Hello Everyone, Our network here seems to be having some connection problems on the LAN. Here is what we are using... 2003 Server with DFE530-TXS Fast Ethernet card connect to the LAN, & 3COM 10/100 Connect to the internet. XP Professional clients with service packs & REALTEK 8139/810X netwok cards etc. All card on the network are 10/100's. Also have a SMC EZ6508TX 8 port 10/100 switch. All clients & server are connect to the switch with CAT5E cable using the 568B standards. The problems we have are only with XP clients which is why we don't think its hardware. Here is the problem.... XP Clients will connect @ 10Mbps full duplex but not @ 100Mbps (half or full). When using the auto negotiate the switch reports 100Mbps full duplex but nothing works. No internet no response from pings or data loss. If we switch the XP clients to 10Mbps full duplex it works fine. Here is whats even more interesting... If we use Windows 98 clients with auto negotiate they connect @ 100Mbps full duplex no problems with pings or internet etc. Our server is using the TCP/IP protocal and has DHCP running fine etc. Like I said the problem seems to be in the XP clients. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

It look like driver problem. Verify if there is any newer version of the NIC's driver or try another NIC brand/model. You can confirm this diagnostic with a crossover cable between two of your XP workstations. Danny

Are you setting the exact same settings at the client and the switch port? i.e., Auto > Auto or 100Mbps / Full Duplex > 100Mbps / Full Duplex? Cisco switches are notorious for these kinds of problems. Auto negotiate is not recommended and you have to set both ends to match. Try manually setting the switch port of an XP client to 100Mbps / Full Duplex and then do the same on the XP client NIC's properties.

Well guys have tried all that you stated with regards to drivers etc & still no luck. Also tried setting the nics to all the same speed and so forth with no luck. I'm using an SMC switch and starting to think its the problem. However that does not explain why Windows 98 clients can connect @ 100Mbbps FD and XP clients cannot. If the switch was the problem the Win 98 should only connect @ 10Mbps as well correct? Also, I've noticed a lot of posts with regards to networking problems I noticed most of these posts tend to have the Realtek RTL8139/810x family adapters. Are these known to have issues like this? Any ideas anyone?

We've been experiencing a similar problem where our XP computers are not responding to pings, no internet access, yet do show all the members of the workgroup. The xp computers are all equipped with the Realtek RTL8139/810x family adapters. I was told today by my VoIP vendor that the culprit is the NIC, so we will be replacing them on a couple of XP systems and see what happens. Rusty Johnson Castaways Reef Project PO Box 2189 Belize City, Belize Central America