Curse

DarkWasp · Sep 13, 2005, 12:41 AM // 00:41

Day 1 - Playing Guild Wars happily, la la dum dee da! My dad comes home, notices his computer is locked up, virus scan was stuck at 35%, took 10 minutes to load My Computer. (His computer is the host of the network, the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) is run from his computer.)
*Restart* Computer Boots up, displays a Dell error message "One of your components is operating out of normal performance.... da da da"
IT WAS THE HARD DRIVE!

So, I take a back up hard drive (2gigs), and install XP on it. Couldnt get connected to the ISP.

I go to bed.

Day 2 - My dad called the ISP up, and got the connection working. I try to set up the network. Nothing... I start up the 3rd computer (Were did that come from?) and the connection works... ON ALL OF THE PCS!

Ordered a new Hard Drive. Used the work around (Having all 3 PCs on) to play GW until we got the new hard drive.

Day (Whatever day it was) Hard Drive ships in. Installed, Re-installed Windows XP on the host computer on the new hard drive.

However the network worked the same way, It would not work if the 3rd computer wasnt on, and you would have to wait 20 minutes after start up of the 3rd computer. If the 3rd computer was shut down, 20 minutes later, network connection would drop. Used that work around all summer.

Yesterday - Formatted 3rd computer because it ran like a 99 year old woman having a stroke on a sofa. Network works the same, 3rd computer must be on, no faster wake up time. I DO NOT SETTLE FOR WORKAROUNDS LIKE THIS!

Well today the network has been very unstable and has been dropping even when the 3rd computer is on. It demands to be fixed!

And I'd perfer it that way.

Heres the facts:
COMP1 = Host with ISP connection
COMP2 = This one, my PC
COMP3 = Was my old computer until I upgraded piece by piece, now my brother uses it (most likely why it ran like it did)

COMP1 Must be on for internet connection.
When COMP1 is on, COMP3 must be on for network connection.
When COMP1 is off, COMP2 and 3 work fine as far as networking goes.
When COMP1 is on and 3 is off, the network fails, and continues to fail until COMP3 has been on for 20 minutes.
When COMP3 is unplugged - COMP1 says "A Network Cable is Unplugged"

What do you suppose the problem is?

My theory is, a surge destroyed the hard drive and damaged the network card on the host computer. It connected to COMP3 because it had a printer, but now that the printer has been moved to COMP1, the network holds no priority on COMP3, and is failing.

I must be wrong, I have dealt with many network problems, but this one blows my mind. I tried switching the cables around on the HUB too.

Jessy · Sep 13, 2005, 01:47 AM // 01:47

I see a couple problems with your current setup that also happen to make it difficult to pinpoint your problem.

I would generally suggest to invest the 20$ to obtain a router that takes over the ICS function of COMP1 (subsequently you test the connectivity from each COMP [a] to the Internet and [b] to local terminals).

If that is not an option, take down the network and start putting it together from scratch (cables, settings). The reason why I recommend this is that it is the only method I can see for you to clearly determine the segment causing problems. Pay particular attention to DHCP/IP settings, the ports you use at the hub etc.

So, connect COMP1 and ensure it works, then COMP2 until it works 100%, and finally COMP3.

Regarding your theory on the sudden surge, from my experience, it's 95% software/settings, 5% freak hardware failures. Now I won't say it's impossible, but I would bet my money on the setup, not the infrastructure.

DarkWasp · Sep 13, 2005, 08:54 PM // 20:54

COMP2 and 3 are off and unplugged from the HUB. Reinstalled the network card and the network has been re-setup many times.

COMP1 is plugged in and the lights are blinking, seems to be working fine... but... it keeps saying "Local Area Connection 6 A network cable is unplugged" I've switched cords and ports, same problem. Its kind of funny watching the Local Area Connection number go up everytime I re-install the network card.

I'm about to try another network card, I have spare.

Any idea?

DarkWasp · Sep 14, 2005, 12:37 PM // 12:37

Tried the 15 minitue complete no power shut down.. didnt work.

I can get it to work by setting it to 10mbps, this is not an optian for me, I will not settle for 10mbps!

I'm trying the other network card.

EDIT I'm on my computer now, network works fine... If both PCs are set to 10mbps.

I'm still gonna try for 100mbps, 10 seems alittle slow

EF2NYD · Sep 14, 2005, 02:14 PM // 14:14

Most ISPs don't offer more than 10Mbps, unless you have a business line.

DarkWasp · Sep 14, 2005, 04:45 PM // 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by EF2NYD

Most ISPs don't offer more than 10Mbps, unless you have a business line.

There is more to A network then ICS.

There is file and printer sharing too.

Levi Garett · Sep 14, 2005, 06:19 PM // 18:19

I think he's saying that the bandwidth offered by your ISP is not going to exceed 10Mbps. Cable is like 3Mbps tops...

