Network issues.

[Doomy]

Hey there.

Ive never really messed with networking before so excuse my problem and my way of defining it. Anyways, i decided to get myself networked up....

Thats what ive got up and running relatively well but i have this annoying problem, every hour or so (maybe less) i get a network bridge disconnected bubble popping up in my task bar and this cuts my internet for 5 seconds or so before resolving itself. This is usually fine, i can resume the downlaod but i can see it becoming quite a big problem when it comes to Xbox Live or online gaming in general.

My gateway and main pc are both running XP Pro.

The Hub is a very old MBI 16 Port Dual speed Hub, the gateways nic is a Linksys LNE100TX 10/100 and my main PC has an onboard Intel(R) PRO/1000 CT Network Connection with a MAC Bridge Miniport (whatever taht is, i presume thats a software bit done by xp).

Any idea's boffins? Please go easy on me, this is one side of PC'ing in general i have left very much alone for far too long.

 

[Shovel]

Simplest one I can think of: Have you checked cables? Check that they're not tugging in their sockers at either end, as poor quality sockets can cause muchos pain and anguish with connections. My brother's plug is especially iffy and if you hudge the cable you have to nudge it again to reconnect.

 

[Chameleon]

With so many devices running on this network, replace the hub with a network switch. It could just be this, but if not, it's worth doing anyway. Hubs are 'ok' but you can suffer from network collision problems. Switches deal with directing network traffic far better.

 

[Doomy]

My lounge is basically a bomb site atm so the cable issue is probably right, after carefully moving about i think its actually my cat thats terrorising the cables..

Now im on to my 2nd problem, basically when i connect the straight thru cables from my xbox to the hub it doesnt register at all, the3 xbox troubleshooter says check the cables but they are in properly. I was under the understanding that the cables from xbox to hub would not be crossovers so i got my spare xovers converted to straight

 

[babs]

If the celeron is really acting purely as a gateway, why not ditch the hub, celly and usb modem and get a combined modem/router and a switch? At least that way you wont need a PC turned on in order to use the consoles online and any potential 'computer problems' relating to going via a PC with a USB connection are negated. It would only take a small amount of configuring.

Obviously it'll cost, not very much (~£70 if you do it on the cheap), but it'd be a much neater solution.

 

[Doomy]

If the celeron is really acting purely as a gateway, why not ditch the hub, celly and usb modem and get a combined modem/router and a switch? At least that way you wont need a PC turned on in order to use the consoles online and any potential 'computer problems' relating to going via a PC with a USB connection are negated. It would only take a small amount of configuring.

Obviously it'll cost, not very much (~£70 if you do it on the cheap), but it'd be a much neater solution.

I can certainly do that, but id like to see what i can do with what ive got
Given the equipment im using, surely it should be workin, all i have atm is 2 xboxs that i really want to work, this p4 and my gateway. My girlfriend uses the gateway for her emails (shes not allowed anywhere near this one) and the constantly on thing is np for us.

 

[Mellow]

Have to agree with babs here. Putting in a modem/router where the gateway currently resides would be far better. As would removing the Hub and replacing it with a Switch.

 

[babs]

Hmm the 2 xboxes both using the same ports and IPs may be a snag, I'm not sure how well a hub would handle the traffice.

Once you had a router, your gf could still use the celly for email etc, you just wouldnt have to have it on.

 

[wyrd_fish]

i knowtice both your nics are 1000s, whilst your hub is only a 10/100 (i assume)

a 1000mbs hub would increase your gateway-computer connection speed by 10X

if you got a nice broard band router you could have eveerything linking straight to that, then that straight to the internet... problem sorted...


what I'd recomend (with no new purchases):
your computer (1000mbps)
gf's computer (10/100mbps)
x-boxes (i assume 100mbps)
file server (1000mbps)
all linked to hub, file server with some firewall software acting as gateway

what I'd recomend (with new purchases):
your computer (1000mbps)
gf's computer (10/100mbps)
x-boxes (i assume 100mbps)
file server (1000mbps)
all linked to broard band router with on board firewall

 

[wyrd_fish]

Hmm the 2 xboxes both using the same ports and IPs may be a snag

don't talk poo

2 computers using the internet at the same time time are using the same port
and i'm not sure about the IP, i can only assumme there differnt, if you had router it could DHCP the x-boxes there IPs

I'm not sure how well a hub would handle the traffice.

the hub dosent do anything with what it recives, it just sends it to every one, and they work out if they want it or not... based on the address at the top of the data packet...

PS traffic has no e...

 

[babs]

It was a typo. Similar to you using there instead of their I suppose, amongst others. Glass houses and stones and all that

What I was referring to with the 2 xboxes on the same IP, is I have no idea how MS handle two seperate connections from the same IP with the Live service. I know in some games two accounts can be signed in at once, but I don't know about 2 games from 2 consoles with 2 different mac addresses.

 

[fatbusinessman]

My brother's plug is especially iffy and if you hudge the cable you have to nudge it again to reconnect.

Is 'hudge' actually a word, or did you just mis-spell 'nudge'?

 

[fatbusinessman]

Hudge: An iron bucket for hoisting coal or ore

I stand corrected

 

[Doomy]

It was a typo. Similar to you using there instead of their I suppose, amongst others. Glass houses and stones and all that

What I was referring to with the 2 xboxes on the same IP, is I have no idea how MS handle two seperate connections from the same IP with the Live service. I know in some games two accounts can be signed in at once, but I don't know about 2 games from 2 consoles with 2 different mac addresses.

