sencitive. It allways stops at same point of progress bare on copy window with same file. Diferent size file will allways stop at the same point (for that file) on progress bar.

4) If change the hub from 100 to a 10, then it takes longer to stop but stops at same point on progress bar as with the faster hub for each file.

5) With filesizes we are using problem accours about 3 minutes after beginging of transfer. We havn't timed it exactly.

6) This problem only occurs with larger files say over 2 megabites. We will run some tests today to see if we can determine the file size where problem occurs. Small files save or copy ok.

7) An interesting note is that the error message is "connection no longer exists", however this is only for this file transfer. If we go to windows explorer we can access other files or retry the transfer of the same file again.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by bailey on 07/30/01 08:05 AM.</EM></FONT></P>