Intermittent Network Problem on Boot

I have four Win98 PIII machines on a home network connected using an SMC 7008-abr router. The network has been stable for years with solid connectivity and no obvious difficulties. A week ago, machine #2 began experiencing intermittent network connectivity problems on boot. That machine can still access the Internet at those times, but cannot “see” other machines on the network. Sometimes the other machines can see and access #2 even when #2 is experiencing problems. Disabling the ZoneAlarm firewall does not solve the problem. Re-booting #2 eventually solves the problem, but this can be a tedious process as sometimes it takes 5 or 6 reboots to establish a LAN connection. Once the connection is established, it remains rock solid for as long as #2 remains on.

I have not installed any new software on #2, nor have Spyware sweeps or antivirus scans detected any threats. At times, the integrated sound card on #2 fails to load properly, but this has been a problem for years with no associated LAN problems, and has always been corrected by re-booting #2.

All machines are running Norton Antivirus 2005, SpySweeper 4.5, and Spybot 1.3, but I always stagger the updates to see if there’s a problem with any one of these updates. None of the other remaining 3 machines has ever had this connectivity issue. When #2 is down, a check of the device manager indicates that the 3com NIC is functioning properly. By the way, 3 of the machines, including #2 have identical 3com 3C905C-TX NIC cards, and one a Linksys NIC.

Any idea what’s going on here?

 

Well either you cable is failing, or possible the switch port on your switch is failing, try replacing the enet cable and moving to a different switch port.

 

I'm not a network expert, but after years with routers/hubs I have had that problem myself. I found out that my router/hub was just not working up to its new standard. If I would unplug it for a couple of hours and then plug it in again it would be fine for a while and then start acting up again. I replaced the thing and everything would be good again for a couple of years.

You could unplug it and let it cool down and plug it back in. See if that helps.

Matt