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Thread ID: 12708	2001-11-07 06:06:00	NIC lockouts continue!	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
23847	2001-11-07 06:06:00	Hi The saga continues: System is a P166 with 192MB RAM, A-Trend ATC-5030 MB with Intel 430TX chipset. OS is Win98 and the NIC is a DSE sourced PCI 10/100 Realtek RTL8139. Internet connection is a Nokia Ni500 DSL router via a hub as detailed in the body of this post. The problem only started after I removed a D-Link DE220E NIC because I thought it was strangling my connection speed which was around 33kbps. Attempts to reinstall this card failed miserably and I am now stuck with the Realtek. I am still having occasional lock-outs of my ethernet connection. I have successfully installed the latest drivers from Realtek, or at least I think I have, because the install calls for the Win98 CD and installs several files from there so I can't be sure that the three files from Realtek are the drivers. (The three new Realtek files are netrts5.cat 3-10-01, netrts5.inf 23-08-01 & Rtl8139.sys 23-08-01) Lock-out can happen at any time but usually I can go most of the day without problems, then I will start seeing a delay in establishing communication when I click on a link or try to download email, followed a short while later by total failure. If I reboot the computer everything seems ok again. Most of the NIC properties are disabled with the exception of the following: Early Tx Threshold = 38 Link Speed/Duplex Mode = Auto Receive Buffer = 64Kbytes Wakeup on ARP/Ping = Enabled NIC Net BEUI (Advanced) settings are: Max Sessions = 10 NCBS = 12 TCP/IP settings are all ok. I don't think it is connected in any way, but if I reboot after an email failure the shutdown often hangs, and even though I have closed Outlook 2000, when I ctrl/alt/del I see the message 'Outlook is not responding'. Closing this allows the shutdown to proceed. My NIC communicates with the Net via a 10Mbps Palm-Hub Ether-H9+ and I wonder if the 10/100 NIC is having problems sorting out the correct speed on auto. Should I change the Link Speed/Duplex setting to 10Mbps and if so, should it be half or full duplex? Any other ideas welcome! Jim	Guest (0)
23848	2001-11-07 11:32:00	Try it at 10mbs half duplex. The 8139 has quite an inefficient design which means that it can use quite a lot of CPU power to work which may be causing the problems. You can see how much its using in Taskinfo2000, its listed as one of the threads under NTKERN.VXD.	Guest (0)
23849	2001-11-07 21:10:00	Thanks BM I had begun to think that the Realtek card was not really all that good. I will try changing the settings as you suggest but my investment is less than $40 so I think I will buy a better card. The downside to setting it to 10Mbps is that I will lose my potential for 100Mbps network communication. At the moment I have a 10Mbps hub but I intend to replace that with a 10/100. Can you or anyone else recommend a quality NIC (and perhaps an 8 port hub from the same manufacturer to ensure compatibility). It is simply not worth my while to play around with suspect equipment when I could be earning a living! Jim	Guest (0)
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