Struggling to work out what the issue is here - cable, networking card or EE SH router?

RT123

RT123

RT123

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I have a PC with an ASUS Prime B550m-WIFI II that I recently had a cable installed to (handyman was the cheapest option by far, but even then I’m feeling overcharged - others were wanting £500+ but really regretting it now) - have tried updating the LAN drivers

I have a disability so can’t really remove the cable to try and test it (however, I note that the speeds of the cable are fine - reaching the 500mbps, so presuming the termination of the cable is OK)

The issue is that the connection is still struggling (like it was on WiFi) - the router logs aren’t particularly useful, but I’m seeing random drops on even the other Ethernet devices connected. Other Ethernet devices are fine for the most part, but I have seen the same issue on my laptop testing using a different cable occasionally- haven’t noticed any issues with my Xbox, but still suspect that I’ve got lucky with that.

Also worth noting is that I had a PC that I had to return due to unrelated reasons (with an Intel WiFi card) but this worked fine (by WiFi standards anyway)

Sorry for the long post but I’m really struggling because I’m unable to play games on my preferred device still (which I was hoping the cable would help)
 
My thoughts (no expert so may or may not be correct!):

- The fact that you are getting internet, albeit with drops, implies that the physical cable connection is ok.

- The most likely explanation would be your router and motherboard not playing nicely together for a software reason (TCP/IP protocol issue). I'm not sure if there are analysis tools available that would enable you to diagnose this.

- Who is your broadband provider, and would they also be able to check the line to rule out an external issue?

Rgds
 
radderfire said:
My thoughts (no expert so may or may not be correct!):

- The fact that you are getting internet, albeit with drops, implies that the physical cable connection is ok.

- The most likely explanation would be your router and motherboard not playing nicely together for a software reason (TCP/IP protocol issue). I'm not sure if there are analysis tools available that would enable you to diagnose this.

- Who is your broadband provider, and would they also be able to check the line to rule out an external issue?

Rgds
Click to expand...
Hi,

That’s a little bit reassuring to know (about the cable itself most probably being fine)

I’m using EE FTTP - their tests do indicate that the line is ok (and although WiFi is poor, I realise that it’s because the signal is poor, so really need to do something about that!)
 
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When the problem happens, what issues do you notice? Pages loading slowing? Not loading at all?

Can you explain the physical layout and connection a bit? Is your PC wired directly to the router by the cable that the handyman installed? Is there a network switch between the PC and router? The cable that was installed, is that a single cable the whole way or is it left with wall sockets and then a patch cable at each end?

You need to work out where the problem is. Run a continual ping to your router, do you see any packet loss? Check that specifically when you're having problems. Chances are the cable is fine, intermittent cable problems are a thing but this doesn't sound like it.

Whilst running the continual ping to the router, run another to 8.8.8.8 and see what happens. If you find that pings to the router are fine but there's packet loss to 8.8.8.8 then it's likely something with the router itself or the internet connection.
 
the-evaluator said:
When the problem happens, what issues do you notice? Pages loading slowing? Not loading at all?

Can you explain the physical layout and connection a bit? Is your PC wired directly to the router by the cable that the handyman installed? Is there a network switch between the PC and router? The cable that was installed, is that a single cable the whole way or is it left with wall sockets and then a patch cable at each end?

You need to work out where the problem is. Run a continual ping to your router, do you see any packet loss? Check that specifically when you're having problems. Chances are the cable is fine, intermittent cable problems are a thing but this doesn't sound like it.

Whilst running the continual ping to the router, run another to 8.8.8.8 and see what happens. If you find that pings to the router are fine but there's packet loss to 8.8.8.8 then it's likely something with the router itself or the internet connection.
Click to expand...
It’s wired directly - not through a switch or anything atm (although I’m planning to add a basic one)

When it happens the symptoms are:

Slow page loading
Buffering
Ping spikes (in game)

I can’t see what’s inside the trunking but I’m assuming it’s all one cable (the end by the router is the same as the one at the computer)

I’m not at home right now but pinging the Google DNS didn’t cause any packet loss issues when I tested that before. Router pings were <1ms
 
Check the port speed and duplex of your network card and if it's set to auto, hard code it to 1Gbps Full duplex. These kinds of issues are often caused by a speed/duplex negotiation failure between the NIC and router.
 
It's worth trying Drivers direct from Realtek rather than either Microsoft provided drivers, or drivers from Asus' site.

The latest ones here are from 2024/05/29, rather than the ones on Asus' site which are from 2022.

