Noob pc builder needs help on his internet :(

First off i wanted to thank this forum for everything. This community gave me the confidence and answered a lot of my questions, very helpful. So i went ahead and did my very 1st build after lurking here for a month or two. It went quite well actually, i was surprised. For the most part... BUT now ive hit a brick wall.

Im pretty clueless when it comes to networking and the like. I have windows vista home premium 64-bit installed. I plugged in the ethernet cable from the back of the computer to my router and i expected the internet to be fine like it always has been with my last computer and my roommates' as well. It says its connected to the network and internet, but its extremely slow, will not even load the page most of the times.
When i connect my computer directly to the modem, however, it runs perfect; just not when i connect through the router i guess. Spent a while trying to figure it out but no luck. I figured id ask the forums for help...

to the forums!
What make and model is the router and modem?

If it is a Linksys, they have an online chat where you can talk with a customer service rep that is usually very helpfull. (Occasionally you get a dum dum sop just try again.)

www.linksys.com

thanks for the welcome
I've got a rca cable modem, and a belkin 2.4Ghz-802.11g wireless router. So no, its not linksys, but Ill probably contact tech support nonetheless, sometime tomorrow.

can you see the other computers on the network from yours? also, did you install the network drivers for your motherboard?

can you see the other computers on the network from yours? also, did you install the network drivers for your motherboard?

Click to expand...

Yes, there is one other computer connected to the network and i can see that one. hmm and i did install all the drivers that came with the motherboard cd(Gigabyte ds3l), including the LAN driver.

Im just stumped because it says "Access: Local and Internet" under Network and Sharing Center, which means im connected right?

After long hours trying to fix it, still no go. ive uploaded a screen shot, hopefully somone can help me. again, it says its connected but the internet its extremely slow, pretty much unusable. My roommate has a vista laptop that i connected via ethernet cable last night and it works fine...

Hmmm... Try setting a static IP for your computer? There's a guide on google. You have to manually set the IP address, subnet mask, DNS servers and config your router to it.

I set up a static ip as you suggested, but doesnt seem to help.

EDIT: omg it finally works now!! And it costed me 2 days of troubleshooting. I changed the NIC's speed from auto-negotiation to 10 Mbps half duplex. Im just glad, now i can finally enjoy my new rig. thanks guys.

I'm really no Einstein when it comes to networking, but TCP (transmission control protocol) uses full duplex. which makes me wonder if those settings slow your connection down.

Basically, full duplex allows the 2 machines that are connected, to communicate at the same time, while half duplex only allows 1 machine to "talk" at a time. Which will obviously result in a slower connection. But again, I only just learned about duplex at uni, I'm not sure if what I said is the case for you

TCP doesnt have to be full duplex, full or half duplex just means wether information is going in one direction at a time (half duplex) or both directions (full duplex). Full or half duplex is to do with the Ethernet layer not the TCP layer. The fact that using half duplex 10Mb makes your connection more stable makes me think theres something up on the hardware level. are you using the same cable to connect to the router as you did when you tried to connect to the modem? Basically what Im saying is that if you have a 100Mb router port, connected to a 100Mb LAN port on your motherboard, and a 100Mb capable Cat5 or better wire, unless theres something wrong with one of those parts or your using a cable which is too long, you should not have a problem with using Auto-negotiation.