Save kalniel's hair (aka network problem)

[kalniel]

General use - no internet problems.
Gaming use - no internet problems noticed...

..except NFS:shift!

I can connect to the Online portion fine. I can host races and join races fine. But after an irregular period of between 1 and 7 minutes of racing I lose the connection to the EA servers - it's just a blip, because I can instantly connect again, and either the rest of the interweb is connected fine still or it's too fast for anything usually running to notice (get no general windows notices about disconnection).

I'm running a wireless G network, O2s default router (wireless box II).

I've tried:
poking holes in windows firewall
poking holes in the router firewall
Disabling anti-virus
Reducing fragmentation and RTS thresholds.

Windows and router logs indicate nothing is being blocked.

internet connection is as follows:


Router stats show about 100 FEC errors a minute during web browsing, but as I mentioned the connection appears rock solid for every day use.

I don't know how to view wireless stats under window 7!

Any help would be appreciated.

[dave87]

Is it a Belkin G network card?


Only reason I say is when I had the combo of a Belkin Wireless adapter & a Belkin ADSL Modem Router I'd have lag spikes (100% packet loss) when playing CS Source.

Never found what caused it (though was sure it was between card & router) because the router died shortly after - replaced the entire setup with Netgear stuff and haven't had a problem since....

[Jay]

I get the same issue with the O2 box with CS:S, never really got round to fixing it but it may be a uPnP issue

[kalniel]

Is it a Belkin G network card?


Only reason I say is when I had the combo of a Belkin Wireless adapter & a Belkin ADSL Modem Router I'd have lag spikes (100% packet loss) when playing CS Source.

Never found what caused it (though was sure it was between card & router) because the router died shortly after - replaced the entire setup with Netgear stuff and haven't had a problem since....

It's an Edimax 7128 PCI card (Ralink RT61 chipset or similar).

I get the same issue with the O2 box with CS:S, never really got round to fixing it but it may be a uPnP issue

Hmm I'll try disabling that then - thing is uPnP is setting up the game ports rather nicely.

EDIT: nope, still disconnecting without uPnP

[Stringent]

/me puts obvious coat on ... You tried checking for firmware for your router?

uPnP is sweet when it works!!

[kalniel]

Yup, firmware is up to date (bar one more recent version that has bad press) - either I've done it before (can't remember) or O2 pushed it, which seems possible.

[kalniel]

I gave up and switched to my old Edimax router. Works a charm.

[dave87]

Glad you got it sorted, what make is the 02 box?

[mycarsavw]

Most of them are variants Thomson's Speedtouch range.

All of them overheat and are shelved within the first two months

[kalniel]

Thompson Speedtouch 585 v7.

It never had any overheating problems, and the internet connection was actually rock stable and fast. This older box (trendchip) does overheat and occasionally drops connection.. but it can handle games where the speedtouch couldn't.

[mycarsavw]

Mine used to overheat and drop connections all the time - if you used all 4 ports at once it had a fit and turned off.

[kalniel]

Heh well I'm only allowed to play at computing these days if I keep it all neat and tidy, so it's all wireless connections these days.

[scaryjim]

UDP / TCP timeouts on NAT?

I've not been able to find a comprehensive explanation of this on my ancient D-Link DSL-604+ (a great router with one or two minor performance issues ) but (as far as I can tell) it affects how long the router will forward incoming UDP packets to the correct internal IP before forgetting what to do with them. If the game server is using UDP to keep updated game info flowing that might affect it?

I've had massive problems getting VPN to work (or at least, to remain connected) over my router (so much so that I actually turned my wireless off, plugged by 3G dongle in and used that instead!)...

Heh well I'm only allowed to play at computing these days if I keep it all neat and tidy, so it's all wireless connections these days.

Last time i asked if I could run a network cable (tidly, with clips) round the outside of the lounge I was told I was, as long as I'd done all the other housework and maintenance jobs that needed doing first.

Still haven't run the cable...

[kalniel]

UDP / TCP timeouts on NAT?

I've not been able to find a comprehensive explanation of this on my ancient D-Link DSL-604+ (a great router with one or two minor performance issues ) but (as far as I can tell) it affects how long the router will forward incoming UDP packets to the correct internal IP before forgetting what to do with them. If the game server is using UDP to keep updated game info flowing that might affect it?

Thought of that, and hacked the router to never time out. Didn't help.

Last time i asked if I could run a network cable (tidly, with clips) round the outside of the lounge I was told I was, as long as I'd done all the other housework and maintenance jobs that needed doing first.

Still haven't run the cable...