Realtek

www.realtek.com www.realtek.com

PRIME B550M-A WIFI II｜Motherboards｜ASUS United Kingdom

PRIME B550M-A WIFI II features dual M.2, PCIe 4.0, MediaTek Wi-Fi 6, 1 Gb Ethernet, HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A, and Aura Sync. PRIME B550M-A WIFI II caters to daily users and all builders looking for well-rounded specs and a range of options for performance tuning via intuitive...
www.asus.com www.asus.com



Also worth Turning off any power management options on the network adapter in device manager
i.e. :
"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
and things like "Green Ethernet" / "Energy Efficient Ethernet" / "Power Saving Mode" under the Advanced Options

1717165370091.png



What DNS is your router PC actually using? If you haven't changed it then it could be the ISP's DNS server causing the delays, so get it changed to 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4
 
Armageus said:
It's worth trying Drivers direct from Realtek rather than either Microsoft provided drivers, or drivers from Asus' site.

The latest ones here are from 2024/05/29, rather than the ones on Asus' site which are from 2022.

Realtek

www.realtek.com www.realtek.com

PRIME B550M-A WIFI II｜Motherboards｜ASUS United Kingdom

PRIME B550M-A WIFI II features dual M.2, PCIe 4.0, MediaTek Wi-Fi 6, 1 Gb Ethernet, HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A, and Aura Sync. PRIME B550M-A WIFI II caters to daily users and all builders looking for well-rounded specs and a range of options for performance tuning via intuitive...
www.asus.com www.asus.com



Also worth Turning off any power management options on the network adapter in device manager
i.e. :
"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
and things like "Green Ethernet" / "Energy Efficient Ethernet" / "Power Saving Mode" under the Advanced Options

1717165370091.png



What DNS is your router PC actually using? If you haven't changed it then it could be the ISP's DNS server causing the delays, so get it changed to 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4
Click to expand...
I have changed the DNS from the defaults, and downloaded drivers from the Realtek website that were the most recent ones available already (noticed the ASUS ones were out of date)

Will have a check of the properties later.
 
Oof :(

So was running the ping -t 8.8.8.8 command (it was fine for a few minutes)

Then it came up with PING: transmit failed. general failure for a bit.

10% packet loss in total

checked my logs and around the time I did it, the router logs were saying "eth1 (that one the PC is going to) port went down"
 
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I think I’m going to replace the built in networking with a PCiE card first and go from there (it seems relatively simple)

Although let me know if my plan is wrong.
 
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What cable/brand did the handyman actually use? Cat5e, Cat6, solid core or stranded? Proper copper or cca?
How is it terminated faceplates or actual rj45 connectors.

Outside of the odd issues that e.g. some recent intel network chips have had, I'd suggest the onboard network will likely not be the problem.

Far more likely to be a fault with the cable imo.
Easiest way to rule that out is move the pc near to the router and test with a short ready made cable, but appreciate that might not be possible.
 
Armageus said:
What cable/brand did the handyman actually use? Cat5e, Cat6, solid core or stranded? Proper copper or cca?
How is it terminated faceplates or actual rj45 connectors.

Outside of the odd issues that e.g. some recent intel network chips have had, I'd suggest the onboard network will likely not be the problem.

Far more likely to be a fault with the cable imo.
Easiest way to rule that out is move the pc near to the router and test with a short ready made cable, but appreciate that might not be possible.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, it’s a CCL cable (so ready made) - it seems to be a Cat6 cooper cable, but don’t know whether it’s solid core or stranded (but not really sure how to check the difference between CCA and copper). It’s just standard RJ45 - not had a faceplate added. Only thing I can think of is that it’s been stapled perhaps?

Unfortunately there’s not really a lot of space (for a big PC like I’ve got anyway!) but I can see if I can figure something out - I’ve got family members that could move it down there (but also limited by plug sockets where the router is)

And just wanted to say (you’ve all been really helpful) and hopefully I’ve just got very unlucky and the next cable will be fine (though not ideal to have to pay for 2)
 
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This doesn't sound like a cabling fault to me. If it were I'd generally expect it to always be problematic or at least problematic when the cable is moved about. For an interface to go down when kit is static doesn't sound like cabling.

Swapping out the NIC in the PC would be the next step I'd say.
 
Good thing I checked before ordering anything!

So my GPU’s taking up 3 slots - leaving no room for a NIC! Is my best option really to get a smaller GPU
 
I have a very strong inclination to believe it’s the NIC causing it - Since I can’t replace it (and not sure on USB Ethernet adapters) I’ll be contacting the company I got the PC from on Monday, in hope they can do something about the motherboard.

Thanks everyone!
 
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