Problem with D-Link DI-704 Router 1

[Mortalkind]

I am having a problem connecting one of my PCs to the D-Link Router. I have 2 PCs connected to the router. The router is connected to a cable modem. Both PCs are running Win98. All of the network settings are identical on both PCs. One works fine. The other however does not even link with the router. The link lights on both the router and LAN card blink. I have tried different network cards with the same result. Tried different ports on the router. Tried different cables. Finally I booted Linux on the PC that will not link to the router. It works fine with Linux. Therefore it is not a hardware issue, it must be something in Win98 that is not in the Network settings available from control panel. Anybody have any ideas?

System config: AMD K6-3 400
Intel 21143 based network card
256 KB Ram
Win98 SE
D-Link DI-704 Router

 

[dinosnake]

What card slot and what interrupt does the network card occupy?

This may prove to be a sticky one...

Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

Thanks for the reply dinosnake.

Windows Device Mgr. shows the following for the network card:
IRQ 10
Mem Range D6001000-D600107F
I/O Output Range EC00-EC7F

The BIOS also reports the card at IRQ 10.
It is in the last PCI slot next to AGP slot. I have already tried it in a different slot though.

 

[dinosnake]

Well, the AGP and the PCI right next to it share the same IRQ - they're wired together. If you have more than 4 PCI's two of those are also sharing an IRQ (many times the last two) - they're wired together also.

So if you tried any of those positions try others.

What happens when you manually override the media type? Double click on the card in \Control Panel\Network, in Advanced. Don't choose a Full_Duplex type.

And what protocols are you using? Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

Changing the media type caused some progress. I changed it to 10BaseT it was on Autosense. It worked for a while. Then I shut the computer down, went to work, came back and it would no longer work. I do get a link light now however. And I can go to winipcfg and see that the router is assigning me an ip address. I verified this by clearing all the values and rebooting. I then had new values. But I cannot ping the router or communicate in any other way.


The only protocals I have installed are tcpip and NDISWAN which is used by the AOL software miniport.

Any more ideas? Thanks for the help so far. Progress was made!

 

[dinosnake]

Can I ask some more questions?

(1) Are the cables premade or self-made?

(2) Is the Dial-Up Adapter installed in the protocol stack? (2a) Is the TCP / IP protocol that is bound to the NIC set to be the default protocol?

I have had problems previously when the Dial Up Adapter exists, is bound to the client, and {especially) when set to be default. The Dial-Up Adapter will then intercept all NETBIOS calls and IP packets for routing - but it is not connected to the outside world. So, no response. This seems to be a Microsoft IP stack fluke. Either (a) unbinding it from all clients or (b) removing it solved the problem.

Check that possibility. Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

Thanks dinosnake, I said that winipcfg showed that I was getting an IP address assigned, that should have given me a clue but I just didn't think about it. The ip wasn't in the range that should have been assigned by the router. Guess I was to focused on the drivers and protocols to see the answer right before me. The address was probably being assinged by AOL. I removed everything from my network settings except MS client, Intel 21143 based Controller, TCP/IP and File and printer sharing. That took care of the inital problem. It works fine now as long as I set the media type to 10baseT. You have been a big help!

I guess the next question is, why won't it work when set to 100BaseTX? Both the router and net card support it. Any ideas? 100BaseTX won't do me any good on the net, but I often transfer 650MB iso images from one computer to the other and it is considerably faster to do so at 100Mbs.

 

[dinosnake]

If I may recommend please see the thread in the Windows 95 / 98 Forum:

Win 98 & win98ME network using ethernet and Network Neighborhood

I posted exact, careful details on my opinion of the best possible way to set up a small internal LAN with TCP / IP support. You build the network on IPX with TCP added, but only marginally. IPX, as I'll say in the last reply on that post, is much faster than TCP due to less packet overhead. It is also incredibly more secure than TCP when on the Internet.

