So I’ve just made the switch to fiber. I’ve got a new router (Actiontech m1424)from Verizon, and I’m having the same problem I had w/ it before. When it connects, it keeps flashing “network cable has been unplugged” and reconnected. It’d do this about every 5 seconds. I fixed it by forcing the card to run at 10Mbps, Full Duplex. Now that I have fiber, I’ve found that this solution reduces my speeds by over 60%! Other computers on the network are pulling at 15Mbps and this one only does 6. I’ve tried forcing both the router and the NIC to use a 100/FD but that’s solved nothing. They connect but then just disconnect. The wierd thing is, if I start the computer in safe mode, it works fine, connecting at 100/FD and staying that way. I’ve shut down almost every system process manually but I can’t figure out what’s wrong. I’ve tried taking down the firewalls but that doesn’t help and I don’t know much about them. Basically I just turned off the windows one. I don’t think I have any other ones. Maybe there’s one hidden?
So basically I can either run a slow connection, use another computer, or always sit in safe mode. Can anyone help?!
I’m going to go with a possibility of bad cable, with a side order of bad driver (given that safe-mode seems to fix the situation) and a medium borked NIC.
The cable is easy to test if you have another long enough; for the driver, check the manufacturer’s site (or possibly Windows Update) for an updated driver. If that doesn’t work, get a new NIC. My server just got one of it’s cards upgraded to gigabit, meaning I’ve got yet one more spare. If nobody you know has one, they’re around for under $15.
If safe mode makes it work fine, you have an ap or (even worse) an OS that’s bogging you down. I’d guess app. What kind of soft firewall are you using? Also, what OS, NIC, and transceiver are you using?
Sounds like you have a sync error, and maybe something that’s competing with your bandwidth.
10FD is an industry standard and that’s why it works fine. 100HD is also an industry standard and you will find that works fine too, and will be faster than 10FD.
You should never ever force to 100FD (except as a diagnostic measure) as it is not an industry standard and different vendors do it differently. Some Cisco routers revert to 100HD even though “set” to 100FD, for instance. The 1Gb standard has dispensed with hard-setting entirely because of this.
What you don’t say is what Nic you have and thus what speed is theoretically achievable. But whatever it is, you should set both ends to autonegotiate then check what speed each end has negotiated to. If they fail to negotiate to the same speed then one or the other is faulty (or conceivably the cable or plugs). I’d start with the driver and the firmware of the router, then replace the Nic in your PC - what is it? Also, replacing the cable is cheap and easy, even though it’s low odds, so worth a shot.
Thing is, I’m not even sure what my NIC is. The device manager just says “NVIDIA nForce Networking controller” but I know there’s different types. It’s an HP Pavilion M7580N Media Center Desktop PC. I’m sure if I dug, I could find the chip’s name, but I’m too tired.
I’ll try it again, but I’m pretty sure 100HD doesn’t work either. Only 10HD and 10FD. Remember, I AM connecting, it’s just dropping it every few seconds. It’s not a cable problem, I’ve ruled that out.
Its most likely an onboard network port, I have the same thing on my machine. If you are feeling adventurous pick up a basic 10/100 NIC, disable the other NIC and install the second one. Report back. $10-$15 especially if you are in the neighborhood on other errands will be far less brain straining than nitpicking through a twitchy NIC only to find out its bad anyway.