Can't disable Media Sense in Win2k SP2! Argh, help!

[yllus]

How to Disable Media Sense for TCP/IP in Windows (Q239924)

This all stems from the problem of whenever my upstairs proxied computer is shut off, Win2k unbinds or badly reroutes its traffic to my main system (which I'm using right now) and basically kills my network connection - I need to reboot the modem and disable/enable the connection again to get my Internet back up. Now if I could turn Media Sense off, Win2k would stop being a pest and I'd be home free...but the instructions on disabling Media Sense simply don't work.

Anyone run into this and know how to solve the problem? This is driving me nuts, need assistance ASAP! Thanks in advance.

 

[igiveup]

Well, I don't think this will solve your problem but here is how to manually set Media Sense to a value.

Get into Device Manager. If you know how to do that fine, if not then here you go. Right click on My Computer and then select Manage. Click on Device Manager (should be like 5 down or so). Right click on your Network Adapter that you want to modify and then select properties. Now, depending on your adapter you may have the option to change things, or you may not. Network cards have to have the settings written into the software to let you change advanced settings. Cheap cards usually don't allow you to change stuff like this. Any way, select the Advanced tab. You should see an entry below in the box labeled Media Type. If it says AutoSelect then that is what you don't want (or so you say). Select the appropriate setting for your network and then hit apply, ok and back on out again. Changing this setting sometimes causes problems though. If you lose your connection to your network then you should try to restart. If that doesn't fix it then try other settings for your network card media sense.

If you don't have the Advanced tab at all then your card doesn't have the function written into the driver. Check for updated drivers (which you should to at any rate when you have connection issues).

Let me know how it goes.

 

[yllus]

Thanks for the quick reply igiveup - unfortunately autosensing/Media Type/media sensing is not an option for either network card (yeah they're both cheap, heheh) but I know what you were getting at here. All either of them have is a speed select (10/100 half or full duplex) and a manual setting for "Network Address" which is set to "Not Present" (works fine though).

Stupid Windows. MS, could you have written a solution that actually works for the one problem I end up running into? Grrrrrr! Thanks for the effort though igiveup, anyone else want to take a stab at it?

 

[igiveup]

Well, to disable media sensing you want to set your card manually for one of the choices (10 or 100 and half or full Duplex).

Found an interesting thing in the MS Knowledgebase though. Check this link out. Sounds like its right up your alley. Unfortunately you have to wait for the next service pack (should be out within a couple of months).

 

[yllus]

Solved my connectivity problem, let's just document it for people later on to refer to in case of problems.

Apparently I didn't do enough snooping and testing - following the instructions to disable DHCP Media Sense *does* work - it's just that the taskbar icon and ipconfig still show the line being disconnected. But the key thing is, Win2k stops trying to unbind or reroute from that line and that saves my connectivity at last. My hint at this resolution came from this Microsoft Newsgroup posting.

Wrote a little note to the MSDN about not being specific enough at what the registry key entry does, but hey at least it worked in the end. Thanks for the effort igiveup.