[mythtv-users] Why does my dvr randomly drop from the network?

[Michael Watson]

On 26/09/2011 07:24, Rick wrote:
> On 09/25/2011 11:33 AM, Kris B. wrote:
>> On Sunday, September 25, 2011 9:03 AM, "Rick"<rbonafied at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> On 09/24/2011 02:00 PM, PJ wrote:
>>>>> On 09/24/2011 11:28 AM, Michael Watson wrote:
>>>>>> On 25/09/2011 01:09, Rick wrote:
>>>>>>> On 09/24/2011 09:47 AM, John Drescher wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 9:23 AM, Rick<rbonafied at gmail.com>        wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I admit I'm in a bit of a panic and I'm fearful that the answer will be
>>>>>>>>> a bad motherboard.  I'm keeping an open mind!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The problem is my DVR randomly drops from the network within the hour
>>>>>>>>> after a reboot.  The link beat it still there, it just stops
>>>>>>>>> communicating.  If I unplug the cable and plug it back in, it comes back
>>>>>>>>> to life.  If I rmmod r8169 and modprobe r8169 it comes back to life.
>>>>>>>>> If, however, I shut down eth0 and bring it back up, it doesn't come back
>>>>>>>>> to life.  I even reset the bios to defaults and started again.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I figured it was something with the OS, so I just reloaded the OS from
>>>>>>>>> scratch and it happened again.  I'm freakin!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The realtek r8169  was never a good nic.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> John
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is there a setting or something I could try?  That nic is all I have at
>>>>>>> the moment.
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> Before you jump to the conclusion that it is your network card causing
>>>>>> the issue, try running a few tests.
>>>>>> The Realtek R8169 may not be a good network card, but they do still
>>>>>> work. (and ultra cheap)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Try a different port in the hub.
>>>>>> Try a different network cable.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>> Michael
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>> I've tried a different port (no difference).  I'll go try a different
>>>>> network cable.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>> I'm having similar problems with my home server's Realtek RTL8111 after
>>>> it overheated this summer. It hangs almost immediately when link speed
>>>> is 1 Gbps or it's offloading features are enabled. As a temporary
>>>> solution I'm using it with 100 Mbps switch and most offloading features
>>>> disabled and it has been stable.
>>>>
>>>> You can try to use ethtool to set link speed to lower value and to
>>>> disable some offloading features in case some of them are enabled by
>>>> default.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>> I took your advice and downloaded the latest Realtek drivers.
>>> Unfortunately, it still dropped from the network.  I've also changed the
>>> offload settings.
>>>
>>> score so far ->   me: 0, network card: 500  :)
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>>>
>> At the worst of it, you can buy another card or a usb ethernet port for
>> $10-$20 and still live, so don't despair.
>>
> I ended up running new cable in the wall just to eliminate that as a
> variable.  So far so good.
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I have a couple of systems running with Realtek 8169 NIC's.  My backend 
runs a Intel E1000 and Realtek 8169 together in Mode6 Bridge.  The only 
issue I have is that Wake On Lan does not work with them, I have read 
that I need to install the driver from the Realtek website, but have 
never bothered with that.

I hope the new cable fix's the problem.

Regards
Michael