Ethernet adaptor test?

[Davitch]

I have been seeing some strange behavior on the computer lately which boils down to things downloaded from the web are REGULARLY corrupt. When this is an OS patch, it tends to hose my OS.

I suspect (but have no proof) that my ethernet adaptor, which is part of my motherboard, is scrambling part of the download (faulty buffer?). Is there any software or method of testing this? (such as using the loopback to send a file and then comparing it to the original)

Has anyone ever heard of a good test for this?

Most of the time the failure is with multi-hundred meg files, and it seems to be getting more frequent.

To preempt some questions, the motherboard has only one ethernet adaptor (EPOX EP9NPA+ Ultra) so switching to another one requires I go purchase a card, which I'd rather not do without knowing if this one is bad.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

 

[mikeblas]

Why not upload something to an FTP site and then downlaod it again, then compare the files? Or download something from a site that publishes a checksum for the file, and then see if you get the correct checksum?

If you have a card that isn't a piece of junk, it should come with software that runs diagnostics on the card. These should detect bad buffer memory, but your problem might be something else in the stack. The tests I suggest above will test the whole stack.

 

[Davitch]

the simplest ideas are the best..

took a MD5 of the WinFX SDK, transferred it fm my laptop to the suspect machine, ran a checksum and bingo! corrupt file.

*sigh*

wonder if the motherboard is still in warranty..

thanks for the help!

 

[mikeblas]

If you run MD5 on the file on the laptop, is the checksum still bad?

You might look for driver updates first.

Or just get a PCI NIC. They're very inexpensive, even if you buy a good Intel card.

 

[tacticus]

remove the nvidia firewall software from your machine i have seen this before

 

[Davitch]

poking about on the web has highlighted the fact that the nForce4 networking is screwed..

am running all of the latest bioses, drivers, patches, etc. and still no joy.

some of the things that have been suggested in forums include:
- using only the second sata controller
- turning off the firewire port
- removing all reference to active armor/nvidia firewall
- installing intel nForce drivers
- not installing any Nvidia network drivers (this doesn't work, unless you don't want any network adaptor)
- turning off all of the CPU offloading features on the network port
- not using jumbo frames
- installing a new driver for the CPU (AMD Dual Core Opterons apparantly have a clock drift issues - running an Opteron 165)

i do like intel ethernet boards and they are cheap. the thing that pisses me off is that while I have heard of 'problems' with the integrated networking I assumed that they meant lost packets, or occasional slowdowns. Instead we're talking data corruption below the network stack. Which has led to some enlightenment about Microsoft automatic updates:

they DON'T do a checksum before installing!

which means a nice, convenient auto update can hose your OS. which has happened to me at least a half dozen times. If I download a patch and run it manually the installer catches the corruption. But auto-update runs in 'silent mode' which supresses the pop-up telling you the patch is bad, and apparantly doesn't roll back the update.

so if you're seeing the same issues: turn auto updates OFF!