If the card won't go to 100Mbs then I would (usually) suspect the wire. It sounds like it does not have the correct pair matching. Internally, even though the pins are (or course) together the wires don't go that way for 100Mbs. Pins 1 & 2 get a twisted pair, pins 3 & 6 get a twisted pair, pins 4 & 5 get a twisted pair and pins 7 & 8 get a twisted pair. Note that the second wire from the pair that when to 3 actually goes to pin 6 - not it's neighbor, pin 4.

That is done to reduce crosstalk in the wires and keep the correct pair impedence matching (the mate to pin 3 _is_ pin 6, not pin 4). If it isn't done crosstalk results, which is why you get intermittant link response (the blinking light).

Check that wire. Some cards and situations are more sensitive to it than others - I've seen miswired systems work. It seems to depend on the wire length, what the wire is running close to and the card itself.

Hmm, other than that I'll have to thing about it...

Your mileage may vary...

 

[murtoz]

Check the advanced setting of the network card in start->setting->device manager->your network card->properties->advanced If there is any matching settings, make sure they're the same, any differing once, try changing 'em... one by one
Use start->run->command and then ipconfig /release all<enter>
ipconfig /renew all and chekc whether you're connected

hope it helps

 

[Mortalkind]

Good thought about the wire dinosnake, but I already checked it. I once made about 100 cables at work and remembered these kinds of problems from back then, but the wires all seem to be correct.

1 Orange Strip
2 Orange
3 Green Strip
4 Blue
5 Blue Strip
6 Green
7 Brown Strip
8 Brown

Murtoz, Thanks for your suggestion. I have already tried a number of changes (not all since there is a ton of them) but no luck. I hope it doesn't require some exact combination of several changes or I'll probably never find it. Too many possiblilites. I have tried the once that seem most aplicable though.

I'll check out your post on IPX. Sounds interesting.

 

[dinosnake]

Can you please double-click on the D-Link network card under Network / Properties, click the Advanced tab and write back to me with what settings are available (like 'Connection Type' for instance, the setting I had you change before).

I just did some quick research and there seems to be an issue with the Intel 21143 chip's implimentation of NWAY autonegotiation. This is why overriding it manually created a link - if only on the slower speed.

I believe if we turn off NWAY (if possible in the settings) and hand-set a 100BaseT connection it may work. Full duplex may be possible if it cooperates.

It worked in Linux because the Linux developers identified the negotiation problem and patched the driver to overcome the issue. They had to have the driver (a) set 10BaseT mode, (b)set card options, (c)wait for autonegotiate to complete, (d)turn of autonegotiate, (e)configure card to work with negotiated speed, (f)check for completion. All to get around the chip's little set-bit fluke (the cause of the problem).

D-Link or Microsoft may also have a newer driver than you are using with a similar correction. Are you using the most up-to-date drivers?

Also, does the other computer have the same network card brand? Notice I said <brand>, for just because the NIC's model #'s are the same doesn't mean everything about the card is the same - if you find my posting about Linksys cards you'll see what I mean (they have 5 different cards with the same model number! They keep changing the chipset!). Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

I probably wasn't clear about the LAN card. I do not know what brand it is. The router is a D-Link. I got several identical cards out of some generic PC's I bought at an auction a couple of years ago. They do all have the same part number but do not list a brand. The only info on the card itself is :

10/100 TX Rev. 1.0
P/N 460-0183 001

Also, I may not have been clear about the functioning of the two PC's. The one that has worked with the router all along with connection type set to Autosense will not link at 100Mbs either. I'm not sure I made that clear.

The Network settings and driver info are as follows:

Intel 21143/2 based 10/100 mbps Ethernet Controller

Driver Type Enhanced mode (32 bit and 16 bit) NDIS driver
Bindings TCP.IP->Intel 21143/2 based...

