Connection Problem

Hey guys. I finally managed to get my hands on a NIC and 50 feet of CAT-5 to make a crossover cable to network my two computers. I built the cable a little strangly (accidently confused pins 1 and 8...) but made sure that even with my strange wire arangement pins 1 and 3, and pins 2 and 6 were crossed.

Now, I came home after much pain of making the cable durring school and hooked it up. It worked great strung between the two computers and I set up the network using XP's network wizard. The network was working fine, and then I had to go back to school for a little while (at that moment, the network was working fine for 1 hour). I disconnected the cable and rolled it up onto my bed and left (so my sis wouldn't start yanking at the cable winding along the floor).

I came back and rehooked up the cable. It worked fine for about a minute and then suddenly XP reported "A network cable was unplugged". I was kinda weirded out, but almost imediatly (half a second at most) it detected the connection again. So I figure it's a fluke and start messing with setting up sharing my stuff. A minute or so later it does the same thing again. I ran the cable through the hole I made in the floor for it figuring it may be interferance or something. It still does that minute work and half second disconect. I've also tried bending the cable everywhere and the problem didn't get any better or worse.

What really freaks me out though is that even though the connection dies, the transers get through fine. It will copy over a file, then the connection will die and after it comes back will continue copying on (or doing whatever network task I ask it). Any ideas as to what it could be? I was thinking possibly a partly broken wire, but why would it work for so long and then suddenly die and come back if I don't even wiggle the cable??

Windows XP on both computers
Integrated Intel NIC on Gateway, 3COM NIC on my computer
50' run under house (though through house dosen't work either)
Anything else you need to know, just ask!

JigPu

Its possible that while creating the crossover cable, the way the wires are twisted became disrupted. I don't know the technical stuff about how it works, but I'm pretty sure that if the cable becomes 'de-twisted' it won't work properly. It might have taken some time for it to unravel, hence why it worked initially and failed later.

I could believe that..... To make the cable I borrowed my friend's crimpers, (who had previously had them stolen by his brother to cut speaker wire... thus blades = very dull) and spent about 3 hours off and on cutting and recutting the ends to make them even enough to all fit completely in the jack.

If that's the case, is there any way I can throttle back the connection to say 10Mb/s instead of 100Mb/s? I don't really care about the speed that much, but would like that dang message to stop popping up every minute!

JigPu

If the transfers are going fine, and there is no disruption in the network, other than that little box saying that there is, you can disable the cable-disconnect warnings. (or atleast I can with my Dlink..)

RightClick Network Places, Properties
RightClick your connection, properties
Click the "Configure" button
Advanced Tab
Select the "No Cable Indication" and Select "Enabled"

If it happens frequently enough, see if it is actually losing the connection, watch the NIC card when it does it, and see if the Link Light goes out.

How fast are the computers that you are connecting to? You say that one has an onboard NIC? I have heard a lot of negetive things about onboard NIC's and that could be the problem. If one of the comps is not fast enough it may be that it is getting overloaded and stopping the transmission of the file. I am not an expert on this and it is just a guess. Possibly a bad NIC, or a slow comp. Good luck.

AMD XP1800@1662Mhz (mine), P4 1800@1800 (gateway)

I found out how to turn down the connect speed to 10Mbps, and it works perfectly now. Still don't know what exactly is wrong, but I now know that it's related to speed somehow. I'll check to see if the link light on the NIC goes out after school today (gotta go in about 5 mins) and have an answer for ya.

JigPu

Yea, I'm guessing you put a pair in wrong, or there is enough untwisted'ness in one end or both that is causing some problems. Cat5 @100mbps can be quirky. I have a line tester that measures all kinds of stuff...plenty of things can go wrong.

-ben

Initially, it sounds like your cable isn't very well made. Only untwist enough cable to fit into the connector (about 1 cm). Do some research on how to put together a cable and buy or borrow a good crimp tool. Personally, I make all of my cables according to the 568B standard.
Here's a good diagram and info:
http://www.siriuscomputers.com/rj45.htm

If you're not doing this on a regular basis, buy a professionally made cable.

Also, eliminate any auto-negotiation issues between your NIC's. Hard code the link speed and duplex on both ends.

OK, I'm back with what I promised. Whenever the connection dies, the 100Mbps light stays on, and the activity light blinks really quickly. It blinks again once the connection is re-established.

I'll try the hard coding on both ends and see what happens.

yeah... my cable sucks bad, but I was stuck without a diagram (somebody stole it from me just before I was ready to start wiring) and with a pair of dull crimpers. What do you expect ^_^

JigPu

If it is staying linked, then most likely it is just the NIC not properly reporting the status. I've seen one nic that did that to me before... i think it eventually died... (i forget).

Well, it's been 15 minutes now with both NICs set to 100Mbsp Full Duplex, and I've yet to loose the connection. Let's hope this lasts forever now

JigPu