Cable modem hooked up to a NIC instead of USB - still getting CPU usage spikes

[mooojojojo]

UPDATE

Well I hooked the modem up to a NIC instead with USB and now it's better... kind of - when the Internet connection is active it still sends spikes in my CPU usage window. Like if I set it to High refresh speed it will go 10% - 0% - 10% - 0% etc. - this is when the PC is idle with just the connection enabled. Now I wouldn't care at all about it but it's really annoying since I feel it when I'm playing a game (NFS - HS2 for instance). It would just do these chugs - really short ones but kinda regular and it's no fun playing that way. It gets worse when I run ZoneAlarm Pro - with it the CPU usage is more like 12% - 4% - 27% - 12% and so on.

When I disable the LAN connection for the modem the CPU will stay at 0% and the games are smooth again.

Any ideas? Any services I should disable, anything I can do at all?

The PC is Celeron 2.66GHz, 512MB DDR, Radeon 9000Pro.


ORIGINAL POST

Hello.. I have this question.

At the moment I have an RCA/Thomson cable modem hooked up to my PC via USB. In the Local Area Connection I have sharing and XP firewall enabled - this way my brother can use the Internet on his laptop (it's hooked up to a switch, as is my PC).

Everything works okay at the moment, but the idle CPU usage with the cable connection enabled is ~20%-30%, and when I try to watch a movie while downloading it stutters (this is a Celeron 2GHz with a Radeon9000). I tried disabling the cable modem connection and then the CPU usage at idle drops down to the normal 0%-2%.

Now what I want to know is whether my situation will improve if I change the USB connection to Ethernet? If I just install another NIC in the PC and hook up the modem to that, will I be able to share the connection in the same easy way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[IceNineJon]

Here's what I would do. Buy an inexpensive broadband (wireless?) router. Hook your computer into it, your brother's into it, the ethernet cable from the modem into it and you're good to go. No crappy XP internet sharing required

Yes, the two NIC solution will also work but why bother with that? With the router (which you can get for the price of a second NIC anyway), your computer doesn't have to be on in order for your brother to use the internet.

 

[mooojojojo]

Originally posted by: IceNineJon
Here's what I would do. Buy an inexpensive broadband (wireless?) router. Hook your computer into it, your brother's into it, the ethernet cable from the modem into it and you're good to go. No crappy XP internet sharing required

Yes, the two NIC solution will also work but why bother with that? With the router (which you can get for the price of a second NIC anyway), your computer doesn't have to be on in order for your brother to use the internet.

Well I considered getting a router, but around here there are no deals where I can buy a router for $6 (the price of the lan card).. and it's not really a hassle having my PC on when bro is accessing the internet so I think I'll get a NIC . Anyway - I'll still have the internet as a Local Area Connection in Network Connections, and be able to share it in the same way? Do you think this will fix the high CPU usage problem I'm having? Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

It is the USB.

 

[NEWKILLA]

second that on the USB

***K***

 

[mooojojojo]

Originally posted by: NEWKILLA
second that on the USB

***K***

what on the USB?

anyway - I got it. will try hooking it up to a NIC. thanks

 

[mooojojojo]

EDIT: This post is the same as the update in the first post - so if you have read that you can skip this one.

Well I hooked the modem up to a NIC instead with USB and now it's better... kind of - when the Internet connection is active it still sends spikes in my CPU usage window. Like if I set it to High refresh speed it will go 10% - 0% - 10% - 0% etc. - this is when the PC is idle with just the connection enabled. Now I wouldn't care at all about it but it's really annoying since I feel it when I'm playing a game (NFS - HS2 for instance). It would just do these chugs - really short ones but kinda regular and it's no fun playing that way. It gets worse when I run ZoneAlarm Pro - with it the CPU usage is more like 12% - 4% - 27% - 12% and so on.

When I disable the LAN connection for the modem the CPU will stay at 0% and the games are smooth again.

