Ethernet Connection Lost (and Found?)

davefr · 13 Nov 2009

Xello said:

I noticed a new Realtek driver was released in the past few weeks so i've installed that, if it doesn't do the trick i'll try installing a really old one from an old installation CD.

Bases on my experience the latest Realtek drivers (7.006) are even worse then the native one on the W7 CD.

kensiko · 13 Nov 2009

scottyd said:

kensiko said:

I did.

No disconnect since. But you can't base your conclusions on that because I reinstalled Windows, so the software is a little bit different. Also, I saw a post of someone who has bought an Intel Ethernet card and still had the disconnections.

What type of network card did you get? I was looking at a pci-e rosewell one that says it specifically works with windows 7.

I bought the Intel pro 1000T on ebay for 15$.

Xello · 14 Nov 2009

davefr said:

Xello said:

I noticed a new Realtek driver was released in the past few weeks so i've installed that, if it doesn't do the trick i'll try installing a really old one from an old installation CD.

Bases on my experience the latest Realtek drivers (7.006) are even worse then the native one on the W7 CD.

This is not the 7.006 i had before from October, these ones were released in November - 7.6.820.2009.

So far i've gone 15 hours without a single connection hiccup, these may have done the trick.

Spoke to soon, the problem returned with a vengeance.

I've now installed a really old Vista driver for Realtek 8187, but i had to run the setup.exe in XP compatibility mode and i got an error message about a cab file when it installed. Nevertheless it did install and i have network connectivity, so i'll see how it goes.

I also found this folder on my motherboard's installation cd called "RTLTOOL" and the setup.exe inside it installed "Realtek Diagnostic Utility", not sure if it will be any help though.

scottyd · 15 Nov 2009

I tried taking my router out of the equation and plugged directly into the wall, which probably goes to a switch since I'm at a university. Sure enough after downloading for 10-20 minutes at speeds of 2-3 MB/s my network adapters disappeared. So my router has nothing to do with it. This is getting pretty annoying, so I might buy a pci-e network card as a quick fix.

Xello · 15 Nov 2009

Phasma said:

Device manager.
then look up Network adapters.
Find the primary network adapter.
Right click properties.
Then update driver.
You should see the version number.
Install a version that is before this one that is currently installed.
IF you can find one on the net wonderful. I however used my old MOtherboard instalation CD.
I chose Have own disk . Browse. explore the cd ( open it up to find the exact folder with the drivers on there.)
Just update and your good.
Just restart and your good to go.
I have had no problems since then. Best to stick with a working driver than a new and improved one....
also make sure you dont have WIndows updates undo your handy work.

I'm doing this now, can you tell me what driver version you're on? The one i've installed from my old motherboard's cd is 5.7061.1016.2008, and it's really bad, my whole connection is laggy, so i'll see what else i can find on the cd.

I found out the hard way that you have to do it the way described here, if you run the setup.exe of an old driver in compatibility mode windows 7 will step in during that installation and install its own stock driver (7.2. whatever) over the top.

:edit: have now tried every old driver from this cd, none of them worked

I'm going to look for a pci-e network card.

scottyd · 15 Nov 2009

Decided to order a Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-e network card for $32 shipped. Hopefully this solves the problem. Should have it sometime this week.

Xello · 16 Nov 2009

scottyd said:

Decided to order a Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-e network card for $32 shipped. Hopefully this solves the problem. Should have it sometime this week.

That's the one i've ordered too

It came today, i've hooked it up, now let's see what happens.

What a waste of money, if anything changing to Intel NIC has given me more frequent disconnects.

I think i'm going to upgrade back to Vista and be rid of this turd of an operating system :)

alloo · 17 Nov 2009

I've been troubleshooting occasional dropping and was having a default gateway problem. This page has instructions by PCC-William on solving this:
The default gateway is not available - Windows 7 - Puget Computer Forum: Gaming, Video Editing, Laptops, Servers
Hope it helps someone. I've not had a drop since implementing fix #2
Will

scottyd · 17 Nov 2009

Xello said:

What a waste of money, if anything changing to Intel NIC has given me more frequent disconnects.

I think i'm going to upgrade back to Vista and be rid of this turd of an operating system :)

Mine should be here Thursday. I hope my results are different.

Xello · 18 Nov 2009

Haven't given up just yet, i will go through all the troubleshooting i did on the Realtek ones with the Intel one and then probably reset router to factory firmware, and perhaps borrow a router from someone else to see if any of this makes a difference.

If not, then i have successfully ruled out every component in my system as a possible cause, and this would be an ISP issue. I don't really want to phone them though and explain that this problem only occurs when i am seeding torrents with 100% of my upload 24/7...