10/100 Mbit Switch and 1Gbit NIC Problem

Are there any/many instances of 1Gbit NICs not getting on with older non-
1Gbit switches?

Wife's just taken delivery of an Alienware PC which comes with a Gbit NIC
(some sort of VIA onboard jobby i think) which i hooked up to the network
cable of from her previous PC which is connected to the 4 year old
Switch.

Gave it an IP address plus DNS servers and the gateway IP addresses but
it doesn't appear to be able to see anything on the network - tried
pinging the IP addresses of other PCs (with firewalls turned off on all
of them) but nothing.

Dug out my Netgear WGE101 and connected it directly to the PC's NIC and
it was able to see that.

Though that's not much use atm as a replacement for directly hooking it
up to the switch as the WGE101 will see my DLink DWL-2000AP+ WAP (when
I've turned SSID broadcasting back on) but doesn't want to connect to it
for some reason either

 

When you look in network connections on the PC does it show that the
network is enabled.We have a PC on which we have had to put a short cut
onto the desktop for enabling the onboard NIC connection should it not
automatically start.

 

It does - the notification icon in the taskbar indicates that it is
connected to a network

 

I gather that since you allocated an IP address your not using DHCP on
your network, have you tried it and are you still unable to communicate.

 

Don't use DHCP, I have fixed ip address for each PC in the 192.168.1.x
range, with subnet set to 255.255.255 as i have port forwarding set up
on my router/modem for when i have http, ftp and my digitv servers
running.

 

Only when it's plugged in?
Connected at what speed?

Have you looked to see if you can override auto-negotiation? To get at the
settings, follow the relevant instructions here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/ethernet.html#ethernet

Alex

 

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:38:03 -0000 Thorin sat down and started singing
about gold. Gandalf entered. Gandalf said "Hurry up". After being
threatened with a cloven skull from one well placed blow, Alex Fraser
said:

Yep only when it's plugged in - says it's connected at 100Mbits/sec

Will check that URL out. Going to borrow a spare 10/100 USB NIC from a
mate tomorrow and see if that works with the switch

Mal

 

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 16:55:25 -0000 Thorin sat down and started singing
about gold. Gandalf entered. Gandalf said "Hurry up". After being
threatened with a cloven skull from one well placed blow, Mal Franks
said:

Tried a mate's Belkin F5D5050 USB to 10/100 Ethernet adapter and I'm
getting a similar, though slightly different problem. When connected to
the switch it keeps on cycling between saying it's connected to the
network and it isn't - but works fine when hooked up to the WGE101 -
though due to the aforementioned problem it's no use.

So it looks like the switch could be dodgy - however I can swap around
the various network cables and they all work fine. Think I'll try
turning off the whole network overnight and see if that rectifies
anything.

 

Forced the network card to 10Mbit/sec Full Duplex and it's now working -
looks like the switch needs to be replaced (bugger) - but transferring
files sharing isn't a priority so it's good enough for internet access.

 

this is classic for poor cabling - often what works fine at 10M breaks at
100 if the pairs arent wired up correctly.

i suggest you get a known good patch lead (one that works elsewhere at 100)
to replace any fixed wiring while testing

if you have to force the device to full duplex, then you must also force the
switch to full as well - otherwise auto negotiate will make it drop to 10
and 1/2 duplex.

Try forcing the laptop to 100 1/2 duplex.

 

The 3 metre cable was working fine at 100M with the previous PC and I
tried a new cable too and had the same trouble.

Tried 100 1/2 duplex, that didn't work either (desktop btw). Thanks
anyway

Mal