Any ideas? Any services I should disable, anything I can do at all?

The PC is Celeron 2.66GHz, 512MB DDR, Radeon 9000Pro.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

The quality of the NIC you buy will make a significant difference in the CPU overhead it requires. I'd start out by finding out what's causing the activity you see when you're idle, since I don't see anything like that on any of my systems.

I've purchased broadband routers for as little as $6 after rebate, I have a Gigafast one in the closet that's my "spare" for that price. The router I'm currently using is a D-Link DI-614+ wireless that I purchased for $15 after rebate. The deals are there, you just have to look for them.

 

[mooojojojo]

I have run AdAware and SpyBot and I have an updated NAV running so I think that I don't have any worms or apps running in the background. I have also reviewed what I have in the Processes tab and there's nothing needless there...

I'm sharing the connection using the Windows ICS. Maybe this is what's causing this? I guess I'll try disabling that and see what happens.

Any ideas why ZoneAlarm is using up so much CPU resources? When it's running the usage is hovering around 20%-30%

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I must admit, I cheat. I have a broadband router and regular virus and spyware scans and monitoring. I don't use a software firewall, except when I'm connecting directly to the Internet for testing, so I don't know how much processor time they consume. 20-30% seems excessive for a firewall, assuming something more than a 133mhz Pentium!

You should clearly disable anything like ICS when you're doing the testing, no sense introducing other variables into the mix.

 

[mooojojojo]

Tried with ICS disabled - still the same.
Tried disabling the Windows Firewall too - same thing.

I have NAV AutoProtect running, but even if I disable it there's no change.
I even ended the processes for YzDock, Soundman (I think this is my integrated audio) with no luck.

Any ideas? I just want to know if it's this CNet NIC. And if it is - is there a NIC known for little to no overhead in CPU usage?

 

[StraightPipe]

i'm a little confused. you said that zonealarm is eating up the CPU, why did you stop other proceccess like sound...

just look at CPU used, what is suing that 20-30%? if it's zone alarm, and you dont want to deal with that kind of over head than i'd get rid of it. if it's not zone alarm, what is it?

 

[mooojojojo]

I'll summarize:

1. LAN connection to the modem enabled with Firewall and ICS checked. + Zone Alarm running - 20%-30% CPU usage.
2. LAN connection to the modem enabled with Firewall and ICS checked. (Zone Alarm disabled) - 0%-16% CPU usage (what I mean by this is when the CPU monitor is set to refresh on High it's going 0% - 16% - 0% - 16% - etc.).
3. LAN connection disabled - CPU usage stays at 0%.

So what I mean is that even with ZoneAlarm not running there are still these CPU usage spikes... hope you get what I'm saying.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I think you need to camp out in Task Manager and see if you can catch the process that's using the CPU spike, that should give an indication of what's happening. You might also consider a network monitor like Ethereal to see what's going on at the network level.

 

[mooojojojo]

The only process that's registered as using the CPU was some windows process like svchost.exe or something like that..

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I believe www.sysinternals.com has a process monitor that will give you more details. SVCHOST is a generic task that runs other DLL's, so you need to find out what it's running. Norton System Works Pro also has a process display program...

 

[mooojojojo]

Cool, I'll try that when I get home.

I kinda knew that all svchost processes are somehow performing different functions but didn't know that it actually loads DLLs. Thanks

 

[mooojojojo]

Blah. It's actually the System process and not the svchost.exe as I thought. And the Process Explorer I downloaded form Sysinternals doesn't give me any extra info on that. Perhaps I should just leave it as it is and think about it once I reinstall Windows? The current installation is almost 6 months old and has all kinds of crap installed (like 3 Java SDKs)...

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Hard to say what's going on if all the spyware and virus scans come up negative...

 

[mooojojojo]

Yes.. I don't know where else to look. I'll just let it be as it is.
Thanks for the help gunrunner