Network has made my comp unstable

[Fingers]

Running an 800eb at 166mhz 1.70v with no trouble at all, solid as a rock. Put together some bits and bobs I had lying around ( Compaq board with a p2 400 128 meg ). Champion I thought, networking here we come.

But hold on a minuet my stable 800eb running at 1 gig starts to lock during harsh treatment. I now have to run at 1.75v to keep her happy.

I have got the network card in the last pci slot on the board, keeping it away from sensitive parts ( wether this accualy has any affect or not ) I am only use bnc cable to connect the 2 comps, perhaps I need a hub ?

Or is this just a trate of networking? And all very norm

Any help re this would be great, as networking is a bit new to me.


Cheers

[Allan Nielsen]

What is your PCI speed? Some nics have trouble being overclocked. What kind of nic is it? 3COM?

I know it is 10 mbit, since you say that you use bnc cables. I prefer RJ45 (TP) though, but that calls for a hub or a switch, if you want to connect more than 2 computers together.

[Tim-]

On many MBs the last PCI slot is an odd one. Incapable of bus mastering is the usual difference, but there might be others. If you have the manual on your MB you might want to look at the IRQ sharing "map" to see what your nic is pairing up with.

When using BNC (10Base2) networking, you can add other machines without a hub by "daisy chaining" them with "T" connectors. When you do this you need to terminate the ends with 50Ohm terminations on one side of a "T" or you will have problems. The network will usually lock up and often the machines will as well.

Properly set up the "cheapax" or 10Base2 networks work very well, although a bit slower than using 10BaseT/RJ45 cables. As long as the runs of coax are decent quality, and not of an excessive length. I forget the spec but it seems like either 50 feet or 50 meters is the number. Probably 50 feet...

[Fingers]

The cards are Realteks.

Its sharing the irq with a number of things.
I originaly had the card close to my AGP slot. She didnt like that at all, moving it to the last slot helped alittle.

I get the impresion that I will just have to accept the rise in volts to keep her singing. But the hub is looking like the shot as the bnc cable is of good stock with the end stops insitue.

Thanks for the help re this guys, when your in the dark its hard to get your bearings.

[The Stickie]

Try this: only put your graphics card en you network card in. Normally a pci-slot with teh same irq is your graphics card won't work at all. All that don't shared irq's SHOULD work, but wont all. Only if you can't lookup de irq's off all internal devices (such as ACPI) in your motherboard's manuel: ry to boot and test you pc with the card in all pci slots.
If you've found a stable slot there are a few rules to follow:
-put all your oher cards preferably in slots with non shared IRQ's
-NEVER let your SoundBlaster share ANY IRQ
-Also your modem (if you still have one) shoudn't share irq with the graphics card: this makes your connection unstable
-In windows ME ALWAYS use generic drivers: there good enough and proven stable

[Fingers]

I have checked the irq's Stickie.
And find that all my cards ( Soundblaster, Modem, Graphics card, Network card and a whole host of other **** ) are all running on irq 11.

If I pull out all my cards and swap them around (bar the agp) Will all the cards still use irq 11?

If so then how can i change this ( if this is the prob )