[RESOLVED] Network Collisions Unsolveable

[compcrew]

SOHO network. 1 win98 (ASUS P2B//PII 400, D-Link DE-528 10Mbps PCI)
1 Win 98 (200MMX on ASUS VX 97, D-Link DFE-50 10/100 auto sense) 1 Win 95
(ABIT BH6//Celeron 333, Linksys 530TX) and 1 Win 95 (Sager
266PII laptop, 3COM 56k/10mbps PC Card).

Connected with D-link 5 port 10mbps hub.

Network fine for months, suddenly began running horribly slow, hub showing repeated
collision from/to any computer. Only change prior to problems was updated modem blaster PCI 5631 driver about two weeks before problems. Have connected new cables, formatted and reinstalled Windows on the the PII 400, Celeron and Sager. Problem persists.
Tried Linksys 4-port 10/100 hub set on 10 with fewer collisions, but speed still no better that D-link hub. Have swapped out each computer's card and reinstalled different one, have removed each machine systematically from network, and double checke NETBEUI settings, removed unnecessary
protocols.

Have double checked all computer's network settings and all match originals from when
network was working fine. Note that all computers see each one on the network fine,
but when actually accessing the network, I
always end up with a collision.

I have setup, maintained and repaired several small networks up to now and wonder
if there is something I am overlooking in tunnel-visioned frustration. Anybody run into something similar before????

[Eagle PC Diagnostech]

Do the users put in any of their own programs?
How many mapped drives per computer?
I had a simular situation, and one of the users put in a voice recognition program on their workstation, and somehow corrupted their registry. I still don't know why it slowed down all the computers on the peer to peer network.
After a complete re-install on that computer, everything was fine.

[pcshark]

Can you put a protocol sniffer on the LAN? I remember the first time I put LANalyzer on a token ring network (no collisions, BTW<g>) and seeing the incredible amount of traffic being generated by one PC after hours. It seems the PC was left on at the "It's now safe to turn off your PC" Win95 screen, and I found out that when the computer is in that state, the NIC really jams the network with packets. I'm sure it doesn't apply in your case, but a good protocol analyzer could really tell you exactly what's going on.

------------------
R. Bret Walker, CNE

[Compcrew]

Eagle PC, I like your idea, but forgive me for being still thickheaded. If I remove any particular machine from the network I get no improvement. If one of the other machines was causing the problem from a software foul-up, wouldn't that isolate the problem?

[Eagle PC Diagnostech]

The way I found that problem was in Windows Explorer.
I made a temp directory on each machine and started copying random files into it from different machines.
Every time I did that on the machine that was corrupt, I would loose network connection. That's when I asked what was the most recent things done on that machine. Grab alot of files at once.
You can delete the temp directories, afterwards.

[[email protected]]

Sounds like you are using only NetBeui as a protocol. You might want to switch only to TCP/IP. Its not really all that hard to understand and it makes all the networks I've set up much faster. Also try updating the Net card drivers.

[Compcrew]

Thanks one and all for your help. As it turned out, being an all PCI computer isn't always perfect. Even though the PCI steering should have been able to properly route everything, I was out of luck and IRQ's. I installed a Linksys USB ethernet adapter on the problematic machine, and it works flawlessly. I suppose in the future if I really need faster than 10base, I'll go back to hell and try your other ideas. For now, I'm very happy and can spend the time on more productive pursuits. THanks all again.

[Chandrasekhar]

This is going to sound retarded, but I would seriously check the cables, and maybe anything around the cables, like a monitor, stereo, or power lines. Check for anything that could induce a current in your cables. I had the same problem, and it turned out that I had three ethernet cables running parallel to an unshielded fluorescent light power cord.. duh..

[Chandrasekhar]

This is going to sound retarded, but I would seriously check the cables, and maybe anything around the cables, like a monitor, stereo, or power lines. Check for anything that could induce a current in your cables. I had the same problem, and it turned out that I had three ethernet cables running parallel to an unshielded fluorescent light power cord.. duh..

[Chandrasekhar]

This is going to sound retarded, but I would seriously check the cables, and maybe anything around the cables, like a monitor, stereo, or power lines. Check for anything that could induce a current in your cables. I had the same problem, and it turned out that I had three ethernet cables running parallel to an unshielded fluorescent light power cord.. duh..