Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I am having consistent PORT drops leading to disconnects of other services
on my ETHERNET connection. Wireless appears to be working fine. My Mac is
working fine. Only Windows XP Ethernet is having this problem. Proposed
solution below did not work:

>
> On 6/14/04 11:03 AM, in article egZj$DiUEHA.1036@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl, "Gary
> Tsang" <gtsangDELETE@MEaumha.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Have you tried going into the Device Manager, and then to yoru NIC card and
> then choosing 10mbps instead of Auto or 100mbps just to see if it stops your
> disconnects?
>
> --
> Gary Tsang
> Microsoft MVP - Windows XP Shell/User
> http://www.microsoft.com/mvp


NEED help or other solutions? Can this be firewall related? I've opened the
specific ports without success.




How do you tell if you have a bad NIC card? My computer is pretty new
[5mos], and about a month ago I started having problems with my wireless
connections and them my ethernet connections. I'm using a Linksys WRTr54G
2,
but I'm having the same problem on my wired connections using a different
[Asante] router, so it has to be something in the settings in the XP
settings or a hardware problem. I seem to have fixed the wireless problem
with a solution [ below], but my wired connection is giving me extreme
pain.

Frustrating symptoms: I can connect like the wind on my mac through my
linksys router. No problems. I can connect on my laptop XP usually, on IE
and MSN messenger [sometimes] and AOL IM usually. But after a while being
connected and trying to log into schwab, first it fails to connect and
then
I may or may not lose all my other connections. This problem is
repeatable.
I'm using Ethernet through the wireless router for trouble shooting, and I
tried to use my spare Asante Router today, but the problems persisted on
the
XP setup. The connection in the ethernet cable still reads ACTIVE in the
network connections.

I read on

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/re [...] ~mode=flat

On the Properties screen for your preferred network, go to the
Authentication
Tab and uncheck "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network".
When you
are using an Open or Shared (WEP) network, this option is not necessary
and
will result in the auto-disconnect problem every few minutes, if left
enabled.


That helped somewhat, especially with the wireless and I fixed the
wireless
with the following:
I seem to get bumped off when my wireless detects another wireless
network in
my neighborhood. Today it worked mostly, but I had to restart many times
when
it logged off. I found some obscure advice in the Wired article that
said to
go to Control Panels>Admin Tools>Services> Turn off and on Wireless Zero
Config. I found a tab that forces a restart of the services after a
failure. I
set it to restart after 3 failures.

I have tried opening ports for my problem connections, but that doesn't
seem
to help. Turning off the firewall doesn't help. I updated my Realtek NIC
drivers, but that didn't fix it. Tried resetting things and system restore
with no luck. I've tried to use wizard setups for ethernet connections.
No
help. Luckily things seem to be working through wireless right now, but
the
cabled problem is a real bother.


Any help REALLY appreciated!

Thanks
Jeff

Background info:
Spent hours on the phone with some India tech support for linksys who told
me to turn off the firewall and that there was no danger to my network
because the wireless was WEP at 64 bit, and the computers on ethernet were
also protected by the network.

Turning off firewall allowed a WEP connection but sheez, another IT guy
[not
from Linksys] said that the Firewall off was lamebrained. Problems don't
happen with my Mac, only with this WIN XP laptop.




I tried using an Asante Router and hit the same problem. That tells me
that
it is in the XP somehow. Since I can connect via wireless and I couldn't
under either ethernet...
How about your Network Interface Card ? NIC
It contains 3 components:
1) hardware
2) firmware
3) software drivers

Lot's of potential for failure there...
I've replaced a TON of bad nics over the years.
Yep, debugging the problem drove me crazy.