mysterious network stalls: why?

unprovoked · 03-08-2007, 01:58 PM

We have two computers (WinXP) which share a cable modem connection via a broadband router. On my computer, all network requests are fine. On my wife's PC, network requests exhibit a very strange behavior:

1) We try to visit any website, e.g. google, gmail, cnn, yahoo, etc. The favicon loads quickly, the title loads, basically the first few kb of the webpage. But then, the connection just stalls and stalls. For google, the logo loads partially over the course of a few minutes. For cnn, the site never completes loading. For yahoo, the site loads after a few minutes. In all cases, the first few kb seem to transfer okay, and then craps out.

This even happens when I connect to the broadband admin webpage, 192.168.x.1 : the password dialog appears, the title appears, but the page never completes loading.

(BTW, www.google.com pings take about 16ms reply.)

2) This stalling behaviour happens even if I reset the router and even if I swap the cables between my good PC and the bad PC. Therefore, it cannot be a cabling, router, or cable modem problem, since it is specific to one PC.

3) This behaviour occurs even with a knoppix bootable CD, so it is not a Windows specific issue.

Thus, I suspect it is a motherboard or NIC card problem. Does anyone understand what is going on or how to debug this mystery?

**johnwill** · 03-08-2007, 02:32 PM

Did you try a different port on the router? If so, I'd be looking at trying a new NIC in the machine next.

unprovoked · 03-08-2007, 02:48 PM

Yes, when I pulled the ethernet cable from my good PC and plugged it into the NIC on the bad PC, I was using a different port on the broadband router. The behavior of the bad PC remained.

As you suggest, the easiest thing is to put in a different NIC. One is on order.

Nonetheless, I still wish I could understand what the specific problem is, mainly out of curiosity: the card is not completely dead -- it can renew dhcp address, it can ping, it can download the first few kb of a webpage. It just cannot complete the download.

**johnwill** · 03-08-2007, 02:54 PM

I've had several NIC's fail in that exact same way. I didn't try to diagnose exactly what was wrong, just replaced them.

unprovoked · 03-08-2007, 03:16 PM

Thanks -- I didn't realize this is a common mode of failure. I'm just going to wait for the new NIC to arrive.

03-08-2007, 01:58 PM	#1 (permalink)
unprovoked Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	mysterious network stalls: why? We have two computers (WinXP) which share a cable modem connection via a broadband router. On my computer, all network requests are fine. On my wife's PC, network requests exhibit a very strange behavior: 1) We try to visit any website, e.g. google, gmail, cnn, yahoo, etc. The favicon loads quickly, the title loads, basically the first few kb of the webpage. But then, the connection just stalls and stalls. For google, the logo loads partially over the course of a few minutes. For cnn, the site never completes loading. For yahoo, the site loads after a few minutes. In all cases, the first few kb seem to transfer okay, and then craps out. This even happens when I connect to the broadband admin webpage, 192.168.x.1 : the password dialog appears, the title appears, but the page never completes loading. (BTW, www.google.com pings take about 16ms reply.) 2) This stalling behaviour happens even if I reset the router and even if I swap the cables between my good PC and the bad PC. Therefore, it cannot be a cabling, router, or cable modem problem, since it is specific to one PC. 3) This behaviour occurs even with a knoppix bootable CD, so it is not a Windows specific issue. Thus, I suspect it is a motherboard or NIC card problem. Does anyone understand what is going on or how to debug this mystery?

03-08-2007, 02:32 PM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,748 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Did you try a different port on the router? If so, I'd be looking at trying a new NIC in the machine next. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

03-08-2007, 02:54 PM	#4 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,748 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	I've had several NIC's fail in that exact same way. I didn't try to diagnose exactly what was wrong, just replaced them. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

03-08-2007, 02:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
unprovoked Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Yes, when I pulled the ethernet cable from my good PC and plugged it into the NIC on the bad PC, I was using a different port on the broadband router. The behavior of the bad PC remained. As you suggest, the easiest thing is to put in a different NIC. One is on order. Nonetheless, I still wish I could understand what the specific problem is, mainly out of curiosity: the card is not completely dead -- it can renew dhcp address, it can ping, it can download the first few kb of a webpage. It just cannot complete the download.

03-08-2007, 03:16 PM	#5 (permalink)
unprovoked Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Thanks -- I didn't realize this is a common mode of failure. I'm just going to wait for the new NIC to arrive.