Is the NIC bad?? 50% packet loss etc

[John Prophet]

Working on an old dell optiplex p166. Did a fresh install of w98se.

It has a 3com nic onboard..so its finds the drivers from windows 98se. Self ping works.

So I hook it to the router and first off, not all the lights come on the router..a befsr41..only the top lite is on ...so i ping the router and it lost 50% of the packets.

This is my 2nd fresh install....I had all sorts of problems getting connectivity the first time so I hoped it was just a bad install...but it seems to have issues this time as well.

When she had her old w98 FE installed..the dude put the cable in and the nic did work as far as getting onlne with cable etc..but i didnt check speed etc..but it seemed ok.

So could it maybe just be that windows gave it a wrong driver??

JP

yes, i will try to find a better driver, lol....but could it be anything else? (The router is fine)

[DVNT1]

50% packet loss is a huge problem

From most to least common IMO:

1) faulty cabling
2) bad NIC
3) faulty hub/switch port
4) faulty drivers or related setting is wrong

[jmichna]

I had a BEFSR41 light up as you describe after it had been damaged by a nearby lightening strike... the router was toasted (as were two of three NICs, but that's another story).

Can you confirm router is good by testing packet loss on another system?

[tarpat1]

I would think that the cable is bad. Swap the cable and see if that clears up the problem.

[John Prophet]

oh yeah...it was the onboard nic in the Dell....the router was fine without question...and I swapped several cables around etc...the only thing hanging me up was that at her house the NIC worked with the cable install...but they then wanted the comp reloaded with 98se...after that th enic didnt work very well, lol.

So I figured it was drivers but no...just the nic was bad. Put a different nic in..works perfect.

JP