One xbox will only be ftp'd to. It will not be using the live service as its been chipped and had an 80gig HD fitted.

 

[babs]

Is it set to obtain network settings automatically, or preset via cfg?

 

[Doomy]

Is it set to obtain network settings automatically, or preset via cfg?

Im not too worried about the xboxs atm, it would seem the intermitent connection interuption is back with a vengeance.

As far as the xbox ips, i have given the chipped one its own static ip, usually when i boot up an xbox itll at least give me a notification that there is something happening on my pc.

The non chipped Live enabled xbox just finds the live settings via an auto setup feature but as i said the connection isnt even recognized as a i get the 'check your cable' message on the xbox.

But the main thing thats eating me is the random 5 second drop in connection with just this pc > hub > Gateway.

 

[Mellow]

Ah the joys of NAT. Having both XBOX's on at the same time may cause some ... issues.

 

[Doomy]

i knowtice both your nics are 1000s, whilst your hub is only a 10/100 (i assume)

a 1000mbs hub would increase your gateway-computer connection speed by 10X

if you got a nice broard band router you could have eveerything linking straight to that, then that straight to the internet... problem sorted...


what I'd recomend (with no new purchases):
your computer (1000mbps)
gf's computer (10/100mbps)
x-boxes (i assume 100mbps)
file server (1000mbps)
all linked to hub, file server with some firewall software acting as gateway

what I'd recomend (with new purchases):
your computer (1000mbps)
gf's computer (10/100mbps)
x-boxes (i assume 100mbps)
file server (1000mbps)
all linked to broard band router with on board firewall

Me bad the linksys is a 10/100 and my post has been rectified accordingly. Tah

 

[Chameleon]

It's the hub!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!! Try another imo.

 

[Doomy]

It's the hub!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!

As i said its very old, cost me £30 so its not a huge issue but i thought OMG!! 16 switches! £30!!

 

[fatbusinessman]

Doomy: "1394 Connection 3" and "1394 Connection 4" refer to Firewire ports on your computer. Apparently it's possible to connect 2 computers with a Firewire cable and have it act as a network interface. I've never tried it myself, but Steve (Xavier) assures me it's blisteringly fast.

 

[Doomy]

Doomy: "1394 Connection 3" and "1394 Connection 4" refer to Firewire ports on your computer. Apparently it's possible to connect 2 computers with a Firewire cable and have it act as a network interface. I've never tried it myself, but Steve (Xavier) assures me it's blisteringly fast.

Thats pretty good to know, i knew this pc had firewire ports (have seen 1394 asosciated with firewire before) but it didnt twig as to what those two were Let alone the fact that i could network with them.

 

[Krazeh]

Just outa curiousity why do you have bridged connections?

 

[Doomy]

Just outa curiousity why do you have bridged connections?

Ask Xp I just used the setup network options in XP ie with xp cd. Im totally clueless really, what is a bridged connection anyway?

 

[Insane]

nuke the network bridge, its probably bridging between your active network card and the "dead" one.

i'd need to read my books again about it but the network bridge in XP works exactly the same as a standard Hardware bridge.. its there to connect two networks together so traffic can go across... its a dumb router you fire a broadcast across 192.168.0.* and the bridge will duplicate the signal over to 10.0.0.* (if thats the two networks)

i could be entirely wrong in that regards tho, but i know routers are intelligent bridges because they only send the appropriate data out, while a bridge just duplicates it.

it might be worthwhile getting rid of the hub and getting a switch in overall, sadly you'll need to fork out a bit for either a 12 or 16 port hub.. scan do small metal switches for decent prices and they are pretty stable at the best of times, the 16 port will set you back almost 50 quid.

so to summarise...

nuke the network bridge, its not healthy.. re-run the setup and manually select the connection method for internet.

 

[RandomBastard]

nuke the network bridge, its probably bridging between your active network card and the "dead" one.

The xp network bridge only shares traffic across the network adaptors assigned to it.

However still ditch it. To do this, either rclick on the connection to remove and obv click remove from bridge andthen/or delete the bridge. (click del works wonders )

 

[Krazeh]

Yah definitely ditch the network bridge, in your setup there's absolutely no need for one that I can see.
And like other people have said you're probably better off replacing the hub with a decent switch

 

[Mellow]

Your Network Connections window is a complete mess!

Your main PC only requires one LAN connection.
Your File Server only requires one LAN connection.
Your Gateway requires 2 Connections, one for your LAN, and one for your modem.

 

[RandomBastard]

Your Network Connections window is a complete mess!

Your main PC only requires one LAN connection.
Your File Server only requires one LAN connection.
Your Gateway requires 2 Connections, one for your LAN, and one for your modem.

Er mellow, the number of connections in network connections window depends on the number of adaptors in your pc, for example i have 6 connections. 1 is an internet gateway which refers to my router so i can access the net (admitadly thats a virtual connnection) 2 lan controllers which are onboard so cant be removed, one firewire connection also onboard and hence unremovable and one wireless which is enabled and in use.

So in short, your network connections window is as tidy as the number of adaptors in your system

 

[Mellow]

I said "requires" ... I didn't say that is what you have.

(in my opinion of translating your diagram)