Advanced Settings:

Burst Length Unlimited
Connection Type 10BaseT (This is what I changed from autosense)
EXT_MRL Enabled
EXT_MRM Enabled
EXT_MWI Enabled
Extra Receive Buffers 16
Extra Receive Packets 100
Interrupt Mitigation Disabled
No Cable Indication Disabled
Process Transmit First Disabled
Receive Buffers 16
Snooze Mode Disabled
Store And Forward Disabled
Transmit Threshold 100M 128 bytes
Transmit Threshold 10M 96 bytes
Underrun Max Retries 2
Underrun Threshold 10

In the device manager properties for the card it says:

Manufacture Intel
Hardware Version 033

The driver date is 4/23/99 which I believe is the standard Win98SE driver for the card. I clicked the driver update button to search online for an updated driver. It said I had the best driver. It did however list some other brand drivers it said should work with it. They too were dated 4/23/99.

I really appreciate all the trouble and research you have gone to with the dinosnake!

 

[Mortalkind]

Your mention of the patched drivers in Linux just made me check the connection speed in Linux. It is connecting at 100Mbs in Linux. I had not realized it since I don't have Linux on the other PC and therefore have not actually connected to anything at that speed. But the 100 link lite on the back of the card is on under Linux. An interesting note, when I set the card to 100BaseTX under windows, the 100 link light on the router comes on, but the 10 link light on the Lan card comes on.

 

[dinosnake]

The link light 'error' in Windows is exactly fitting in the NWAY problem. The card autonegotiates a speed with the router - in this case, 100BaseT. Both the router and the card then try to configure themselves for communications at the negotiated speed. The router succeeds and sets itself for 100 mode; however the driver for the card fails, due to the hardware bit error. The card drivers set 10BaseT half duplex - which is what the bit error ends up with - and wham! No communications. The card and router are on different wavelengths.

If you can, please pull the card again and search the board for a FCC number, and post it to me. We will have to do a FCC cross-reference lookup, based upon the card's FCC authorization number, to find the manufacturer (all computer electronics in America are approved by the Federal Communications Commission for a class, A or B, which depends upon how much RF radiation it emits and how much it causes, or receives, RF radio interference. They keep records of their approval codes). Hopefully that info will get us new drivers - to get 100BaseT this is the only solution. The NIC's speed is a combination of hardware and software - the hardware chip in the NIC negoiates a speed with the other connection that it believes it can sustain, gives that info to the driver, the driver sets itself and the card for that speed, and communications begin. The hardware handshaking bit error in the 21143 doesn't allow the chip to handshake, and report to the driver, the correct speeds.

Since the driver's options do not allow manually disabling NWAY independent of the Media Autodetect (and 100BaseT not full duplex set on both cards manually doesn't work (you tried?) which is fitting in the error reports, still because of the dual-mode set bit error) an updated driver is our *only* option.

Part of the problem is the router - it is a smart device, not like a simple hub. The router needs to negoiate its own speeds.

Either we find a newer driver with the correct patch or stay in 10BaseT mode all day. :-( Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

I don't see anything labeled FCC but here are all the labels on the card.

Made in Taiwan
009-183B42

A symbol that looks like a backwards R with the right of the backwards R making up the front of a U then E119697

UNIC 3 94V-0 9745

10/100 TX REV. 1.0
P/N:460-0183-001

 

[Mortalkind]

I think the problem is solved. I found a driver on DEC site for the 21143-PA chip set. It specifically said it solved the NWAY incompatibility with certain Bridges/Routers. Seems to be working fine so far!

Thanks for all your help!

 

[dinosnake]

Awesome! Are you in 100BaseT mode? Stable I hope? Write back and let me know.

This has been fun, and I hope that the new driver finally completes the parts of the puzzle. Thanks for being so easy to work with.

Regards

Your mileage may vary...

 

[Mortalkind]

Hey dinosnake,

Yes I am running in 100BaseT mode on both computers now, so far no glitches.

Thanks for all your help! It as been an educational experience for me. Now all I need you to do is figure out how to download all your knowledge into my brain. LOL

Roger