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Hello, I'm having trouble with my onboard NIC *Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)*

At first I thought it was my modem but my XP based machine and 360 aren't having problems with the internet. (I've turned off the power management thing, IPv6 and Auto Negotiation)

According to the realtek site ( http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false ), drivers were last updates 25/8/2008, however when I installed them, the driver date on my pc says 29/7/2008 (I downloaded them last week and had them on DVD with other drivers)

When I try to use the internet via Ethernet to my Vista based machine, my connection to the internet is constantly dropping and reconnecting. I downloaded the latest drivers, replaced the CAT5 cable, switched ports on my NB1300PLUS4 and I've even tried reinstalling my OS and the problem comes back. (I ordered a Billion 7300G to replace my current modem). For the last week its happened, but then I'd get 1-2days of use before it would happen again.

I can see inside my tower because the side is transparent, and as I was typing this post, I was trying to load the adobe.com website to download and install the latest flash player, the green light is on but I hit F5 to force refresh, the Orange light will flash for abit then stop and the page won't load.

The kicker about this is that I can transfer files from my XP machine to this one and not have any problems, however trying to use the internet, it just doesn't want to go. (it will load some pages, like this site)

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 64 6000+ 3GHz Dual Core CPU
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 (AMD 770 Chipset)
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9600 GT 1GB GDDR3
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Memory
Hard Disk: 500 GB SATA2/7200RPM/16MB Cache HDD
CD/DVD-RW: Asus/Pioneer 20X LightScribe CD/DVD Burner
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit OEM SP1

I've only had this system for less then a month and this is really getting me down.
I'd get a PCI NIC, but I don't have the money for another 2 weeks (sucks getting paid fortnightly), If I do have to use a PCI NIC because my onboard is defective or something, any recommendations?

Sounds like an auto negotiate problem.
Lock the realtek to 100mb full duplex and see what happens.
I have an 8139 that does similar things.

it is locked to 100MB Full Duplex

This might have no revelences here on this post, but it is work meationing, if u mix a half with a full at the same speed CDMA/CD can caculate the errors and provide some type of dataflow, but if it the speeds a different regardless of the duplex it wont work,

Its a real side note, but work a line or too :)

thanks for trying to help Paul mate, but you just confused the hell outta me.

These are the settings on my LAN Connection:

Networking Connection:
1.Client for Microsoft Networks
2.QoS Packet Scheduler
3.File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
4.Realtek NDIS Protocol Driver
5.Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) *DISABLED*
6.Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
7.Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
8.Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder.

When I look at the Advanced tab for the NIC:
Auto Disable Gigabit (PowerSaving) -Disabled
Auto Disable PCIe (PowerSaving) -Disabled
Auto Disable PHY (PowerSaving) -Disabled
Flow Control -Enabled
Interrupt Moderation -Enabled
IPv4 Chechsum Offiload -Rx & Tx Enabled
Jumbo Frame -Disabled
Large Send Offload (IPv4) -Enabled
Network Address -Not Present (if I enter one, problem still persists)
Priority & VLAN -Priorty & VLAN Enabled
Receive Buffers -512
Shutdown Wake-On-Lan -Enabled
Speed & Duplex -100 Mbps Full Duplex
TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4) -Rx & Tx Enabled
Transmit Buffers -128
UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4) -Rx & Tx Enabled
Wake-On-Lan Capabilities -Pattern & Magic Pack
WOL & Shutdown Link Speed -100 Mbps First

Most Auto negotiate issues can be eliminated by selecting 10 Mbps full.

Try that first, but set all else back to default, if it doesnt work it could be a faulty NIC – if the PC's a month old maybe think about return it for replacement under warranty.

I sent an email to Realtek US Tech support, and they asked me to ping my DNS and such which wasn't a problem and they seem to think its an IE problem. like WTH.

Even on default settings at 10 Mbps Full Duplex, the problem persisted.

Also the only thing I changed from default was the Speed & Duplex, disabled IPv6 and Power Management.

I purchased this PC online, so Sending it back for for repair/warranty replacement would cost me 200-300aud (weight of 9-10kg to QLD from VIC) instead of the cost of a new PCI NIC.

But I've also sent a message to the person I purchased the PC from.

I would just replace the NIC with a pci one. Onboard NIC cause more grief than needed. Sometimes it is just drivers loaded in the wrong order. When you built the pc, did you load the mobo drivers immediately after the OS install? Then reboot and load the network drivers. It depends how the onboard works but for the small amount of computer servicing I do these days I still carry an NIC around with me. Anytime I hit these bad onboard nic i just stick in the pci one and everything is happy again.

It sounds like you have tried everything. Unless you want to reinstall windows (perhaps on a different hdd to not ruin your current setup) as a trial.
Use a fixed IP as there are some issues floating around with dhcp atm.

Imbo writes...

Most Auto negotiate issues can be eliminated by selecting 10 Mbps full.

10 Half :)

Also try disabling this..

Shutdown Wake-On-Lan -Enabled

A nic needs a mac address,

Network Address -Not Present

I would assume there is one there burned into the NIC, but just check by entering ipconfig /all into the command prompt.

Note the physical address field is what that refers too.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet
NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-D4-AB-9F-14
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4082:c9ba:87b7:91b%8(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.3.50(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.3.150
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Physical Address: 00-1F-D0-30-37-A3

I'm so tempted to reinstall XP on my old tower and use it until I can get a PCI NIC for this one.

Heyallo writes...

The kicker about this is that I can transfer files from my XP machine to this one and not have any problems, however trying to use the internet, it just doesn't want to go. (it will load some pages, like this site)

That's a very odd problem you have there. Are you sure your modem isn't dropping out ?

There's a chance that getting the Billion will fix the problem if it hasn't arrived already.

It doesn't really sound like a NIC issue or even a driver issue. I have the exact same NIC with no issues.

Maybe it's an MTU issue, try getting the TCP Optimizer program from here...

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

And try lowering your mtu to something like 1458. Move the bottom dot to custom, tick window scaling.

My other pc's started to experience the same problems now so I've just switched modems and it is working now.

Hi,
I'm experiencing exactly the same issues with almost exactly the same hardware...

I am downloading the latest driver from Realtek – dated the 24th of September... maybe it'll fix it?

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

This has fixed my issues.

Have fun :)