Onboard NIC doesn't like my DSL

[Broncho]

Has anyone run across this before? After the DSL tech's spent three hours getting my DSL to work in my apartment (had to overcome some seriously bad wiring) their laptop showed a good connection with their USB dongle version of my larger modem. Hooked up the modem directly to my PC (WinXP Pro, Soyo Dragon+ using on-board NIC) and couldn't get an ip. Hooked it up to one of the tech's laptops onboard nic and it worked fine. We decided to try running it through my router (Linksys BEFSR41) and it worked. The tech's mentioned that it was most likely the drivers for the onboard NIC. I tried messing around some and I had a connection but it was slow and spotty. I lost anywhere between 15% and 25% of the packets when I pinged yahoo and DSLreports.com speed tests said my speeds ranged anywhere from sub 56k up and down to ~400k down with ~60k up to ~60k down with ~400k up. The DSL is supposed to be max 1.5Mbps both ways. So I updated the drives for the onboard NIC and the firmware of the router, no change to speed. The tech's did mention something about 3com having similar problems (I'm assuming with drivers). I'm going to go pick up a pci NIC tonight and try it and if that doesn't improve the speed calling the company back for more help. Has anyone heard of this happening before? Also, does anyone have a recomendatin for a PCI NIC I could pick up? I'm kind of leaning toward a Linksys card since my router could provide me a connection when the onboard NIC couldn't. I would appreciate any ideas/suggestions/hints anyone could pass my way.

 

[kehi]

That really doesn't make much sense to me but it would most likely could be a driver problem. What modem do you have for the dsl? What chipset does that motherboard use? Have you installed any related chipset drivers?

 

[Broncho]

It is a VIA KT266A chipset. Here is the product page. I have whatever 4-in-1's came with XP (have updated w/SP1 and most of the latest updates) and I downloaded these drivers last night and installed them. As far as the DSL modem goes, I'm not sure which one it is or if it is even a true DSL modem. Interquest is my DSL supplier and the web page makes it sound like they pull a T1 into the leasing office and anyone who wants to pay them for a connection basically just networks in over the phonelines. I can check tonight whose name on the box, it starts with a 't' but that is about the best I can do right now. The motherboard BIOS is version 2ba2 if anyone cares about that. I am willing to update stuff but since I didn't have any problems at my previous apartment with it's DSL I haven't seen the need to update any of this stuff.

 

[Broncho]

In response to the question about the modem, it is a Tut Systems LongRun modem. It is a model LR2000T.

I bought a Linksys LNE100TX ver 5.1 nic tonight and installed it. It seems to have helped some but it hasn't completely cleared up the problem. I'd still appreciate any ideas anyone has.

 

[dmcowen674]

Try setting the onboard NIC to 10 Meg Half Duplex.

 

[subflava]

Have you been using the same cable for all the tests? If you suspect it's the NIC (which seems unlikely now that you've changed NIC's), then you can connect your computer to your router (ignore the dsl modem for now) and ping it with large packet sizes. You can also run the same test between your PC and the dsl modem if you can figure out what the IP address of the local interface is. It's usually a private IP address in the 192.168.x.x range.

Then try pinging the gateway IP you get assigned from your ISP. This way you can isolate where the problem is coming from. It's not clear from what you've said so far.

 

[Broncho]

Last night I tried calling the tech support line since the speeds were still down. He got me to ping the gateway with 1400 bytes of data and the first time I got 25% packet loss and the second I got 0% packet loss. I tried it again later and got some additional packet loss (I think it was 25% a couple of times, 50% once and a couple of times with no packet loss all averaging 30-35 ms return times) using the same byte size, although at the time I was back behind my router. He also had me try downloading a large file from Microsoft and the download speed averaged around 30 Kbps. He mentioned that since the tech's had so much trouble trying to get the service to work that the wiring might be so bad that what I have now is the best my connection will be, even though I'm only a couple of hundred feet from the main closet in the leasing office. After I got off the phone with him I tried pinging yahoo again for a couple of minutes and I ended up with a 19% packet loss. I have been using the same cable for all the tests. I have used it before with no problems though. I also, with the same cable, did try just having my onboard nic connected to the router and pinged the router and got 0% packet loss. I didn't try it with large packet sizes though. I haven't tried pinging the modem. How would I go about finding the IP for the modem so I can try pinging it?

 

[subflava]

Try the pings from the nic to your router with large packet sizes just to eliminate that as the source of the problem. If you're using windows, you can type:
ping -l 10000 -t to specify the size.

It's hard to find the IP of the modem since the manufacturers don't document it. Try a google search for it.

Another test to try would be to sync the DSL modem from the phone closet. Might need permission or help from the DSL tech to do this one though. This test would tell you which side of the NID the wiring problem is on.

 

[Broncho]

I really appreciate everyone's help. When I get a chance tonight I'm going to try pinging the router with large packets and see if I can figure out the IP of the modem to ping it. Beyond that I am going to let the techs deal with it. When I was talking on the phone last night to a tech he said just wait and see if it is a server problem that might clear up (which I doubt) and if it is still slow call back and they would send a tech out. I figure I will use it over the weekend and see how it goes and if it is still slow call them on Monday and have a tech come out again and try it all over again. I'll keep this thread up to date with what I find out as I go.

 

[Broncho]

Ok, I just finished trying to ping the router with large packet sizes. The largest size I could get to work was 1472 bytes. Same with trying to ping the gateway with the modem directly connected to my new nic. Only difference was I was still dropping packets when pinging the gateway of the modem while pinging the router I never dropped a packet. I haven't had a chance to search for the ip of the modem yet so I don't know anything about that. Now DSLreports is saying my down speed is ~400k and my up is ~80-100k. I'm beginning to think I will be calling the company again on Monday to have a rep come out again.

 

[Broncho]

Another update. I still haven't been able to find information to ping the modem. One of the phone jacks had a bunch of filler all over the back connections and wires so I thought the added contact might have been changing the impeadence of the jack causing some feedback through the lines, but replacing it didn't help the speed at all. I'm going to call the tech support line after work.

Does anyone have any ideas why I couldn't ping a packet larger than 1472 bytes to the router?