Vista - Network slows down every 60 seconds

This is related to a problem I posted about a few days ago, to which I had no
replies - but I now have more info...

I have noticed that if I "ping -t" my wireless router from my new Vista
Ultimate desktop PC, I get a packet with very long turnaround time every 60
seconds. That is, I'll get 59 pings with 2 mS turnaround, and then one ping
with around 1000 mS turnaround. Any ideas what would cause this?

As background, the reason I was looking into this is that I have been trying
to remote desktop to this PC from my XP Pro laptop, but the RDP session keeps
freeezing and/or disconnecting. Also, if I try to ping the destop from the
laptop, I get frequent packets with very long turnarounds (amongst other
packets that are quick), and many packets get lost. But I have no problem
with lost of delayed packets when pinging the router from my laptop.

I'm assuming that these two problems are connected in some way. Can anyone
advise what might be happening to cause this, and suggest a remedy?

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:42:01 -0700, Fishyweb
<my.stephen.r.gunn.nose@xxxxxx> wrote:
With the period being regular, every 60 seconds, it may be an issue with 802.1x
authentication being enabled.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/10/wifi-authentication.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/1...ntication.html

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.

I've checked, and I do not have 802.1x enabled. I am using WPA-Personal.

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated!

Steve

"Chuck [MVP]" wrote:

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:36:00 -0700, Fishyweb
<my.stephen.r.gunn.nose@xxxxxx> wrote:
Steve,

I'd do a WiFi environment analysis, and see what the neighbourhood is like.
Look for both analogue and digital interference.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/06/analyse-your-wifi-environment.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/0...vironment.html
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/wifi-will-never-be-as-fast-as-ethernet.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/1...-ethernet.html

And I'd use PingPlotter, and not the "ping" command.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/09/diagnosing-network-problems-using.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/0...ems-using.html

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.

Thanks for now, Chuck. Using Netstumbler, I cannot see any other networks
using my channel. I am on 6, and there was one other network for a while on
channel 1 and another on chanel 11 while I was running these tests.

The signal/noise ratio is around -30dBm to -40dBm on channel 6 - I've no
idea how to interpret this.

PingPlotter is showing me pretty much what I had discovered already, namely
that many pings from my laptop to desktop time out.

Note that my desktop PC used to run XP Pro, and I never had any problems
when this was the case. I have only seen this problem since replacing the PC
with one running Vista, which is located in exactly the same location as its
XP predecessor, and was using the same wireless NIC. These facts make me
strongly suspect that the problem is related to the Vista PC, and not to the
environment in which it was running.

Any further advice would be gratefully received.

Stephen.


"Chuck [MVP]" wrote:

Thanks for now, Chuck. Using Netstumbler, I cannot see any other networks
using my channel. I am on 6, and there was one other network for a while on
channel 1 and another on chanel 11 while I was running these tests.

The signal/noise ratio is around -30dBm to -40dBm on channel 6 - I've no
idea how to interpret this.

PingPlotter is showing me pretty much what I had discovered already, namely
that many pings from my laptop to desktop time out.

Note that my desktop PC used to run XP Pro, and I never had any problems
when this was the case. I have only seen this problem since replacing the PC
with one running Vista, which is located in exactly the same location as its
XP predecessor, and was using the same wireless NIC. These facts make me
strongly suspect that the problem is related to the Vista PC, and not to the
environment in which it was running.

Any further advice would be gratefully received.

Stephen.


"Chuck [MVP]" wrote:

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:50:01 -0700, Fishyweb
<my.stephen.r.gunn.nose@xxxxxx> wrote:
Stephen,

With Windows Vista, vendors are just getting their drivers working. Did you
check with the vendor, for up to date drivers?
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/12/windows-xp-and-vista-on-lan-together.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/1...-together.html

Other than that, see if RWin AutoTuning is involved.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2007/06/autotuning-in-vista-maybe-not-ready-for.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2007/0...ready-for.html

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.

-30 to -40 dbm is an extremely good (strong) signal. In general,
anything -95 or better is useable. This might seem a little silly but what
happens if you move farther away from the access point? Does the problem
continue to occur? I'm wondering if the signal is actually a little TOO
good.

Joe

"Fishyweb" <my.stephen.r.gunn.nose@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:B1053339-4277-4B2B-AA2C-66946CFC5C93@xxxxxx

Thanks again Chuck for your help so far. On your latest suggestions, I have
confirmed that I am running the latest driver for my NIC (an Edimax PCI NIC
with antenna on an extension cable). I have also just tried disabling RWin
AutoTuning, and this made no difference.

A colleague of mine has just bought a new Vista laptop, and I asked him to
carry out the same experiment at his home, running "ping -t <router>". He got
somewhat similar results to me - every 20-60 seconds, he would get one packet
that would take a lot longer that the others - a few hundred ms - to be
returned. Also, he had one packet time out. This differs from my results in
that my long-turnaround packets seem to be regularly every 60 seconds, and
take up to 1900 ms. So it seems that on a random sample of two Vista PCs,
there is something going on that slows down the network periodically and, in
my case, this is to the extent that RDP sessions time out.

If you have any further ideas, I'll be keen to try them!

Thanks in advance,
Stephen

"Chuck [MVP]" wrote:

<snip>