Wierd Network Problem 4

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Hi Guys,

Im not sure if I should be posting this here but none of the forums fitted exactly so this seemed closest

I have a Belkin Wireless ADSL Router which has attached to it

1 laptop (Wirelessly)
1 PC (Wired)
1 Wireless Access Point (Playstation 2)

This setup has worked faultlessly for the last year or so, however now I am getting a problem.

The wired PC is getting the

"Network Cable Unplugged"

message popping up every 10 or 20 seconds (it varies).. It seemed to coincide with me getting a virus on that machine which I removed with AVG. Since then I have also rebuilt the pc and I still get the problem so I am moving away from that theory although I only rebuild the system partition so i suppose a virus could reside on one of the data partitions...

If I wire the laptop into router the problem doesnt occur... so that seems to rule out a hardware problem with the router..

If I run a broadband speed test on the PC it is showing as much slower than it should.

If I run the same speed test on the laptop I get the correct speed (1MB)

I have tried connecting the PC via the on board network card (it was previously plugged into a 3rd party NIC) but this makes no difference..

I am pulling my hair out on this one as I cant seem to get to the bottom of it..

Does anyone have any ideas as to what else might be causing the problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and save the PC floating gracefully through the window

Cheers,

Chris

 

[vacunita]

Have you tried the cable the PC is connected to on the Laptop? It might be the cable has a fault. If you change the port to which the cable is connected on the router, assuming there is another one available does it still happen?

And just out of curiosity what is the use of the wireless access point, if the Router is already wirelessly enabled?

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[pentode]

Did you use the same cable and router port when you tested the laptop with the wired connection? Cables/connectors can develop intermittent connections.

I have seen individual router ports get wanky, so you could try another physical port if available.

If possible, it would be interesting to test the PC with a different router or hub.

 

[vacunita]

Never mind about the wireless access point, just reread and saw it was for the PS2 console. jejej.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Thanks Guys, I have tried swapping the cable but no joy..

I have also swapped the cable into another physical port.. but it makes no difference...

I am thinking about picking up another identical router off of ebay to rule that out but I am skeptical as the laptop works fine when wired to the router.. or connected wirelessly.. Do either of you know of any viruses that would cause these symptoms.. I am suspcious because it all seemed to start after this virus episode..

Cheers,

Chris

 

[BadFrog]

Does the link led on the NIC light up? See if this thread helps:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1188396&page=1

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein

 

[vacunita]

If the Laptop can connect fine, then its probably not the Router
It Might be the NIC on the desktop that is dying.
It could be wise to buy a new Network Card and install it on the desktop. Standard nics are very cheap these days somewhere around 10 to 15 dollars a pice. if not less.
The worst that can happen si you end up with 2 NICs which is not really bad.

...Since then I have also rebuilt the pc and I still get the problem ...

I take it you mean you reinstalled Windows. If you installed it over itself without actually formatting the drive maybe some corrupt TCP settings lingered behind through the reinstall, Have you tried reinstalling TCP?



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wolluf]

or running the winsockfix app - link in FAQ

- but I'm with vacunita - try a new NIC (I've seen lots of NICs which appear to be ok - as far as windows is concerned - but don't perform properly - replacement immedialtely solves problem).

 

[dglienna]

I'd delete it and let it be rediscovered. That'd be the easiest route.

-David
2006 Microsoft Valueable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)

 

[youngnetworkadmin]

Sounds like the nic in the pc to me, i deal with alot of that type of stuff throughout the day and it sounds like the nic if it is not the cable that has a fult,

Its not hard to replace a nic, and they just cost about 10 dollars so i think its worth a try and if you allready have a pci nic just take out the old one put in the new one but if you have a motherboard nic then make sure to disable that one when you install the other one or to assign it different irq's or something like that.


Good Luck

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Hi guys,

I have changed the connection from a 3rd PArty NIC to the onboard NIC and both give the same result.. I will try deleting the NIC settings and let the OS re-discover it and see where that gets me ..

Thanks for all the help so far guys...

Cheers,

Chris

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Hi Guys,

I have tried deleting the NIC from the OS and letting the OS re-discover it and I get the same problem.

I have noticed that when the Ballon pops up both the lights on the back of the NIC and the light on the router for the port go out..

Any thoughts as to what I should try next?

Chris

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Further Info..

I have tried doing the loopback test on the NIC (ping 127.0.0.1 -t) and i get no packet loss...

Think I am going to try a factory reset and reload settings into the router next....

Chris

 

[cdogg]

[blue]Think I am going to try a factory reset and reload settings into the router next....[/blue]"

Yep, that's what I'd do. It sounds like the "autonegotiation" phase between both NIC's on your desktop and router are failing.

Also, since you are using a router, I suppose you have a broadband modem. Have you tried connecting your desktop directly to the modem?

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

My router has the ADSL Modem built in so I can't separate them unfortunately..

Hmmm..

Did the factory reset and thought I had cured it but it has started happening again..

Bugger!

Chris

 

[cdogg]

I don't mean to state the obvious, of course, but are you powering the modem off/on during your troubleshooting (which clears the MAC address that it has saved for the NIC it was last connected to)?

Also, if you go into the settings for the DSL modem, you should be able to double-check to see if NAT is being used (assigning your PC an IP address in the 192.168.x.x range). And if it is using NAT, is the IP address dynamically assigned or is it static?

Furthermore, what is the IP address that your laptop gets when connected either wirelessly or over ethernet?

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[vacunita]

Im leaning towards the TCP problem. instead of just uninstalling the NIC, try to uninstall the network components from network settings in control panel, and reinstalling them or using the app that wolluf mentioned: [blue]winsockfix[/blue].

other than that i'm at a loss at to what it could be.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wolluf]

I've got a question - you say you were using 3rd party NIC & have also tried the onboard. This makes me wonder - why was the onboard NOT being used originally (only time that happens on machines I deal with is if there's been a problem with it).

So, I'm still suggesting using another NEW or known to be working NIC from another machine to at least eliminate the NIC as issue.

 

[vacunita]

Agreed wolluf.

EnemyGate you really should try a new NIC.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[EnemyGateIsDown]

Hi Guys,

I replaced the mobo about a year ago and converted the machine from a 1.4gig athlon to a 3.0gig Pentium. The athlon mobo didnt have an inbuilt NIC hence the card. When I converted the machine to a Pentium based machine for some reason (Don't ask me why.. i probably wasnt thinking straight I continued using the card even though the new board had an onboard NIC)

When this problem started occurring I thought that the card had developed a fault and so I removed it and installed the driver for the onboard NIC however this didnt make any difference and the problem persisted...

When I re-installed the OS I formatted the system partition .. I still have a niggling feeling about the virus I picked up prior to the re-install as the problem started after I detected the virus... am wondering if it was still resident on one of the other partitions and so re-infected the system partition after the rebuild?

I will try winsockfix, I have used it before and it has resolved other issues with the TCP stack (One of my laptops used to get a screwed stack after a wireless PCMCIA card was removed..)

Cheers for all the input so far guys ...

Chris