Packets being lost

[Muneer Ilyas]

Hi. I sometimes have a problem with slow internet and bad video streaming
(lots of dropped frames) on one of the machines on my network. The other
machine on the network is fine. I think the cause of it is packets getting
lost, therefore a bad network cable (?), but I am not sure. This problem,
oddly, only happens occasionally.

I ran a test in which I ping'ed google, and another computer on my LAN
simultaniously 100 times. For google, I got 42% packet loss, whereas for the
other computer I got 0% loss. This is why I am questioning if it really is
the network cable. The 100 ping requests from the good computer had 0% loss.

My network is a simple one, it goes like this:

I have 1 router that has a built in ADSL modem, which goes on the internet.
My computer is connected to the router with 1 network cable.
The problem computer is connected to the router with 1 network cable.

Both computers are running Windows XP SP2. I have tried simple things like
pushing the ends of the cable into their sockets harder, but I can't think
of anything else.

 

[Bob S.]

One little idea amongst possible hundred's of others - have you swapped the
cable and tested?

1. Network settings in the registry may need to be tweaked - try
http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=157
2. Could be a flaky NIC (Network Interface Card) - your Ethernet adapter
card.
3. Could be a lot of things but you haven't provided a lot of info to go on,
such as what type of NICs are being used and how they configured.

The link above may give you some other ideas to try.

Bob S.

 

[Muneer Ilyas]

Thanks for the link Bob. I had been meaning to look into these terms for
some time.

Lost packets problem seemed to have solved itself somehow. If it comes back
I will replace the NIC. Its an RTL8139 based one, made by Sitecom.

As for the video streaming problem, the solution had nothing to do with
networking. I found "Kazaa mega codec pack" installed, so I uninstalled it.
Then I installed ffdshow and the Windows Media codec from the Microsoft
website. Immediately the video streaming started working perfectly, with no
dropped frames. I think I should give my brother a lesson now on not
shooting a mosquito with a cannon!

Thank you,

Mun