Intermittant IP connection

[Lampekap]

Hi,

I 'v got a Win 2000 laptop and a WinXP pro desktop pc at home connected through a twisted network cable.
I work with 2 ( different of course )fixed IP addresses.
The problem I have is that, although I do not get a disconnected message, I sometimes just can't ping anymore from one pc to the other. When it happens, I can still ping each network card from its own pc.
I tried the cable somewhere else ( its fine ), I replaced the cable, , I tried different IP addresses, I tried reinstalling the network card on the desktop, I tried my laptop at work ( did work there ), I tried removing my internet connection, ... nothing helps!
Is my desktop pc's network card bad ?
Please help !

 

[jlanka]

How do you fix it when this happens? Reboot? If so, which PC do you have to reboot?

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

 

[Lampekap]

That doesn' t help. It's totally independant of rebooting one or both the pc's.

 

[jlanka]

So once this happened, you were never able to ping each other ever again?

If not, what fixes it? Is there any pattern at all? Do you jiggle the cables? Do you have lights on your NIC's?

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

 

[Lampekap]

Jiggling the cables didn't help, to make sure that wasn't the problem I tried another cable. On my network card the light is on and another blinks occasionally.
No pattern.
It can't be software related ?

 

[jlanka]

Not really enough to make a good guess yet. If it were my box, I would proceed as follows:

The problem I have is that, although I do not get a disconnected message, I sometimes just can't ping anymore from one pc to the other. When it happens, I can still ping each network card from its own pc.

The problems statement is not defined well enough. What I would do is start both boxes up, fire up a DOS window, start pinging each other (ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -t) continuously and gather more facts about the problem. How long does it take before it happens? Do they both lose connectivity at the same time or does one preceed the other? Are the symptoms repeatable? Any pattern to them? After they lose connectivity, what happens when I (any thing you can think of, such as unplugging and replugging cables, whatever).

This way you might be able to narrow down the problem, and sometimes even stumble across a solution.

Thats how I'd proceed, anyway. FWIW.

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