Limited connectivity

[Grandad]

I have a small wired LAN consisting of 1 Vista and 3 XP Pro machines. They
all work as expected with the exception of the Vista machine which suffers
from Limited connectivity intermittently. Sometimes it will take several
hours and sometimes a few minutes be for it happens. The only way I can get
it to reconnect is to reboot - Can anyone help please.
Regards
Grandad

 

[Andrew Murray]

I suspect it could be a problem with your ISP - not necessarily with Vista
itself, as I've experienced similar drop out of my ADSL connection with my
ISP. I had a secondary problem with my system causing it to crash which was
due to the incorrect driver for the network port (onboard, not separate
network card). I updated and installed the correct driver and it's been
fine since then and perhaps this had something to do with my problem, not
saying its the same thing with you.

Windows Help has a troubleshooter guide for this type of problem.

Maybe you need to update your network card driver - it can't hurt and it's
best to be up to date with the drivers and you can always roll-back to the
previous driver if problems arise.

If you want a handy utility for driver downloads, I'm using this one:
http://www.drivershq.com/. It searches your PC and provides links for the
correct drivers specific to your machine (these links are to the specific
manufacturer's site rather than using Microsoft/generic drivers). Takes the
guesswork out of trying to get the right one for the hardware.


Hope this helps.

 

[Mick Murphy]

You could check to see if your Router can be updated with latest Firmware for
Vista compatibility.

Also, see if your Network Adaptor has the latest Drivers.

 

[Richard Urban]

His 3 Windows XP computers have no connectivity problem. How is this a
problem with the ISP?

It is likely a driver or cabling problem if it is a wired Lan or a driver or
reception problem if it is a wireless Lan.

 

[Paul Montgumdrop]

I have a small wired LAN consisting of 1 Vista and 3 XP Pro machines. They
all work as expected with the exception of the Vista machine which suffers
from Limited connectivity intermittently. Sometimes it will take several
hours and sometimes a few minutes be for it happens. The only way I can get
it to reconnect is to reboot - Can anyone help please.
Regards
Grandad

I usually check the cable to see if it's not going defective, swap out
the NIC to see if the card is not going defective, and check settings
for the card's driver.

I also hear the Vista doesn't play well with some routers or you have to
update the router's firmware that supports Vista.

 

[Grandad]

Hi Everyone and thanks for the suggestions. The router was replaced just a
few weeks ago as it failed. The new one has the latest firmware and the NIC
(Mobo) is up to date also. I had thought of fitting a PCI network adaptor
to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks again for your help so far.................

Grandad

I have to admit that I haven't changed the cable, but will do shortly.

 

[Grandad]

Hi again everyone, I just thought I would bring you up to date with
progress.

I came across some info on the Netgear site where it was suggested that the
MTU be reduced. So I did just that from 1458 to 1400. Now so far so good
as I've not lost the connection yet after 24 hours but don't really
understand why as I'm not familiar with MTUs????
Regards
Mick

 

[Paul Montgumdrop]

Hi again everyone, I just thought I would bring you up to date with
progress.

I came across some info on the Netgear site where it was suggested that the
MTU be reduced. So I did just that from 1458 to 1400. Now so far so good
as I've not lost the connection yet after 24 hours but don't really
understand why as I'm not familiar with MTUs????
Regards

MTU has to do with the length of packets being transmitted and
fragmentation of packets, which you could have done at the network card
on the computer at that level too and didn't have to do at the router.

You can look MTU up with Google and find out what it means.

 

[Grandad]

Thanks Paul

I had a look at the network adapter in Device Manager but cant see anything
relating to changing the MTU?
Regards
Grandad