Buying a LAN card, cheap is okay?

No, nothing wrong with a cheap 100 Mbps NIC.

Before you buy one, I would perform an almost free test. Run your PC from a life-CD, either Windows PE or Linux, and see if things freeze then also. If not, no need to replace the NIC :-)

John Doe wrote in part:

Like Gerard, I have had no problems with cheap NICs. And I agree this is more likely a software issue than hardware.

I would add that your config is quite risky and insecure. Hooking a modem directly to a PC running MS-Windows means that MS-Windows has to do all the modem control and firewalling, something it does poorly since it can be easily corrupted by viruses.

You should have a _hardware_ firewall included in a router (with or without wireless). The hardware firewall is harder to corrupt since viruses need to attack a different CPU that does not want to run general purpose code. Some modems include a router and/or firewall.

You can tell the difference by running `ipconfig`. If you have a private IPaddr like 192.168.*.* or 10.*.*.* then you are being NATd and there is a hardware firewall. If you have a public IP like 70.240.*.* then you are vulnerable. Spend your money first on a router.

-- Robert

Robert Redelmeier wrote: (snip)

I have an RTL8169 (I believe that is the number) based card on my BSD based firewall/NAT router. Once in a while, maybe two or three times a year, it will lock up. If I ifconfig down/ ifconfig up then it comes back again. Not quite often enough for me to replace it.

-- glen

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote in part:

4-6 months between resets is extremely good performance for a firewall. I'm happy with 1 mo and tolerate 1/wk. I attribute the problems to "evil packets" with said-to-be impossible data which confuses the hardware or maybe the software.

Realtek is generally considered to be a low-end etherchip, but your experience is extremely good. I doubt replacing it by anything else (Intel EtherExpress Pro is high-end) will give you better performance. Quite possibly worse. IMHO if there is any advantage to high-end routers (Crisco), it probably in handling evil packets.

-- Robert

Backup copies of my main drive are kept on a secondary drive, always have been. That tends to nuke software problems. Software wise, my setup is practically bulletproof.

If it is not a software problem, it might be related to heat. Hardware problems can be intermittent. Software problems tend to repeat themselves in a pattern. I have tried hard but have observed no pattern. I added a fan near the bottom of my mid-tower case, under the video card. Maybe that is where the onboard LAN chips are.

BTW, I did a quick reinstallation of Windows XP SP3. Unfortunately, the problem reappeared quickly.

Another possibility is power related. I am going to observe some hardware taxing RTS games, so that should power-stress the system. I currently do not have access to my Kill A Watt power meter.

Thanks to the advice about running a LAN test. If the problem continues, I will do that test. Or I will just buy a spare LAN card again. I recently gave away an older computer, forgot that my only spare LAN card was inside, Uhg.

This morning, I began watching streaming media through one location and my system froze. So I hit the reset switch, tried again, and it froze again. Both happened in a short timeframe. After another restart, I began watching the same streaming media from a different location and enjoyed the entire one hour broadcast.

John Doe wrote in part:

Have you patched your OS and updated your media player [plugin]? There are some known vulnerabilities, and it is quite possible using one source subjects you to additional attacks from nearby machines.

-- Robert

So, you are now looking at the reliability of the power outlet in the first location, I suppose ? (By the way: 3-sprong protective ground outlets on both locations ?)

FWIW.

I was talking about different Internet websites or streaming media URLs (whatever the terminology), not different physical locations.

This morning, all sorts of strange symptoms started to happen. A perpetual bootup failure happened very early after the BIOS screen, before the Windows logo. I was unable to boot Windows XP SP3 in normal mode, but eventually tried booting into safe mode with networking. Immediately started my firewall and connected to the streaming media broadcast. Strange IMO that it would do that but not boot into normal mode. Among other symptoms, the BIOS onboard/integrated LAN smart check began failing.

I had read reviews before buying that Gigabyte motherboard, one experienced user said that (on more than one board) the integrated LAN failed after many months of use, so it was not a big surprise. Anything is possible, but unless you see me complaining again, apparently it was the integrated LAN.

This, mainly to say my problem is probably not the integrated LAN... This is the most perplexing PC problem I have ever had. Maybe it is the video card or the CPU. There have been many symptoms and at least one one symptom contradicts every lead. Currently going with lowering video card performance and reverting its drivers.

Oh wail.