Hi everyone, When I'm in Windows XP, for some reason only a few programs can connect to the internet at a time. The first time I noticed this happening was when I opened iTunes and it began to download a podcast, and I suddenly couldn't view web pages in Firefox anymore. Since then, I have noticed it with other programs that use an internet connection - either they can't connect when there are other programs connected, or they can connect but Firefox's connection gets bumped. My computer's current setup is as follows ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard 1GB Corsair VMS RAM Opteron 165 Processor Seagate 7200.10 320GB HDD ATI Radeon X1900 all-in-wonder I have the following operating systems installed: Windows XP Pro SP2 Windows Vista Ultimate Ubuntu 6.10 The problem seems to happen most often in WinXP, but I usually use it the most as well. This problem first showed up sometime after I installed Vista Ultimate (seperate partition from XP) and I also installed the driver for the gigabit ethernet port around the same time. I have both ports connected to my network now. In XP it seems to just use one connection at a time, though Vista seems to use both. I also noticed today that iTunes can only download two songs/podcasts/whatevers at a time as well. AIM and MSN Messenger seem largely unaffected by this issue. Any help or insight provided regarding this matter is greatly appreciated.

boy, that post is confusing. no mention of an isp or modem type or router! both ports connected?? one ethernet card only has one port. routers have more ports. 'only a few pages connect to the internet at a time' huh? when the computer connects to the internet, its connected. opening websites, more than one at a time is multitasking. xp doesn't do that well, but vista can open several at a time. i gotta go. my head is spinning. tee hee

If you don't mind me asking why do you have more than one network card? Are you on a home network? When you say you have both ports connected to my network, do you mean you have both network cards connected physically to the same router?

mountain: We have Embarq/Sprint DSL with their 660 series modem (model number SP-660ME-61) and a D-Link DI-514 router. However, I don't think any of that is particularly important for this issue since it seems to be something about windows or perhaps my computer configuration. I know that 'one ethernet card has only one port' but my motherboard has two ethernet ports on it. The port that I had used before both were connected is, I believe, handled by the nForce4 chipset, and the other is a Gigabit port, and I'm pretty sure that it's handled by a controller produced by Marvell. Both ports are physically mounted on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. Windows update happened to find drivers for the Marvell, so I installed them and connected that port to my router as well. I know it doesn't increase the speed much but it seemed to help here and there, especially in Vista. (XP seems to just default to one connection or the other, Vista seems to favor one but uses both at times.) I never said 'only a few pages connect to the internet at a time,' I said "only a few programs can connect to the internet at a time." That is, I can have as many tabs open as I want in Firefox and they'll all load. If iTunes happens to find a new podcast to download, though, everything grinds to a halt in Firefox. As I said before, however, AIM and MSN Messenger don't really seem to be affected by this, unless I'm trying to make an initial connection to either of them while iTunes is downloading. Also, iTunes will only download two files at a time. Lastly, it's not just iTunes that kills off other programs' access to the network connection. I've noticed it when using other programs that connect to the internet - that Firefox will just die. So it's not that my connection goes down, it's just that one program or another, usually Firefox, will lose access to my connection. domass: I think your questions were pretty well answered in the above paragraphs, but I should probably clarify that even when I disable one connection, or even disable it and physically disconnect the cable, I'm still having this issue.