[help] dropped connection

[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.

Edited May 21, 2007 by pcandpc

[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.

Edited May 21, 2007 by pcandpc

[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.

Edited May 22, 2007 by pcandpc

[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.

Edited May 22, 2007 by pcandpc

[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.

Edited May 22, 2007 by pcandpc

[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.

Edited May 22, 2007 by pcandpc

[cluberti]

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