Degrading network connection

March 14, 2006 6:02 PM

My network connection degrades and then stops entirely for mysterious reasons.

My ethernet port is onboard (VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet) connected to a Netgear ADSL router. For a long time now, my connection to the network seems to degrade over random amounts of time, it could be hours, or minutes. but it seems to get quite bad and then stop entirely. No internet connection or access to or from other computers.

My flatmate doesn't get the same problem so I can only assume it has something to do with my computer, most likely the network port.

I've tried adjusting some of the settings in device manager for it, which are currently:

adaptive interrupt - enabled *
connection type - 100BaseTx Full Duplex *
Flow Control - Hardware Default (Auto) *
Network Adress - Not Presest
Recieve Buffers - 64
Transmit Buffers - 64
Wake Up Type - OS Controlled

But changing the ones I've asterisked doesn't seem to do much, or anything.

posted by iamcrispy to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Try changing your connection type to 'auto', instead of full duplex. Similar problems that I've had have been fixed that way..
posted by provolot at 6:19 PM on March 14, 2006

And try a different ethernet cable!
posted by xil at 6:45 PM on March 14, 2006

Don't forget to swap which port you're using on the ADSL router.

Netgear has produced some incredibly crappy products in their day.
posted by tkolar at 7:04 PM on March 14, 2006

Are you using Bittorrent or other P2P software? The routing table on your router could be filling up if that's the case. Try reducing the amount of connections P2P programs are allowed if you're using them.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 7:29 PM on March 14, 2006

Yeah, the lower-end (plastic-encased) Netgear routers tend not to be able to handle large numbers of simultaneous connections. The best solution is to replace it with something else, IMHO.
posted by kindall at 9:08 AM on March 15, 2006

Are you using a VIA EPIA motherboard? A feature of those boards is that in low power (and/or high heat?) conditions the Ethernet adapter is supposed to be the first component to fail.

I've heard this in many places; here's a reference: http://epialinux.org/files/epia_howto/ar01s02.html
posted by Ptrin at 6:35 PM on March 15, 2006