Be careful of spelling with the boot args: it should be noioapic rather than noioacpi. You can check if the IO-APIC is in use by looking at IRQ numbers in PCITool: if in use, high IRQ numbers will be seen like 18, 19, 20 etc.

Please try the 1024 test with noacpi, and with noioapic if you think it may have been misspelled on the initial test. If 1024 kills the connection (can't do a normal ping afterwards), the system (PC+OS) is unstable overall.

Spelling was never my strong point...

I've tried the tests again with the spelling correct ( ) with nothing, noacpi and noioapic - same result as above in quickly going to no buffer space. In fact slightly worse than yesterday, it was just 6 to 7 seconds for each test before being out of buffer. The stack is not taken down, I can ping again after the test and indeed launch OWB to type this.

Cheers,
Nigel.

The buffer space errors might be a red herring then, as it's not too serious if it doesn't take the stack down (in other circumstances, those errors are often associated with driver bugs that bring networking to a halt).

So maybe you should just continue browsing with noioapic to see over time if it seems as good as noacpi. But if you want to try another ping test, I'd suggest leaving out the "-s 1024" option and see if the flood ping keeps going for say 30 minutes (if you still get buffer errors, note them but let the process continue). Then Ctrl-C it after 30 minutes and check if normal pings still work.

OK I'll give that a try, but I realised today I'll need to use noacpi. I've decided to move over to my 64 bit machine for work, and I need to be able to connect it to external displays which is only possibly with noacpi as this allows me to use the screen switch button.

Talking of work, could I please ask for some advice on a recent issue? About a month ago I stopped being able to access websites in work on my 32 bit machine. According to the output from WirelessManager there is an authenticated connection to the netork, but for any website I try in OWB I get a timeout before the website is opened i.e. nothing is transferred at all. It looks like the DNS server is not being reached. Everthing was fine before about a month ago and I found today it's the same for 64 bit. IP address and DHCP are set to auto and everything is fine on my home network.

Any insights would be much appreciated. Of course, it could be a M$ update designed to make things even more difficult for users of alternative operating systems...

Cheers,
Nigel.

For the problem in work, I'd recommend running some diagnostic commands.

First, to check if you're getting an IP address from DHCP: ifconfig net0

And for DNS (assuming pings aren't blocked on the network): ping google.com

Or try this in Odyssey: https://192.245.157.94/ (if you get a page that says "Sorry", it's working correctly)

[quote name=ncafferkey post=10963]@ncafferkey - For the problem in work, I'd recommend running some diagnostic commands.

First, to check if you're getting an IP address from DHCP: ifconfig net0

And for DNS (assuming pings aren't blocked on the network): ping google.com

Or try this in Odyssey: https://192.245.157.94/ (if you get a page that says "Sorry", it's working correctly)[/quote]

Thanks for the information on the tests. Results are:

ifconfig - an ip is being assigned

ping google.com - 100% packet loss

In OWB 192... etc - page not loaded, timed out.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Hmm, do you think a proxy is required? Do you have a PC with a mainstream OS on that network to compare with?

Does ping find the IP address for google.com?

I assume you have "Automatic" mode enabled globally as well as for the interface in Network prefs?

[quote name=ncafferkey post=10967]@ncafferkey - Hmm, do you think a proxy is required? Do you have a PC with a mainstream OS on that network to compare with?

Does ping find the IP address for google.com?

I assume you have "Automatic" mode enabled globally as well as for the interface in Network prefs?[/quote]

This is on the guest network used by other staff and students, there are no issues accessing it through mainstrean OSs including Android and iOS.

Yes, automatic is set globally.

Cheers,
Nigel.