network 10 / 100mbit instability

darkgen · 6 May 2007 at 15:13

Hmm, have an odd issue with my main XP box, It would seem, well to me it's constantly negotiating link/duplex. Although I'm really confused.

Although this may of been an issue for a while I have only just noticed it this weekend as I've tried to copy data to/from a samba share.

Put simply, BSD and XP box are connected to a router via a wired connection.

BSD gets a <1ms response to router
BSD gets a 10ms response to XP
XP gets a anywhere between a 15ms - 100ms+ response to router (Although this can settle down to a constant 7/8ms response)
XP gets a anywhere between a <1ms upto 100ms to BSD (although this can then settle down to <1ms)

I also have a wireless device (via router) which will get a constant ping response of <1ms to the XP box.

As soon as I start to actually move data either to or from the XP box it acts like it drops straight to a 10mbit connection, but just to compound the issue, during an actual transfer session, it may crank upto 100mbit (8>mb/s) briefly before dropping back to 10.

I have not made any changes or downloaded any updates as far as I'm aware or altered any drivers aside from the GPU (which I changed yesterday) but this issue has been in effect at least a week.

The router is a vigor 2600g and it has had no firmware updates for months (I have made no config changes either). I have rebooted all devices.

EDIT, to clarify, I have also set up all devices to a 100mbit full duplex mode (before hand it worked fine with everything sent to auto)

Any ideas?

Cheers, Paul.

Topgun · 7 May 2007 at 14:25

1. Power cycle router

2. Check cabling (particularly the rj45 plugs) for damage.

3. try a different port on the router/switch.

4. replace NIC

bigredshark · 7 May 2007 at 14:34

I'd manually set a speed and duplex in the NIC properties too, can't do any harm. Most likely it'll be bad cabling or a bad port on the router I'd imagine...

darkgen · 8 May 2007 at 11:55

Thanks for the responses, I have tried all suggested, accept another nic on the windows box. I'll borrow one from work today and give that a whirl tonight.

As much as I can't see it suddenly failing, I've exhausted the other options.

Cheers, Paul.

.walls · 8 May 2007 at 14:15

Have you changed the drivers for the NIC any time recently?

Even if they came from update.windows.com - recently (as in the last six months) I've seen MS drivers "breaking" a GeForce4MX, a Philips TFT and a Promise UATA controller... until the drivers were rolled back...

darkgen · 8 May 2007 at 15:18

No driver updates, however, since the issue, over the weekend, I updated the drivers for the Realtek onboard nic and also rollbacked and forward with no joy.

Very annoying, it will route fine, with no packet loss, just incredibly s-l-o-w-l-y.

On a side note, I am also planning to install vista to another partition, so I'll be able to see whether it is software related or hardware (although not a scientific test i'll warrant).

Cheers, Paul.

darkgen · 8 May 2007 at 18:33

Well, just installed Vista Premium and the network card is behaving as it used to...

I'm guessing that somehow it must be a driver issue in XP. Although I'm at a loss what to try next to resolve.

Oh well...

.walls · 8 May 2007 at 18:51

Could be a knackered system file (e.g. tcpip.sys)... did you try sfc /scannow?

You'll need your install disk (or at least the i386)

darkgen · 8 May 2007 at 20:06

Ahh now that started to go well till it asked for service pack 2 cd, which of course I d/l from via windows update

oh well a 350mb download, may as well.

.walls · 8 May 2007 at 21:29

That shouldn't be a problem - if you patched up to sp2, then the service pack files (plus any hotfixes after that) will be stored on your boot volume.

You should be able to just run sfc with your pre sp2 disk *assuming* that it's the disk you installed from... sfc is *very* picky about the disk which you use...