XP pro keeps dropping internet connection

[kolokithi]

I have a PC with XP and Linux dual booting. The reason I mention this is because everything works fine in linux so my problem couldn't be a hardware one.

windows XP keeps dropping the connection to the internet and to my router at regular intervals it seems. If I disable and re-enable the local area connection my internet re-appears. If I launch mozilla ditto.

I was wondering if windows has any timers regarding connections and whether one of them times out. I can't see anything in the event viewer, it has began to annoy the hell out of me but I haven't decided to re-install just yet.

Can anyone help?
My setup: XP pro SP1 + post SP1 patches. I run mozilla 1.4a and emule. Zone Alarm and Norton Antivirus. I have the latest drivers for NIC (Realtek 8139)

Thanks.
Chris

 

[bcastner]

Try the hardware section of the Official Emule Forum, as there is a fairly lengthy discussion of the Realtek NIC under XP.

If I remember correctly, not a certain proposition, you have to download the older driver version and not the current one.

But do some research on the NIC. It is widely detested by the eMule community.

 

[bcastner]

You might also investigate your router. As it is possible, I am guessing that NIC intensive eMule is being run from Windows.

Make certain that the firmware drivers for the router are up-to-date. If the router happens to be a Linksys BEFSR11 I do not think there is a current solution to your problem.

 

[kolokithi]

thanks for the advise, I will certainly check it out. The weird thing is, that I've had this setup for a few months and only recently the problem appeared. Could it be the 0.28a version of emule? the thing is it happens even when i'm not running emule.

I've seen this key
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters\autodisconnect

I have set changed it from f to 0 hoping it will disable it.

I'm clatching at straws here, i know.

My router is a D-LINK DSL-504 and I have the latest beta firmware installed. Seems stable.

 

[bcastner]

kolokithi,

If anything .28a is more efficient in shifing the burden from edonkey network server communications to client-to-client UDP. This is where the driver issue becomes glaring as a deficiency, as many drives were optomized to TCP and not UDP.

You might consider dropping the "per 5 seconds" connection limit down significantly if you formerly had it set above the default. See if a setting of 20 makes the problem go away. If so, go no higher than 40 if you want to play with the setting.

 

[kolokithi]

Thanks for your help bcastner,

I'm not a novice user, but I couldn't figure out the problem. I think I must have done some damage to the registry (too many installations of mozilla - had different versions running at the same time). I also took the axe to the registry, modified too many things by hand.

In the end the problem annoyed me so much I reinstalled windows. I think I have learned my lesson. If it ain't broke don't fix it(If your current drivers are working don't upgrade), and if you do use system restore and don't upgrade too many things at once.

Chris.