You installed WinXP on a 2GB hard drive? LoL

Can you post all of your ip settings for all machines. Open up a Dos prompty and type "ipconfig /all" on all 3 machines and post that information here.

Your hub could be crapping out too. I've honestly never seen a NIC card go bad. Hubs go bad all the time though.

Algren Cole · Sep 14, 2005, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeviGarrett

I think he's saying that the bandwidth offered by your ISP is not going to exceed 10Mbps. Cable is like 3Mbps tops...

You installed WinXP on a 2GB hard drive? LoL

Can you post all of your ip settings for all machines. Open up a Dos prompty and type "ipconfig /all" on all 3 machines and post that information here.

Your hub could be crapping out too. I've honestly never seen a NIC card go bad. Hubs go bad all the time though.

I get 8mbps where I live.

also, you need a router. Like the first poster mentioned...having your connection dependant on one or more other computers being online is never a good thing. You can grab a router for pretty cheap.

DarkWasp · Sep 16, 2005, 12:05 PM // 12:05

You still dont understand the point, sure my internet works fine, but the network file sharing is just to slow at 10mbps. I tried moving Guild Wars cache file on to comp3, It was gonna take 4 hours! It usauly takes 10-15 minutes.

Saying that my ISP is never going to exceed 10 mbps isnt helping me here, because the ISP has no control over file sharing.

Looked up the prices and decided to get a router.

Blu Vein · Sep 16, 2005, 12:29 PM // 12:29

A router is truly the route you want to go with connecting multiple computers to a single connection. No phun intended, or maybe there was...

But to help assit fixing the posted problem can you provide this information.

1. What OS are on each machine your dad's has XP pro? or home? what about the rest especially computer 3

2. What type of connection are you using Cable, DSL, Satelite. Are you using a PPPOE connection like through earthlink where you need to use a username and password to establish a connection or is it simply a DHCP TCP/IP connection?

3. Are all your network components 10/100 or greater TCP/IP as communications can only go as fast as it's slowest connection.

Old Dood · Sep 16, 2005, 01:52 PM // 13:52

I have an older 10mbs Lynksys router. It works great. I see no need for anything faster then 10mbs on a home network. I can transfer files fairly fast. As for LAN games 10mbs it fast enough.

EDIT: Fixed Typ0s..We hates them

Blu Vein · Sep 16, 2005, 02:53 PM // 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Warrior Dood

I have an older 10mps Lynksys router. It works great. I see no need for anything faster then 10mps on a home network. I can transfer files fairly fast. As for LAN games 10mps it fast enough.

That all depends on what you do on your home network. If you are streaming movies to other computers or electronics then 10Mbps is simply not fast enough. Or even just copying large digital videos for editing from you storage machine to your workstation would require more speed.

I say for the price of throughput its well worth investing in a Gigabit infrastructure, like myself makes all file transfers within network split sec fast.

Now granted that currently there isn't a need for anything above 10Mbps gateway for home high speed. But with Home cable speeds up to 8Mbps and DSL speeds up to 5Mbps. It want be long before higher throughput is offered.

Macel · Sep 16, 2005, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Warrior Dood

I have an older 10mps Lynksys router. It works great. I see no need for anything faster then 10mps on a home network. I can transfer files fairly fast. As for LAN games 10mps it fast enough.

Remember that's 10 megaBITS per second. Or 1.25 megaBYTES per second. Many cable/ADSL connections are getting nearly as fast as that these days.
My cable connection, which is the 'cheapo low-bandwidth' version is 5 megabits per second. I believe the best option on my cable service is now 10 megabits per second, and people who have that have complained that they don't get 10 megabits per second with their 10megabit ethernet cards... Why? Because there is some overhead that needs to be considered. So if you have an internet connection that is approaching 10 megabits per second you should consider upgrading to a 10/100 card.. They're not that expensive. If you have a local network and regularly transfer large files, or have lots of computers on the network, make sure you have A: a good gigabit router and B: 100mb or 1gb ethernet cards.

Old Dood · Sep 16, 2005, 08:39 PM // 20:39

Yes. I understand. 8 bits to a byte. I have three computers regularly on my network, with an option to have my laptop on the wireless part. My cable speed is 4/mbs and there is talk of it going to 6/mbs. Still even when I download from one computer to another it is not that bad. It will take some time, I will have to agree on that. What I do for ripping movies and such from one computer to another is use a external HD. Then I just walk over to the other computer and let it download from that. Most of my video stuff is always on my computer, if anyone else in the house wants to get at those files then it is there problem if it is slow.

DarkWasp · Sep 18, 2005, 07:24 AM // 07:24

Yeah, we are talking about transfering Steam, its about 12 gigs. 10MBPS is slow.

All network cards are the same 10/100, cept mine is integrated.

My ISP is Bellsouth, dont need a username or password.

Only thing I canfigure now is that my 100MBPS hub stream is corrupt.

(Cant wait to get the Router though, can get rid of the firewall and the dell wont have to be the host for LAN games)