Slow/Unusable network when unplugging other computer

[Khadgar]

I've been having trouble with incredibly slow internet access for the past couple days and I think I narrowed down my problem. The thing is, I live in an apartment complex that has Ethernet access to T1's. When my roomate unplugs his Mac iBook for the day to take it with him, my internet access slows to a crawl (It took me 15 minutes to download a 1.65K e-mail in Outlook). When he plugs back into the network again, my network/internet access speeds back up to normal speed. We have two separate Ethernet jacks which I'm guessing an hooked up to a hub for our floor.

Is there any explanation/solution to my problem? I'm running Windows XP Pro w/ SP1 and have a 3Com 10/100 Ethernet card. Any insight would be much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[spidey07]

something may be up with the cabling.

 

[Khadgar]

Double Post...

 

[Khadgar]

I played around with it a little more and I found out that when I switch the plugs we use and unplug my computer (So he is in the same situation mine is when not working), his network continues to function normally. I also tried a cable that I know for sure works to connect my ethernet card to the wall jack and that made no difference. This makes me question whether or not it's the cabling. Hopefully my explanation makes sense...

 

[spidey07]

could still be the cabling.

So there are two RJ45 (telephone looking plugs) on the wall? And if the mac uses any one of them everythings quick?

What happens with just your laptop in either one of them? Slow?

 

[Khadgar]

Originally posted by: spidey07
could still be the cabling.

So there are two RJ45 (telephone looking plugs) on the wall? And if the mac uses any one of them everythings quick?

What happens with just your laptop in either one of them? Slow?

Yes, Yes, and Yes

 

[Khadgar]

A little update... it's not the cabling. I had the IT guy come check everything out and even gave me a new port on the hub. Same symptoms. When watching the amount of traffic on my computer - When doing nothing, I receive 10,000 Bytes every second. Any other ideas as to what in software could be causing this problem???

 

[AFB]

Got another network card?

 

[Khadgar]

One final update. I found an old ethernet card lying around that I thought was broken, but I figured that I'd give it a go anyway. So, I plugged it in, booted up, and now my internet and network access work fine at all times. I don't understand what was going on, but it's working now.
As a side note, how do I get the DHCP server to assign me a different IP address in Windows? Our DHCP remembers what IP was associated with your MAC address and reserves that IP for you as long as you log in once a week and your IP is not needed by someone else. Maybe that was the underlying problem... Thanks for the help/suggestions.