Bad Realtek ethernet controller on new GA-EP-UD3P?

[donfm]

I just got a new Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mobo from Newegg and I am trying to decide whether to RMA it back for a new one.
The Realtek ethernet seems to take forever to connect to my DSL provider. When I boot up and everything else is up and running....I am still sitting there waiting for my internet connection for sometimes more than a minute longer. It seems like forever when you are waiting.
I am running through a Linksys router that has 3 other computers connect but they seem to connect in a normal amount of time.

Gigabyte told me to try another ethernet card but i don't have one to try.

Once connected it seems to work ok but its just the initial connection speed is painfully slow. Is this normal for this board?

 

[josh4x4]

I recently bought the same mobo and thought i had the same issue. Turns out the "teaming" feature is turned on by default, and it requires an ethernet cable inserted into each port. If you have a network switch like i do you can simply plug in the single ethernet cable you'd normally plug into your computer into the switch, and run dual cables to your computer. I couldn't get internet until i did this, but trust me it's worth it. I'm not sure exactly what is happening, but i max out my bandwidth on every download which has never happened before except on downloads coming from Microsoft/bitorrent/fileshack ect. (networks with ridiculous bandwidth to spare). It gives incredibly low and ROCK solid ping times in games, usually beating my friends who live within a block of me and having twice the bandwidth.

The Gigabyte disk that comes with the board has all the software that you need and the manual is extremely helpful. Also, download the newest realtek drivers from gigabyte if you haven't done so.

If you are trying to use a 3rd party ethernet card, don't, it's a waste of time. The dual realtek ports are an incredible add-on to this board and i'd recommend using them, especially if you have a fast cable or fiber optic connection.

 

[donfm]

I recently bought the same mobo and thought i had the same issue. Turns out the "teaming" feature is turned on by default, and it requires an ethernet cable inserted into each port. If you have a network switch like i do you can simply plug in the single ethernet cable you'd normally plug into your computer into the switch, and run dual cables to your computer. I couldn't get internet until i did this, but trust me it's worth it. I'm not sure exactly what is happening, but i max out my bandwidth on every download which has never happened before except on downloads coming from Microsoft/bitorrent/fileshack ect. (networks with ridiculous bandwidth to spare). It gives incredibly low and ROCK solid ping times in games, usually beating my friends who live within a block of me and having twice the bandwidth.

The Gigabyte disk that comes with the board has all the software that you need and the manual is extremely helpful. Also, download the newest realtek drivers from gigabyte if you haven't done so.

If you are trying to use a 3rd party ethernet card, don't, it's a waste of time. The dual realtek ports are an incredible add-on to this board and i'd recommend using them, especially if you have a fast cable or fiber optic connection.

Thanks Josh. I went into bios and turned off one of the ethernet ports as instructed by Gigabyte but that didn't work. I will give your idea a try and get back to you... Would be nice if I could turn this negative into a faster positive....
Thanks so much for the heads up. I hope it works because I am dangerously close to RMAing this board back to Newegg.

 

[bilbat]

The hose ain't (even nearly) full! If you've got a problem getting broadband bandwidth on ethernet - you've got an ethernet problem:

"Ethernet supports higher performance networking than does USB. This is the first advantage of Ethernet that many techies notice, but performance is actually the least relevant consideration in this list when choosing between USB and Ethernet connections. Both Ethernet and USB 2.0 interfaces support sufficient bandwidth for broadband modem networking. Modem speed is instead limited by the speed of the modem's connection to your service provider."
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/broadband/f/modeminterface.htm

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/internetaccessbestuses/f/cablespeed.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/speedcompare.htm

What OS are your running - I'll tell you how to look at the TCP/IP service and find likely problems; often both the port and the router have NAT (network address translation) turned on, which takes forever, in both directions...

 

[donfm]

The hose ain't (even nearly) full! If you've got a problem getting broadband bandwidth on ethernet - you've got an ethernet problem:

"Ethernet supports higher performance networking than does USB. This is the first advantage of Ethernet that many techies notice, but performance is actually the least relevant consideration in this list when choosing between USB and Ethernet connections. Both Ethernet and USB 2.0 interfaces support sufficient bandwidth for broadband modem networking. Modem speed is instead limited by the speed of the modem's connection to your service provider."
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/broadband/f/modeminterface.htm

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/internetaccessbestuses/f/cablespeed.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/speedcompare.htm

What OS are your running - I'll tell you how to look at the TCP/IP service and find likely problems; often both the port and the router have NAT (network address translation) turned on, which takes forever, in both directions...

I'm using Win XP Pro 32bit

 

[bilbat]

I haven't reinstalled my remote to my Xp machine (had to reinstall four OSs); for now, right click on "My Computer', select Device Manager, click on the little + next to network adapters, and double-click on one of them to get (approximately - this is Vista's):

and either capture and post, or write down and post what you find; tomorrow AM I'll have a link to an Xp system, and can take you step by step through the TCP/IP settings...

 

[donfm]

driver version: 5.714.122.2009

driver date: 1/22/2009

location: PCI Slot 9 (PCI bus 5, device 0, function 0)

RTL8168(P)/8111C(P) PCI-E Gigabit

not sure what else you are looking for from Hardware profile

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[bilbat]

That's exactly what I wanted to see - that the drivers are up-to-date; as the 6.11's are, I believe, only for Vista, you're in good shape... Now, what LinkSys do you have, and what else is connected how? I wish this had popped up a few days back; I just had an overall system problem that required reformat, & reinstall of all four OSs; I traded Xp x86 & x64 for installs of Win7...

 

[donfm]

That's exactly what I wanted to see - that the drivers are up-to-date; as the 6.11's are, I believe, only for Vista, you're in good shape... Now, what LinkSys do you have, and what else is connected how? I wish this had popped up a few days back; I just had an overall system problem that required reformat, & reinstall of all four OSs; I traded Xp x86 & x64 for installs of Win7...

I've got the Linksys BEFSX41 Firewall wired router. It has 4 ports. They are connected to other computers but usually there are no more than 2 computers total online at any given time. All these systems are hard wired with Cat5e cables directly to the router.

My connection is a PPPoE DSL with AT&T (SBC).

I have been wondering if perhaps my router is puking after all these years but I really don't know how to test the router definitively so I can say that in fact it is the culprit rather than the Realtek NIC. On occasion I have had issues where when I access a page my browser just sits and spins forever until I hit the "refresh" button or access the link again.

You were right I have NAT on the router turned on. But when I turned it off I could not access the internet on my local home network so back on it went.