Problem Back: Onboard LAN/DSL Problems With K7S5A and Warcraft III

[LarryXtreme]

Hi Everyone,

This is a long post, so I've highlighted the actual problem in bold letters.

I recently built a computer for my friend and he is now having problems with it.

First off, here are the specs of the computer:

ECS K7S5A Revision 3.1
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Codegen 350W Power Supply
512MB Crucial PC2100 Memory (1 stick)
GeForce3 Ti200 Video Card
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Verbatim 40x CD-RW
Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM
Windows XP Professional
SBC Pacbell DSL with SMC7004ABR Router

When I built the computer, I tested it before sending it to him. I used BurnInTest to do load testing on the CPU, memory, hard drive, 2D video, and 3D video. The computer ran stable for almost 10 hours.

I also tested Grand Theft Auto III, which is a pretty video card intensive game, and it ran smoothly. I hooked the computer up to my internet connection (cable) and everything seemed fine.

However, I did not try playing any games over the internet. Now my friend is having problems playing Warcraft III on Battle.net. As soon as he gets into a game, it will start lagging. The video will become choppy and his screen will freeze. The game will continue, but he will have to wait for it to "catch up." Everything works fine on single player mode, so we assumed it has something to do with the onboard LAN. Normal surfing, chatting, and downloading seem just fine.

Solutions we have tried:

1) Latest Nvidia drivers, (40.72) and latest stable drivers (30.82)
2) Latest drivers from ECS and SiS website. (SiS900 1.15 LAN driver, 1.10 and 1.11 AGP driver, UDA028 C-Media 9738 sound driver)
3) Latest ECS K7S5A BIOS
4) Manually setting the MAC address
5) Testing other 3D intensive games
6) Followed SMC instructions for installing router on Windows XP
7) Playing MP3's while downloading a file (to see if sound had any effect on LAN)

One odd symptom that he has had twice was that the sound went away for no reason and he had to restart his computer to get it back. I don't know if that is related to his Warcraft III problem, but just thought I'd mention it.

One thing that we have tried unsuccesfully is installing the software that comes with his cable modem service. For some reason the software cannot detect an NIC. However, I doubt this has anything to do with our problem because if we really need to install the software, we probably wouldn't even be able to get on the internet. Correct assumption? The installation software does require some sort of login though. Is it possible to configure Windows or the router to automatically login?

Perhaps it is some sort of driver or hardware conflict? We have been very frustrated by this problem, and we have tried many solutions. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

1) Sound has nothing to do with the lagging. We tried disabling the onboard sound while playing Warcraft 3 and it still lags.
2) He has a very high ping time, over 200 ms.

Update 2 - Problem Solved:

Turns out the problem was that SBC Pacbell uses PPPoE, so you have to login to the service. My friend had never set up the router to automatically login for us so his connection was always a little quirky. Once he called SBC Pacbell, got the information, entered it into the router, the internet (and Warcraft 3) worked like a charm. No more high latency or lag.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Update 3 - Problem Back:

Dammit, the problem is back. However, we have confirmed that his roommate is also having this problem, so there's probably nothing wrong with the motherboard. He called his ISP and they basically told him that they couldn't help him. SBC Pacbell does not guarantee speeds, they only guarantee that you get internet connection.

However, one odd phenomenon is that once we reset the router settings, internet will be fast for a while. However, it will suddenly become super slow again. [/b}

 

[Wolfsraider]

so your saying that he never installed the isp software and he is using a router?

can you not set up the isp before installing the router get the dns numbers install the router add the numbers you got earlier manually to the router let the router assign ip numbers for the computer?

now i don't presume to know much here but this is what i've been told is the best way to set up a router but as i don't own one?

hope this helps
mike

 

[LarryXtreme]

Thanks for the response.

I don't believe it is necessary to install the software. I have cable modem and it also came with "installation software," which I of course did not install. I just plugged my computer into the router and that was it. The login part of his DSL service confuses me though. His roommate is also using the same connection through the router with no problems. He doesn't think they installed the software, but he will check for us tomorrow (his roommate is sleeping).

Should this even matter though? As far as I know, if it was necessary to install the software, he wouldn't even be able to get online at all. As I mentioned, he can surf, download files, and chat without problems. If he didn't play Warcraft III he would never realize that he even had a problem.

 

[Wolfsraider]

no it may not matter

but on my dsl modem i can't play certain games on gamespot as it reads me as being behind a firewall
so i am unable to host some games or join others.and i have found some games cannot seem to run right thru the modem.
so you might try setting it up different just to see if it makes a difference.

again i am no expert so if these suggestions seem out of place then hopefully someone who knows more will offer better insight soon

mike

 

[nortexoid]

u're using onboard audio???

use the latest sound and chipset drivers from SIS' site...not from ECS' site..

also, try disabling the sound and running the game in net mode....disable it in the bios, windows will remove it...when u want it back, enable it in the bios and windows will automatically install the drivers without asking...

it might be the LAN card...i had some problems trying to configure SIS' onboard ethernet on a k7s5a...try a different NIC and see if that works...

 

[LarryXtreme]

Yes, I am using both onboard sound and LAN.

I will try the latest drivers from the SiS website.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Cuular]

Try setting it up without using the router. Just connected directly to his computer. I am guessing that there is a port or two that need to be forwarded to his computer through the router. A lot of games don't work extremely well through rotuers without a little tweaking with port forwarding on the cablemodem/DSL routers.

