DSL Connection issues

[Yamazaki]

I am relative newcomer to highspeed. I purchased a new laptop at the end of July, a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6084 after my four-year old Dell Latitude became too much of a headache. I use AT&T DSL Express which runs at 3.0 mbps using a Speedstream 4100 modem.

Laptop specs:
Centrino Dual Core
2GB PC4200 DDR2 SDRAM
667MHz frontside bus, 2MB L2 cache and 1.66GHz processor speed
Intel PRO/100 VE 10/100Base-TX Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)

After about a month or so hassle-free sessions which included constantly using bittorrents my connection dies. Only after refreshing both the modem and laptop can I get on which would usually last for 10 mins to 18 hrs. I receive "Limited or No Connectivity" messages and the Config free launcher that comes installed states the IP address was not setup properly and sure enough it shows 0.0.0.0.0.0 and I can't repair the connection.

I've gone back and forth with techs who have come out and found nothing wrong and blames a virus or my network card. Virus scan thru McAfee and Norton disapprove this along with my PS2 which I tested with constant connection time outs. I've reset the modem, uninstalled and reinstalled, had the modem replaced yet this still happens. I connect directly to the modem with my ethernet cable and PS2. Looking over the threads here I did'nt find a solution for my problem. I'm not sure what the problem could be unless its related to the bittorrents but I am dling about the same as when I first initially started using the DSL.

It worked for a bit after the replacement but the same situation occurred 15 minutes after having the modem setup again. The last few days I've been on with no issue until last night. Could I be pushing the bandwidth too much on Bitcomet by not limiting the download/upload speed? I have since been able to keep a connection day and night downloading using said program but the same issues keep reoccuring. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[fredweston]

Honestly, you're trying to do something yourself which should really be done by your ISP. If they are blaming your issues on a virus, download a copy of Knoppix or BartPE and run off that to see if the problem still exists. If it does, then you've just disproved their virus theory. Since you say the problem can be replicated within about 15-20 minutes, I'd fire up Ethereal and see what's going on.

Do you have to use PPPoE to login to the network before you can get online? PPPoE is notoriously bad at screwing things up, especially under heavy load. It's especially horrible with VPN. If you do use PPPoE, try disabling their software, or uninstalling it entirely, and using the PPPoE client built into Windows.

The only thing that makes me think it could be an issue with your PC is the fact that the IP address reverts to quad zeroes. That sounds to me like the DHCP server couldn't be reached for renewal, but that shouldn't happen anywhere near as fast as 15 minutes. Hence using Ethereal to take a look at what's actually taking place on the wire.

 

[Yamazaki]

as it stands the last few days i'm not used bitcomet and my connection has stayed constant. once i turned it it literally killed the connection with 5 minutes with the same errors i mentioned before. i have downloaded ethereal/wireshark but not clear on how to use this to test my connection