Connection dropping in XP

[Pete Davis]

Sorry, I couldn't find an XP networking newsgroup, so I hope this is
appropriate here.

I've got a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows XP Professional installed
that I'm having some networking issues. First of all, let me explain my
rather strange setup:

I have the Toshiba and a desktop running Windows 2000 on a hub. The hub s
connected to a Linksys WAP 11 version 2.2 802.11b access point running as an
Access Point Client (so that the desktop and laptop can share a connection
to the internet). On the other side of the wireless connection there's a
Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b wireless broadband router connected to a DSL modem.
The BEFW11S4 is a DHCP server. There is another laptop connected directly to
the BEFW11S4.

None of the machines on the network have Internet Connection Sharing or any
other DHCP servers running. The only DHCP server is the BEFW11S4.

Periodically the connection on my Toshiba laptop drops. Actually, that's not
precisely correct. Periodically the Toshiba is unable to contact other
machines on the network. It drops for a matter of seconds, and then begins
working again. It usually happens about every 10 minutes, but it doesn't
always happen every 10 minutes. When it goes down it's usually between 10
and 60 seconds.

Now, by pinging both the desktop and the router simultaneously (using -t so
that it keeps pinging), I've discovered that it may drop the connection to
the router but not the desktop, or vica versa. The actual ethernet
connection doesn't really drop, but I suddenly can't ping either the desktop
or the router.

I have tried different cables, no help (and that wouldn't really explain why
it would drop with one and not another and why they'd drop at different
times anyway).

I'm assuming there's some service or something running on the laptop that's
causing it to drop these connections periodically. I've gone into Regedit
and I've disabled deadgateway detect for the ethernet adapter (the built-in
Intel PRO/100 VE using version 5.41.35.0 of the Intel drivers). The Link Spe
ed & Duplex are set on the adapter at 100Mbps/Full Duplex. I did this
because someone mentioned that sometimes adapters can drop trying to
renegotiate line speed, so I figured I'd take that out of the equation. No
help.

I also recently added an MS patch to fix a bug in SMB that can cause
adapters to fail, but that also has not fixed my problem.

I'm totally stumped. I'd LOVE to get this problem fixed.

I suspected, originally, that it was the Linksys WAP11, but if I remove it
from the network and provide static IPs to the laptop and desktop, the
connection between them still drops periodically, so I'm convinced now that
the laptop is at fault.

Other than setting the speed of the ethernet adapter, I've changed no other
parameters on it. The TCP/IP stack is set for DHCP enabled. Everything else
is left as a default (other than the dead gateway detect, which I disabled
via the registry).

WINS appears to be disabled (there are no addresses listed on the WINS page,
and I see no other way to enable/disable it).

That's pretty much everything I can think of that's relevant. Any help would
be greatly appreciated.

Pete

 

[Alan Wood [MSFT]]

Hey Pete,
To rule out any services running on the laptop try using MSCONFIG, use
selective startup, then deselect everyting but services. On the services
tab select hide all MS services at the bottom, then hit the disable all
button. Reboot. Does the problem still occur? If not you could do the
same thing except start enabling the services one or 2 at a time until you
find the offending service. If thats what it is.

Thank you,
Alan Wood[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.