Integrated LAN problems

Can you give an example of the exact symptom? e.g. I go to URL http://www.ibm.com, then I get the heading and a few images then it just stops loading. Subsequently I go to www.microsoft.com and I get nothing (or it gives me a 404 error or whatever). Then I try an FTP client and can't connect to ftp.microsoft.com. Then I reboot and the whole scenario repeats over again. In the middle of the test, I can always copy file to or from another PC on my LAN without a problem.

Or however the problem works. Might help.

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

It sounds like it might be a duplex mismatch between your NIC and the hub/switch that you're plugged into. This happens when one side is set to auto-negotiate the duplex setting and the other side is forced to one specific setting. Basically, just make sure that both devices are set the same and it should work fine. If you only have access to change one of the devices' settings, try each of the 4 available choices (10mbps half, 10 full, 100 half and 100 full) in the NIC's advanced device options tab--one of them will work and the others either won't link or will run REALLY slow. Never choose auto (the default) unless you have previously made sure that the 2 devices will set themselves properly--obviously not the case here.

This is the scenario. I connect, I get a valid IP address, and I get maybe about 200K-500K of data, and that's it. And also like you mentioned, I can copy a file from one PC to another PC over a network without any problems whatsoever. Its the oddest thing, I may try to get a new card, and disable the integrated ethernet.

I am going to try this, and see what happens, it is now set on auto mode, so I'll try each of the settings to see if I have any success.

Thanks!

I forgot one thing to try...Does it work better when copying on one direction vs. the other? (i.e. if you copy a file TO another machine is the transfer time the same as when you copy the same file FROM that machine?) The 2 times not being roughly the same might indicate a bad cable.

Also, it's possible to have a cable that works fine at 10mbps, creates a link and APPEARS to work fine at 100mbps, but it drops packets all over the place. This can simply be a bad or marginal cable, but it also can be due to the quality of assembly. If there are too many twists undone at the ends of the cable, where it goes into the connector, the cable will work, but perform really poorly with a 100mbps connection. (This isn't something that you can see with your eyes--the untwisted conductors are under the jacket insulation.

"What's all this then???"

bump

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bump for spammage clearing

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so you can't get anything else from the Internet? What happens if you hit ctrl-F5 in IE? Also, after your 200-500K can you ping your default gateway? (you can find that address with an ipconfig/all command at a DOS prompt assuming you're running 2K or XP, otherwise use winipcfg it it's 9X)

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