Networking stops working if idle for a few hours.

[Maim]

Hi. My home setup is as follows...

I have a Linux Firewall/nat (smoothwall 1.0 + any updates) setup as the server, 192.168.1.100-150 for DHCP. This is hooked up to a Netgear switch. One machine runs Windows XP-Pro with static IP. The other machine runs Win98SE with static IP. My laptop has Windows 2000 Pro with DHCP.

The problem I have is with the XP machine. If I leave it idling (watch a movie, overnight etc.) when I get back, I have no more networking...

The server is running and I can ping anyone else but the XP machine from it. When I try disabling the network card, it gives me an error about using a protocol that does not use Plug and Play or being used by another user or system... Only TCP/IP is installed and I'm the only one on this machine.

To get it to work again, I just have to reboot the machine but it's getting on my nerve doing so all the time.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks


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"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rich Cook

 

[smah]

Have a look at the power settings for your network card in Device Manager. On the power management tab, uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device...'

 

[Maim]

Hmm, there's no "Power management" tab.

Just General, Advanced, Driver and Resources... any other ideas?

Thanks for the try

-----------------------------------
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rich Cook

 

[TheZeDD]

Keep poking around, it should be there under your Device Manager, selecting the NiC and then under the PM tab.

Also, are you using a firewall that could be stalling out communication ?

Question, why do you run both DHCP and Static on your network ? I wuld recommend one or the other, it can at times cause issues =/

If your fluent with XP and its networking protocols, I have a post for you on another board that may be of interest, especially for your firewall =)

http://forums.techguy.org/t145656/s.html

GL!

-Z

 

[mikeeb]

Disconnections when using Win XP is due to a period of inactivity. The symptoms are that after a while of no activity the connection will drop. A valid IP will be kept but nothing can be pinged.
I do not know how long the inactivity has to be before losing connection but here is a dos command to set the auto disconnect in XP to 8171 years and may solve your problem.

net config server /autodisconnect:-1

Saves going into the registry.
Hope this works

 

[XrayVision]

Have you tried "Repair this connection" in the Networking/LAN control panel applet? The old applet in win98 was winipconfig or something like that. That app let you renew the IP address. Also, adding the IP # and host name of all the machines on the network to the Hosts file can help with lost IP addresses.

 

[TheZeDD]

Maim, another thing you could just as easily do is static ip all your machines or at least the XP machine having the issues.

Static has many advatages over DHCP, this is one of them. If your not sure on how to do this, then now is a good time to learn a new trick

GL!

K.U.P.!

-Z

 

[Maim]

TheZeDD -nope, found it right away on my Win2000 laptop. No such thing on my XP at home...
Answer... I run DHCP for when I connect my laptop. Since my laptop uses DHCP everywhere I travel with it.... well...

The XP serves as a game machine so I like to keep its ip static so I can foreward any particular ports from the server...

XrayVision - Repair does nothing, I can't even disable the damn thing... the card sems to keep its ip and info, it's just unuseable...

TheZeDD - if you read my first post, you'll notice the only one using DHCP is the laptop and it isn't the one with the problems...

Anyway thanks for the suggestions, I think I'll try mikeeb's suggestion...

If you got any more, feel free to post them

-----------------------------------
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rich Cook

 

[TheZeDD]

maim, I did read and fully understood which was running which.

But I have remidied similar isues by using static. It does cure much without the need for tweaking. THis you way you can also track all boxes and policies/alerts/logs/forwarding/jams etc.. without question =)

GL!

K.U.P.

-Z

 

[Maim]

well... I tried mikeeb's suggestion and that didn't do it... baybe I needed to reboot before trying? I'll try again tonight...



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"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rich Cook