When it drops, I still see the lights blinking on the NIC card, but cannot pass packets even to the router.
Windows does not report the connection or the cable as disconnected when this problem is occurring.
The problem will persist until I disconnect and reconnect the CAT-5e wire, or disable and re-enable the NIC.
As soon as I do one of those 2 things, connectivity immediately returns (and works for another hour or so).
I am running a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on an HP Pavilion.
All of the latest Windows updates and the latest firmware drivers are installed.
My ethernet connection is a wired Local Area Connection with a static IP address, gateway and DNS.
The IP address, gateway and DNS settings are accurate and work for several other computers here.
The Network Interface Card is a Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller (VEN_10EC / DEV_8136 / REV_05).
NIC Power Management, Energy Efficient Ethernet, and Link Down Power Saving are all turned off.
On the NIC, ARP/Large Send/IPv4,TCP,UDP Checksum/NS Offload, Flow Control, and are all on.
Receive Buffer Size on the NIC is 64Kb (512 buffers). Receive Side Scaling on. 128 Transmit Buffers.
Interrupt Moderation is turned on. Magic Packet features are turned off. Optimal Performance enabled.
NIC Speed and Duplex are set to 100mbps Full Duplex wherever possible (automatic was also tried).
802.1X authentication (EAP or PEAP) is disabled. Auto connection logic is disabled.
Connection routes through two switches into a Belkin router; other devices on same networks unaffected.
Much of my data is stored on a Network Attached Storage device, with UNC shares mapped to drive letters.
Other Windows, Mac and Linux devices connected to the same NAS device have no problems staying connected.
When the issue occurs, I can't ping the gateway, do DNS lookups or pass any packets as far as I can tell.
I have tried swapping out the CAT-5e cables for other cables and even ran them through a cable tester.
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Network fixes I have attempted from the OS level so far include:
~ Switching the dynamic port range to start at 10,000 and run for approximately 54,000 ports
~ Systematically reviewing every running service to make certain that only the essential ones are on
~ Disabling all NIC stacks except Client for Microsoft Networks, IPv4, File and Printer Sharing and Comodo
~ Attempted connections with Comodo turned completely off and its NIC driver disabled
~ Attempted rolling back the RealTek driver to an earlier one from the same family and device line
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Using netsh I have tried the following settings:
~ netsh winsock reset catalog
~ netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
~ netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log
~ netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled
~ netsh int tcp set global chimney=automatic
~ netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
~ netsh int tcp set global congestionprovider=ctcp
~ netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=disabled
~ netsh int tcp set global timestamps=disabled
~ netsh int tcp set global netdma=enabled
~ netsh int tcp set global dca=enabled
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I have ruled out any malware, spyware, virus or trojan horse as a possibility after extensive scans with:
~ MalwareBytes Anti-malware 1.60.1.1000 (subsequently updated to latest DB)
~ Kaspersky TDSSKiller
~ Microsoft Antimalware Security Essentials
~ Avira AntiVir
~ GMER
~ RootkitRevealer
~ Sophos SAR 15 SFX
~ PrevX v3.0 CSI Free Edition
All virus definitions and malware databases were successfully updated prior to these scans.
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Software I am currently running on this PC (and that have not posed a problem for me in the past) includes:
~ Privoxy
~ Polipo
~ I2P
~ Comodo Internet Security / Comodo Firewall / Comodo Dragon
~ Avira Antivir
~ Microsoft Antimalware Security Essentials
~ PeerBlock
~ uTorrent
~ Bitcoin
~ DAEMON Tools Pro
~ Tor with Vidalia
~ Steam
~ Skype
~ Pidgin
~ ooVoo
~ Pandora Desktop
~ Every Adobe Product in CS5/CS5.5
~ Microsoft Office 2010
~ mDesktop
~ Acunetix 8
~ Rainmeter
~ Prevx
~ Audacity
~ Avidemux
~ Celemony Melodyne
~ QuickBooks 2011 Pro Plus
~ Google Chrome
~ Mozilla Firefox
~ PowerISO
~ Evernote
~ Calibre
~ GoToManage Professional
~ Cisco VPN Service
~ SmartFTP Client
~ KVIrc
~ Process Explorer
~ SyncToy
~ WinDirStat
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When the connection is working, an ICMP test responds normally:
Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms
When the connection is not working, it responds with no joy:
Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
...
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 57, Received = 0, Lost = 57 (100% loss),
Control-C
^C
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Here's the output from an IP Config command:
C:\>ipconfig /all
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : User-HP
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 3C-D9-FE-ED-FA-CE
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.130(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 91.191.136.152
62.141.58.13
85.214.73.63
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
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Not that it means anything, but here's the output of a simple "nbtstat -n" command:
C:\>nbtstat -n
Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.2.130] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Local Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
USER-HP <00> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
USER-HP <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
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I will be posting this problem in several different forums in hopes that someone might be able to solve it.
Chances are, if you think this is a simple issue you've encountered before, you're not digging deep enough.
Serious responses only from people who know what they're talking about and have READ the WHOLE post, please.
Edited by rshaffer61, 23 March 2012 - 02:55 PM.
Removed TOU violation