I run an ABIT IC7-MAX3 mobo w/ onboard LAN. The problem is that after an indiscriminate amount of time, sometimes as little as 1 minute or as much as an hour or more, and regardless of the amount of traffic, the connection begins to weaken. Basically, pages load increasingly slower. There is 1 other computer on the LAN which does not suffer from this problem. At first I thought it might be a problem with the router. So we switched from the D-Link model to a Linksys with no difference in result. I then discovered that by disabling then reenabling the internet adapter, the connection would then come back at full strength, but as i said before, it would then weaken some time later.
My thought of course was that the onboard LAN adapter had somehow degraded. I purchased a standard 10/100 wired PCI LAN card thinking that would solve the problem. However, the situation remains exactly the same even with the new card.
Does anyone have an idea what would be causing this?

Hi Wl1234, welcome to SAF!

Hardwired LAN connections do normally not degrade in quality (speed). However, that's not to say that something cannot go wrong...


First you should check your speed/duplex settings.


Are your Linksys and Dlink units hubs or switches? Hubs cannot do Full Duplex, only Half Duplex. If they are switches, and they can do 100Mbps, force your network card to 100Mbps and Full Duplex.

Most network issues are caused by leaving the network interface (NIC) at Auto settings which means that (in theory) the NIC and hub/switch will negotiate the proper speed and duplex. However, the standard is not written clearly and is open for interpretation. In almost 99% of all the cases I have seen setting the speed to Auto will cause problems.

In XP, go Start - Settings - Control Panel - Network Connections. Find your onboard NIC, right-click and select Properties. On the General tab, right next to your "Connect using" (LAN adapter) there should be a Configure button. Click that, and then go to the Advanced tab. Depending on your driver (ensure you have the latest) there should be a "Speed & Duplex" property which you should change to "100Mb Ful"l or something like that.

Please note: for Gigabit Ethernet NICs and switches this setting (almost always) has to be Auto; they changed the spec so that for GigE Auto is the proper way to go.


But I really doubt that this is your problem. From what it sounds like (e.g. internet access slowing down after a while) I have the feeling one (or more) of these issues are happening:

a) You are using some kind of filesharing program and it launches when you start Windows.

This could be Kazaa, Bearshare etc. After your computer comes online it joins the P2P network and people start downloading from your share, and so your network speeds drop.

b) You have been hacked and have some kind of malware installed.

This could be a rootkit, hidden FTP server, etc etc. Run HyjackThis and post it to the proper SAF group.


Hope this helps and you get it figured out.

ronald.