faulty crossover cable?

[mitchafi]

I have had my modded xbox networked to my PC via a short radioshack crossover cable and it has been working perfectly but I need a longer cable for when I go back to college so I ordered one from newegg. With the exact same settings as before, only using the new, longer cable, the NIC will constantly 'acquire a network address,' hold it for about 2 seconds, and then disconnect and tell me 'a network cable is unplugged' over and over again. The problem can be alleviated by setting the NIC speed to '10MBPS/Full Duplex' instead of auto-detect, but doing this limits my FTP speeds to ~30kb/s, which is pretty much unusable. Windows Firewall is off and I do not use any third-party firewall. The cable in question is a 25 foot generic brand 350 MHz category 5E Patch cord (UTP). Is this thing just broken, or am I doing something wrong here? TIA!

edit: Also, the NIC is an Intel Pro 10/100B PCI adapter (TX)

 

[bwatson283]

Crossovers arnt the same as a patch. Crossover are mainly used for connecting two hubs/routers, not just a device to a router

 

[Lemon law]

Sure sounds like the problem is in the longer cross over cable---at 25 foot--its not even close to the 100 meter or so limit.

But hold on hold on------a patch cable is not a cross over cable-- the wiring is different. A patch cable should not work at all. But you have found a setting where it works
all be it very badly.

Just get a long enough cross over cable and your problem should go away.

 

[mitchafi]

wait...so this thing isnt even a crossover cable at all? This is the what I bought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812117825

The cable they sent me is called 350 MHz Category 5E Patch Cord (UTP) and is 25 feet long..I assumed it was the same product that I ordered...is it not?

 

[Lemon law]

What you ordered is correct---a cross over cable---what they sent---a patch cable---is probably not the right item---call new egg to verify by packaging number.

 

[mitchafi]

Turns out I think it is the right cable...I don't know why I didn't think of trying this before but I have two NICs, one on the motherboard and one PCI...I tried using the NIC on the mobo instead of the PCI one and it seems to be working fine, but in order to do that I had to use the PCI NIC for my internet connection. I guess I will know if the PCI NIC is busted if my internet keeps dropping out on me.

Edit: And it does...my internet keeps dropping out every 5 minutes or so...so I for sure have one bad NIC, and newegg might have even sent me the wrong cable. Yikes

 

[Lemon law]

Now you are talking about something I have experience with---as it turned out my old PC I had networked kept reporting what you experience-network cable unplugged.
Followed almost immmediately by a report they were replugged.

This would happen--sometimes every five minutes---and sometimes once every few days. More an annoyance sometimes---but every once in a while it would break my internet
connection sharing---and I would have to rerun the network set up wizard.---got real annoying then.

I cured that by setting up a static network address for the client PC---see microsoft knowledgebase article 309642.---I kept getting connection unplugged--but it
never busted my network.

But when I replaced the old PC with this PC---I then knew the intermittent NIC was on my old PC.---and sometimes one type NIC just is not very compatable with another NIC. But check to see if all NIC's have updated drivers.

But still fails to explain why the shorter cable worked and a longer one does not---to see if your connectors are bad--try wiggling the cables near the ends.

 

[Kelemvor]

If you want to know that it's a crossover cable for sure, just hold up the two ends next to each other and look at the colors of the wires. If the wires are in the exact same order on each end, then it's a straight patch cable. If some of the wires are different, then it's probably a crossover cable.

 

[mitchafi]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
If you want to know that it's a crossover cable for sure, just hold up the two ends next to each other and look at the colors of the wires. If the wires are in the exact same order on each end, then it's a straight patch cable. If some of the wires are different, then it's probably a crossover cable.

The colors are in different orders on each side, so I guess it is indeed a crossover cable. As far as patch cables go, what exactly are they? Is that just another name for a standard networking cable?

Edit: I'm finding more and more evidence to convince me that the problem lies in the NIC...I've updated the drivers to no avail.