 

[LarryXtreme]

Hey that's a good suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Keep 'em comng! The more the better! I will try all of these suggestions tonight.

 

[Copperpipe]

My son plays Warcraft III and Counterstrike for hours on HIS K7S5A with no problems. He also plays something called PUzzlebobble and Final Fantasy X or IX(?)....but those don't look as demanding as the others.

We have the SMC router (wired model) connected to Time Warner Cable Roadrunner. I recall a local ISP recommending cable over DSL for online gaming but I don't recall the details. We had DSL for a while and switched to cable due to the slow upload bandwith with their Bronze plan (768 kbs download/128 kbs upload).

We do NOT have any ports opened or DMZ enabled for any of the games - didn't need it with this router.

HIS gaming machine specs:

K7S5A w/ 010827 BIOS (old version but it works fine)
AMD 1 ghz/266 FSB Tbird
Antec KS282 w/ 303XP 300W PSU
512 MB PC133 (1 stick CompUSA/PNY and 1 stick Kingston Valueram)
GF4 Ti4200 DDR
Fujitsu ATA66 IDE
LiteOn 16X10X40 CD Burner
Sony 32X CDROM drive
Onboard LAN
Diamond MX300 Soundcard

 

[LarryXtreme]

Copper,

Interesting comments about DSL vs. Cable... I will look into that, as my friend's roommate seems to be having no problems with the DSL.

I noticed that your son does not use the onboard audio. Perhaps there could be a conflict between the sound and LAN? I will try disabling the onboard sound and see if that helps anything.

Thanks for your response.

 

[bcmind]

Can this be your solution?

Blizzard offical firewall setup

hope it helps!

We have the SMC router (wired model) connected to Time Warner Cable Roadrunner. I recall a local ISP recommending cable over DSL for online gaming but I don't recall the details. We had DSL for a while and switched to cable due to the slow upload bandwith with their Bronze plan (768 kbs download/128 kbs upload).

it depends which area you're in... some places are better off with DSL and some places are better off with cable. check www.dslreport.com for more info on that issue.

We do NOT have any ports opened or DMZ enabled for any of the games - didn't need it with this router.

interesting.... then how did battle.net communicate with your router?

if you're sharing the connection and both try to connect to b.net, how do the router know which comp is which?

EDIT:

btw, maybe the latacy is high, which mean u can do nothing bout it...

I'm using charter cable and i can't play unreal2k3 at all cuz the ping time is like 999+ .. and as i say, it depends area and company....

 

[Copperpipe]

Larry: Am not sure about conflict with sound vs LAN on your rig. One difference is that we use Win98 SE vs. you use XP.



bcmind: "interesting.... then how did battle.net communicate with your router? if you're sharing the connection and both try to connect to b.net, how do the router know which comp is which?" ..........

When we first set up CS, we found that he did have to enable DMZ. Subsequently after some upgrades to the game (and I don't know what configuration changes he made in the game), he doesn't need DMZ enabled anymore (I confirmed this since I would check periodically to make sure that he took off DMZ after each gaming session for security purposes - and he doesn't know how to open ports on the SMC Barricade).

There is only one computer which plays CS in our household: HIS. However, I do remember once he and a friend were both playing it at the same time from our network and they were laughing because both of them had the same ID (or something to that effect). I guess it was confusing to their opponents (?).

 

[LarryXtreme]

Hi All,

Two new updates.

1) Sound has nothing to do with the lagging. We tried disabling the onboard sound while playing Warcraft 3 and it still lags.
2) He DOES have a high ping time, over 200 ms.

I will update the original post to reflect this. We haven't tried sticking the modem directly into his computer yet, but we will do that tonight and see what happens (we are not in the same city so all our troubleshooting has to be done over the phone).

And regarding Warcraft 3, none of the ports have to be routed to play online. You can join any game you want. However, if you want to HOST a game, then you must forward port 6112 (I believe) to the computer that will host the game.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[glugglug]

However, I did not try playing any games over the internet. Now my friend is having problems playing Warcraft III on Battle.net. As soon as he gets into a game, it will start lagging. The video will become choppy and his screen will freeze. The game will continue, but he will have to wait for it to "catch up." Everything works fine on single player mode, so we assumed it has something to do with the onboard LAN. Normal surfing, chatting, and downloading seem just fine.

Seen these EXACT symptoms before. Happens with WCIII when OUTGOING bandwidth is used up by other processes but not incoming. If you are running something like Kazaa, temporarily disable sharing with other users (or at least throttle them).

 

[LarryXtreme]

Hmm... Outgoing bandwidth is not used at all on his computer.

Furthermore, I run an FTP server and my outgoing bandwidth is constantly maxed out, but I haven't had any problems playing WC3.

 

[LarryXtreme]

Problem solved, original post updated.

 

[LarryXtreme]

Problem back, original post updated.

 

[sirfergy]

Hey Larry. I am sure you know who I am .

I've had a couple of different routers, and the only one that never gave me connection problems is a Linksys. When I first connect, everything is fine, speed tests well and ping is great. As time goes on, my connection loses its speed until its unuseable. I reset the router, and all is good again. I suggest you upgrade the firmware to the latest version, and if that doesn't help, return the SMC router and get a linksys router.

-Sean