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

[CaNsA]

So not an actual thing that happens in home environments then, my dude

mac address conflicts - Google Search

It does happen in all environments.

During my decades in the game, I've seen it occur in small residential networks with only a few devices on the lan and on huge estates with thousands of devices.

Anyways, I would strip everything back to basics and do the 3 things I said in an earlier post.

There are too many things going on for anyone to efficiently troubleshoot the issue.

 

[CaNsA]

OK ladies.

Have fun, I'm done in here.

Good luck.

 

[RT123]

It doesn’t matter which port the cable is plugged into. Laptop on its own is fine (only real difference is the Intel NIC/card). I will try the replacement cable that’s coming, but it’s happening when tethering on 5G as well

Looking online (and ignoring the PCs issues atm, I need to look into those separately), there are some other reports of disconnections with this SH+ that are a bit odd

 

[RT123]

So I plugged in a cheap long cable and that seems fine/better

Hurts to have to be considering replacing the cable (it's expensive for me).

 

[bledd]

Buy a cheap cable tester (you can test it on a short patch lead to figure out how it looks).

Don't plug it into live equipment, ie only connect it to the cable, check the cable isn't connected to pc or router.

If cable isn't ok, call back the handyman to prove to him it's not working. Shouldn't need to pay anything.

If you can post it back, I can send you a cable tester to borrow.

 

[RT123]

Cable works fine on a laptop and an Xbox - so suspecting something weird is going on with PC. I may still get a cable tester but don’t think that’s the fault anymore.

WiFi devices seem to have improved a bit after I changed the setting from WiFi 6 to 5.

 

[sparton_SPA]

Agree with that approach - you need to isolate each possible issue, one by one.
To say you're experiencing it across other devices also, definitely is leading to a point that the issue sits elsewhere.
Get hold of a long cable, then isolate the PC out of the equation.

 

[Feek]

Ok, maybe should’ve added onto the existing thread (and don’t mind a merge)

Merged.

 

[SpellowHouse]

Going to sound utterly stupid but I don't suppose you have a landline? I made the mistake of having a dect phone close to a PC once, and it played havoc with the Ethernet.

 

[RT123]

Going to sound utterly stupid but I don't suppose you have a landline? I made the mistake of having a dect phone close to a PC once, and it played havoc with the Ethernet.

No, no suggestion is a stupid one!

I don’t have a landline that’s in active use, and it’s nowhere near the PC anyhow.

I’m strongly suspicious of the PC, despite the fact it’s had a replacement motherboard (unfortunately like-for-like) - when this issue happens it seems to lose the connection completely (no network activity in Task Manager). I’ve replaced the router with an Archer AX23 now, so that rules that out.

Just wish I hadn’t paid £100 for a stupid IT tech who was basically no use at all to come out and look at it.

 

[SpellowHouse]

I don't know whether you have tried this, but I would have a go with a USB/Ethernet adapter. You can get one for £10. Or even a PCIe NIC.

How long is the cable? Did you try turning power saving off on in the Ethernet chip settings?

I have not a clue about this, but could it be the PSU?

 

[Armageus]

Cable works fine on a laptop and an Xbox - so suspecting something weird is going on with PC. I may still get a cable tester but don’t think that’s the fault anymore.

WiFi devices seem to have improved a bit after I changed the setting from WiFi 6 to 5.

Have you tried it with all other devices disconnected and WiFi off?

 

[RT123]

No space for PCiE one, but I tested an external Realtek one (built in is also Realtek) and that had the same problem. It’s about 15 metres and I’ve turned off every power saving/green setting I’ve found related to Ethernet. The cable is fine with other devices (I’ve tried an Xbox and my laptop) and also ran another one up there

I really don’t suspect the PSU of the PC myself - surely I’d be seeing more problems than that if it was (eg power issue, crashes when under high load) though I’m not that techie from that perspective either!

 

[RT123]

Have you tried it with all other devices disconnected and WiFi off?

Yes. It persists

 

[RT123]

I've found a USB Ethernet adapter that should use a different adapter chip, so will test that when it arrives tomorrow.

 

[OCZxFTW]

If that fails, download wireshark and run a capture on the Ethernet NIC then share here and I'll take a look to see if I can see anything that could give a pointer to the problem.

EDIT: Just read through and wanted to ask does the new router state that the physical link is dropping out as with the EE Hub?

 

[RT123]

Hi,

Reddit was reporting the internet had lost connection, and my Wireshark reported it lost my Eth port.

imgur.com

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imgur.com

To be quite honest, I'm not sure what to take screenshots of (I've never done it)

Taken a few screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/KYSf552

I'm thinking the PC has some kind of fault, given the other devices are fine, but honestly have no idea what it could be (tried mobo replacement under warranty, external NICs). Previous PC was fine (using WiFi at the time, obviously, but this has the issue on WiFi, 5G and Eth)

TPLink router doesn't detect that my PC disconnected.

 

[RT123]

Hm.

So I also tried a Ubuntu live USB and the issue persisted there.

 

[Bluecube]

I've found a USB Ethernet adapter that should use a different adapter chip, so will test that when it arrives tomorrow.

Have you tried this?

 

[RT123]

Have you tried this?

Yes., I have.