[pcandpc]

Hello?

Once in a while, I experience some dropped
connections on my wired ethernets in XP.

Basically, I am getting connection timed out
error messages.

I have updated drivers and looked into my
router settings just to see if there's anything
I need to pay attention to; all seems well.

So far, I have seen these drops on realtek
rtl 8139 and d-link dfe 528tx.

How can I further troubleshoot this issue?

By the way, when the connection is dropped, simply
reloading the current page reestablishes the dropped
connection.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 21 May 2007 - 02:04 AM

[eyeball]

you could try another cable and see if the problem still manifests itself, or you could try a different port on your router to the one that you are currently plugged into

[pcandpc]

Hi eyeball,

Thanks.

I think the issue is related to the realtek rtl8139 chipset
because dfe 528tx happens to use this same chipset.

Besides, I have, yet, another different brand/chipset
adapter, using the same cable, router port, and this
one works nicely so far without the symptom.

And, if it's indeed a chipset-related issue, I want to
know if there's anything I can do to correct the issue.

I have looked into the dfe528tx driver.inf file, and
have seen so many different parameter values.

Perhaps, I could change some of these values and
reimport the file into the system registry or something.

Then again, I am not an expert on a driver info file
and modifying system registry.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 21 May 2007 - 10:42 AM

[eyeball]

Hmm, what about in the properties of the NIC in device manager, what is the recieve buffer size set to? also double chck the link speed/duplex mode, i think this should be auto but maybe changing it manually would hlep.
try the buffer size at 64k first tho, one change at a time

also i believe Microsoft have their own driver built into XP for this chipset, if not you could certainly get it on windows update and try that one
hope this helps

[IcemanND]

is there a power management tab for this device in the device manager? if so try turning off the setting to allow windows to control power for this device.

[pcandpc]

Hi eyeball and icemannd,

Thanks for your feedbacks.

icemannd,
Actually, I have just tried that and that
doesn't help.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 21 May 2007 - 08:57 PM

[IcemanND]

any errors in the event viewer related to your Ethernet connection?

[pcandpc]

Hi,

Well, I am noticing some rare, infrequent
dhcp timed out warnings.

Other than this, I do not see any connection
related errors.

By the way, the current dhcp lease is set to
just 1 day, and I think this is all right, isn't it?

Thanks.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 22 May 2007 - 11:59 AM

[IcemanND]

depending upon the which of my networks I connect to my lease is anywhere from 1 hour to 7 days. So that should not be a problem, unless for some reason it is not renewing the lease properly. What exactly are the DHCP timeout warnings?

[pcandpc]

Hi,

The exact statement is as follows:

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 004005820154. The following error occurred:
The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

In my home system, the router and computer are turned on
about at the same time.

So, I think the above is due to the fact that when
the computer starts, it tries to contact the router to
obtain the dhcp lease from.

In fact, I compared the above event time
with my connection issue to see any correlation
between the two, and unfortunately, they don't
match.

So, I think my router/dhcp server is not an issue
with my connection problem I'm having with.

Thanks.

[IcemanND]

that would have been too easy.

It's a longshot but try adding this to the registry:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
DWORD: DisbleDHCPMediaSense=1

[pcandpc]

Hi,

I just tried that but I am still getting
the connection timed error during browsing.

By the way, your suggestion didn't get
rid of the dhcp event warning message
above if that was your intention as well.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 22 May 2007 - 03:00 PM

[IcemanND]

I'm at the end of my list of suggestions other than trying a different cable, port on switch, I can not think of anything else that would cause this.

It sounds like some kind of power management feature some where or flaky hardware.

[pcandpc]

Hi,

As I have said in my earlier post, I happen to have
another adapter with different brand/chipset, using
the same cable on the same router port, and this one
appears to work nicely without an issue.

Well, I have already contacted both realtek and
d-link regarding this issue, but have not heard
from them as yet.

But, thanks for your attention and effort in assisting me.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 22 May 2007 - 04:31 PM

[cluberti]

By any chance do you have a network trace of these dropped or failed connections?

[pcandpc]

Hi,

Strangely, the adapter I thought working nicely
has just bummed me. And, this one even doesn't
have such fancy power saving modes at all.

I guess I should try using a different cable or
a router port all together.

By the way, how do I do the network tracing
on this timed out connection error as it occurs?

Thanks.

This post has been edited by pcandpc: 22 May 2007 - 11:13 PM

[cluberti]

Download wireshark or netmon, install, and use their "capture" function to capture network traffic until the failure. Note the time (as closely as possible to the time of the failure), and to where you were attempting to connect, and save the capture. You can review it, or have one of us do it for you.