Gigabit between two PC's - Dropping packets

[r00t69]

I just built a PC on an Abit IC7-MAX3 with built-in Gigabit NIC so I decided to buy a Intel Gigabit NIC for my HTPC so I can transfer files faster.

However when I connect the two machines using both Crossover and Straight-thru CAT5e cables it constantly looses connection. As in the little icon pops up in the taskbar every few seconds and ping looses more packets then it succesfully transmits

I have pretty much tried every permutation of config options in Intel PROSet but to no avail.

However once I set one to auto and the other PC to anything other then Gig, i.e. 100 Full/Half, etc. all works without a hitch.

The crossover was a Belkin Cable, the straigh-thru was some generic make.

Drivers are Intel v7.2.17.0.

Any idea's?

Cheers

 

[buleyb]

Well from what I know, crossover doesn't work well with gigabit networking...

how long is the run of cable? can you successfully negotiate 100mbps over that cable/nic?

 

[StraightPipe]

Welcome to Anandtech!

Sorry I dont have the answer, but the intel cards (like most others) have auto-crossover features.
the cards detect the connecton and then reverse the channels if needed, so thats shouldn't be the issue.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm running a pair of the Pro1000MT adapters with driver version 7.2.17.0, and I don't have any dropped packet issues with them. I didn't do anything to the settings, just installed the drivers and fired up the LAN. I have to believe it's an issue with cabling. BTW, you don't need crossover cables with that adapter, and many crossover cables don't crossover both sets of cable pairs, and would probably confuse the adapters. I had a straight CAT5e cable between them, but I've since installed the 5 port Edimax gigabit switch so I can add a couple more gigabit machines.

 

[cmetz]

r00t69, my gut would be to blame the cable, but trying two different cables definitely decreases the liklihood that it's the cause. Does your device driver anywhere or maybe some Intel diagnostic software give you the ability to see if there are any errors being logged by the hardware? What you're looking for in particular are errors out of the PHY core - the Intel chips do collect stats on link-level errors and can report them to driver software, but who knows whether the Windows drivers actually gather the data out of the PHY.

Are your link LEDs turning on and off when your pings fail?

 

[r00t69]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Yes I bought the crossover before I RTFM. But I have tried a straight thru aswell. I have ran the Intel Diag and all is fine. It runs at 100 Full, etc no probs, in fact that is what I am running right now. The run is about 3m (10ft)

I have a CAT6 Patch lead on order and should have it by tomorrow so I'll see what difference that makes.

Cheers
Root69

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

FWIW, I notice that the Intel gigabit NICs are a bit finicy about staying at 1gig, I've had them several times drop to 100mbit for no apparent reason. I also have a couple of AOpen 1gig adapters in other machines, and they've never dropped to 100mbit. I don't know why, I've tried several CAT5e cables, and the cables test good on my TDR, so I doubt they're the issue. I'm going to try locking them at 1gig and see if that changes the behavior.

 

[r00t69]

OK my heads wrecked. Just connected a Belkin CAT6 (4.3m) Cable, reset everything to defaults. All looked well for a while, pings were sucessfull for a couple of minutes then it started dropping packets again, progressively getting worse.

HELP!

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

It almost sounds like a heat problem, perhaps one of the NICs is defective?