Re: Internet connection problem on new Dell PC

Lee wrote:
> I got a new Dell Inspiron 3880 PC (Windows 10) on (Monday) June 21st 
> on a 15-day return policy, and so far most everything is fine, except 
> for one problem.    Early on (Fri.) July 1st, my Internet connection went 
> down for the first time, and when I use the troubleshooter, I get a 
> message that says "Starting Network Diagnostics" in a window that says 
> "Detecting problems", but it hangs endlessly at that, with nothing 
> happening.  It just keeps going on endlessly for several minutes with 
> nothing happening, until I quit, & then try again, but the process 
> just repeats.  I eventually end up having to "reset network adapters",
> or something like that, which unfortunately requires my whole PC to be restarted.
> 
> And then it happened again late on (Sat.) July 2nd!  What can I do?
> 
> Or what should I do?  I would tremendously appreciate it if anyone
> tries to help, so PLEASE do!  THANKS very much.

The problem could be:

1) ISP
2) Modem  \___ Could be in the same plastic box
3) Router /
4) OS software
    Box hardware

The thing you've been using, is the Control Panels : Troubleshooter :  Network...
one, and one of the things it does is:

https://kb.wisc.edu/dermatology/page.php?id=31480

    Administrator Command Prompt:

    netsh winsock reset
    netsh int ip reset
    ipconfig /release       \
    ipconfig /renew          \___ Less likely to be needed
    ipconfig /flushdns       /

In Windows 10, you can start an "Administrator Powershell" by
right-clicking Start and selecting it from there. Then
type "cmd" <return> into the terminal and that converts
it to a command prompt shell. Then, you could issue the
five commands.

Now, typically, the total five commands are not necessary.
Perhaps the first two are enough.

When you set up your router, there is a DHCP pool.
For example, you can define

    Start Address  192.168.1.50
    Num.Addresses            20

That would give DHCP addresses 192.168.1.50 through 192.168.1.70.

It helps to define perhaps double the number of addresses,
than there are computers in the house. If I had ten computers,
then twenty addresses would be fine. This allows some slop
and does not force the router to do anything nasty to get its
job done. Frequently (for years on end even), a DHCP address
given to a machine when it asks, is the same. For example,
the machine I type on, has been 104 forever. Not that this
is particularly important.

On Windows, you can type

    ipconfig

to get a dump of network conditions.

    Ethernet adapter LAN2

       IP Address      192.168.1.104   (Machine local IP)
       Subnet Mask     255.255.255.0   (A subnet of 256 machines)
       Default Gateway 192.168.1.1     (The router listens here)

If those three fields are not defined, or if the APIPA address

       169.254.xx.xx

shows up as the IP Address, then you have a configuration problem.
I doubt this is the case, in your case, so I assign that a low but non-zero
probability.

APIPA is "the machine made up its own address" case, and means
the router DHCP cannot be reached, or the router chose not
to give a response for some reason.

If you right click W10 Start, you can select "Device Manager".
Find the network adapter.

Look for yellow marks. Do "Properties". Look for a "Stop" code,
a number it might give. It could be that a driver problem
popped up.

%RTL8169.DeviceDesc%  = RTL8169.ndi, PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8169&REV_10
%RTL8169.DeviceDesc%  = RTL8169.ndi, PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8169&SUBSYS_816910EC
%RTL8169.DeviceDesc%  = RTL8169.ndi, PCI\VEN_1432&DEV_9230&SUBSYS_92301432
%RTL8169.DeviceDesc%  = RTL8169.ndi, PCI\VEN_1737&DEV_1032&SUBSYS_00241737
%RTL8169.DeviceDesc%  = RTL8169.ndi, PCI\VEN_16EC&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_011616EC

Now, since I've run into a problem with Realtek before, it didn't
take me long to find a search term for Googling.

https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/dedicated-server/operating-systems/realtek-r8169-r8168-nic/

   "Hang Up with Realtek r8169-r8168 NIC

    The system loses the network connection because the network card
    hangs up. The TCP segmentation offload of the NICs is defective
    and must be deactivated."

This is the kind of panel we need for this work. However, the
correct string doesn't appear in the picture.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/kEvWV.jpg

But the dude here did the same thing, disabled the Checksum Offload
(try to use your imagination to translate auf Deutsch).

https://768kb.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/checksum.png

I'm fairly picky about my NICs. The very reason I popped
the name of the NIC and "Hang", is because I've seen a
hang with a different RealTek NIC. In Windows, the RealTek
NIC did not hang - but it did generate 5X as many interrupts
as there were packets being handled. Normally that ratio is
a bit lower (because NICs use buffer rings and don't need
service on a per packet basis, they can afford to get
behind a bit). However, when Linux was booted, Linux
would tip over with the same NIC present and hang-ola.
Cursor stops moving.

*******

OK, so here's the deal. Windows 10 installs the "most generic"
driver they can get their hands on. On my Intel e1000 series
NIC, this means the panel that lists all those features, that
panel is not delivered via the default Microsoft driver.
You have to get the Intel driver package and install that,
for the things like the offload item and that list, to show up.

So if you cannot find the list, no, you're not blind. But
you might need the driver from the Dell site. Using 7ZIP, I
can't analyze data1.cab, but I do see an HTML page
concerning "advanced properties dialog" inside the file.
You would only be downloading this, if the driver that came
in the box was something different.

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06169990M/1/Realtek-PCIe-Ethernet-Controller-Driver_00X69_WIN_2.45.2020.0227_A28.EXE?uid=2af40026-edb0-4a62-8927-408b59e388d8&fn=Realtek-PCIe-Ethernet-Controller-Driver_00X69_WIN_2.45.2020.0227_A28.EXE

Your steps are:

0) Right click Start, select Device Manager.
    Network Adapters.
    Realtek item in that section.
    Right-click the item and do "Properties"
    "Details" tab
    "Hardware IDs"

    Check the VEN and DEV, for one of the five items above I copied over.
    This is closest to the correct version, and not the buggered versions.

    VEN_10EC&DEV_8169

    Seeing that, tells you the next driver is the one to use.

1) Download the RealTek 8169 driver.

    https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/product-support/product/inspiron-3880-desktop/drivers

    Double-click the EXE to install.

2) Reboot

3) Right click Start, select Device Manager.
    Network Adapters.
    Realtek item in that section.
    Right-click the item and do "Properties"
    "Advanced" tab
    Disable the Offloading.

You could jump right to Step (3), if the correct driver was installed
by Dell at the factory, which is a distinct possibility. If so,
Dell would be idiots for not fixing this situation *before* the
box left the factory. This style of problem did not just pop up
last week, it's been around for years. Dell should be only too aware
that by buying cheap shit like what it's done, they have to spread
some smooth creamy icing over the top, to hide the details. The
offloading should have been disabled via a registry edit or something.
It should not be left to fester and bite the user on the ass.

for a while, I thought I could live with my RealTek NIC, but once
it hung Linux (and would do it again and again), I pulled the
NIC card out of the PC. That was an add-on I'd bought, and
at the time, there were not a lot of competing cards. In
fact, I bought a NIC in a colorful box, that claimed to have
the Marvell chip I wanted, only inside the box ? Another
one of those stinking RealTek chips.

Not all RealTek chips stink. Only a couple of them. But,
they're cheap, and that attracts twits. Like the Dell buyer.

Now, I hope I'm wrong, and you got the Killer NIC in your
box instead. Anything is possible with build-to-order.

    Paul