 

[bwatson283]

Originally posted by: mitchafi

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
If you want to know that it's a crossover cable for sure, just hold up the two ends next to each other and look at the colors of the wires. If the wires are in the exact same order on each end, then it's a straight patch cable. If some of the wires are different, then it's probably a crossover cable.

The colors are in different orders on each side, so I guess it is indeed a crossover cable. As far as patch cables go, what exactly are they? Is that just another name for a standard networking cable?

Edit: I'm finding more and more evidence to convince me that the problem lies in the NIC...I've updated the drivers to no avail.

A patch cable is just a regular fast ethernet cable, Crossovers are cables that are used to connect two hubs/routers/switch, etc or to slave the internet connection from another computer.

 

[Lemon law]

There are two basic forms of NIC's----one comes as an expansion card---on most newer PC's, the NIC is also built into the motherboard---and in some network configerations, it takes two network interface cards on a given PC. And from what information that has been posted so far, I assume at least one PC has two NIC's---one presumably on the motherboard. Which would mean there are at least two different ways to plug in cables.

But now we have a troubleshooting problem---and step one is to go to the set up that worked before using the 3' cable.---because the 3' cable is a known good cross over cable. And unless badly treated will stay known good.

step one.

Trying all permutations of hooking up the three foot cable---can a good connection be re-established?

1. If yes----plug in the longer cable the exact same way---if connection then goes bad---longer cable is bad.
2. If no---something has changed in a NIC.---check bios to see if on motherboard NIC has been disabled--if disabled--enable and try again. If that doesn't work---spend the $15.00 or so to get another NIC card---and I assume you have checked device manager to see if there are any problems with either NIC.
3. Try hooking the X-box to another PC with the 3'cable---maybe its NIC has taken a powder---if so repair or exchange X-box.
4. Also see if the PC will interface with another computer rather than a X box.

Doing things systematically will yield answers---doing things at random is just hoping you will blunder on a solution

 

[mitchafi]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
There are two basic forms of NIC's----one comes as an expansion card---on most newer PC's, the NIC is also built into the motherboard---and in some network configerations, it takes two network interface cards on a given PC. And from what information that has been posted so far, I assume at least one PC has two NIC's---one presumably on the motherboard. Which would mean there are at least two different ways to plug in cables.

But now we have a troubleshooting problem---and step one is to go to the set up that worked before using the 3' cable.---because the 3' cable is a known good cross over cable. And unless badly treated will stay known good.

step one.

Trying all permutations of hooking up the three foot cable---can a good connection be re-established?

1. If yes----plug in the longer cable the exact same way---if connection then goes bad---longer cable is bad.
2. If no---something has changed in a NIC.---check bios to see if on motherboard NIC has been disabled--if disabled--enable and try again. If that doesn't work---spend the $15.00 or so to get another NIC card---and I assume you have checked device manager to see if there are any problems with either NIC.
3. Try hooking the X-box to another PC with the 3'cable---maybe its NIC has taken a powder---if so repair or exchange X-box.
4. Also see if the PC will interface with another computer rather than a X box.

Doing things systematically will yield answers---doing things at random is just hoping you will blunder on a solution

Thanks for these tips..that's roughly what i've been doing for the past few hours or so. My findings are that I'm going to scrap this old NIC and pick up a new one because:

1) Both cables, long and short, network to the xbox perfectly using the NIC on the motherboard

2) I plugged my xbox into the router with a standard ethernet cord and it picked up an IP and networked perfectly, so the xbox NIC is definitely not the problem.

3) I've updated to the last driver release for the PCI NIC (it's discontinued) and that didn't help.

So rather than waste any more of my time trying to solve a problem that may be simply unsolvable I'll just get a new NIC...just wish I coulda decided that from the start so I could have those few hours back.

Thanks to all who helped

 

[tweekah]

I"ve had faster transfers setting up a FTP server on the pc and using FlashFXP to pump a double connection. First FTP connects to my ftp server (same pc), and second to the xbox.

When I did a direct FTP the the xbox, it was slower than molasses.