Connection Failed!! In so many different ways :(

[Billybobble]

Hi,
I'm sure i'm unaware of something simple that must b causing me a nightmare, i hope u can help:D
I had an Asus P4Pe mobo and i used to connect it to my xbox, which was no trouble. However, that seemed to pack up the other week, so me bein the impatient, can't live without a P.C. for more than a day, kind of guy, i went to PC World and bought an overpriced board i'd never heard of. That turned out to b a DFI Infinity Ultra II. The trouble is it hasn't and won't connect to my xbox.
I bought a £1.99 ethernet card off ebuyer thinkin that would just be a quick fix, and wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
Same thing, "Connection Failed!!" I could still only assume it was something to do with the new mobo.
So today i nabbed my old P3 533mhz i gave to my mum, put the ethernet card in, thinkin that if i can't connect to the new mobo, i'd at least b able to hook up to the xbox again.
How wrong was i!!!
I now have "Connection Failed!!" no matter wot way i try to configure things. My mum's PC hasn't been on the internet at all since the last Windows install (both XP), so it can't b a virus on there. I have 2 Cat6 UTP patch cables, a short & a long, i'm led to believe from their price, that they r pretty good, the short one was wot i used to connect to my xbox with the ASUS board, so i'm all outer ideas now.
Please, any ideas?
Many thanks

[Greenstead]

I can't see its anything to do with the MB or NICs.

I don't know Xbox, but normally any device to device connection requires a cross-over cable, not a patch cable. With XP it will tell you if the network connection is unconnected which means there is nothing on the end of the cable or its the wrong cable.

[DonJ]

I'd make a guess that your short cable is a 'faulty' cross-over cable,and the long one is a one-to-one expecting a hub not an x-box.Try getting a cable,x-over,from a shop.
Set 'show connection' in network connections on and two little computers should show in the taskbar.If they have cross over them you have no connection.I'd begin to suspect the x-box is faulty if you have a new network card,which is properly configured,and you do have an x here.

[Billybobble]

I bought a x-over cable and managed to setup a network to the old PC fine, no problems, thanks Greenstead.
However, I know this now isn't quite such a concern for this site, but i know my problems with the xbox connection are something to do with the network from my PC.
I can setup a connection with my new x-over cable:D , i can even go through the wizard and it sets it up fine, i do notice however, that i'm not receiving any packets when i look in the LAN properties, and FlashFXP won't pick up the xbox.
In my xbox settings it says that the network cable is in and every setting relating to it is totally the same as what it was back in the days when i could actually link up to it:rolleyes:
I hope that someone recognises this problem or can relate it to another, I'm 99% sure it's not hardware failure, it's gotta be something simple that i'm just unaware of or am being completely ignorant to, believe me, i have tried so many different combos and variations.
So i guess what i'm really trying to say is.........
What are the causes of the prevention of packets being sent to another device? :p
Thanks

[Billybobble]

btw
I'm really not gonna lose sleep over not knowing, but does anyone know why, with my ASUS board i could use a patch cable for a direct connection to my xbox? It's what my mate still uses and he has a Gigabte mobo.
Not that i'm yet able to setup a fully working network with the x-over, but it's there in spirit:p

[Greenstead]

If you still get no bit transfer. Check the speed at both ends and the duplex are the same. Try forcing both to 10Mb and half duplex.

Lots of other checks here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325487&Product=winxp

I don't know why you might use a patch cable between an Asus Gb MB and the x-box, unless the x-box is auto sensing polarity on the connection - unlikely - the Asus is not.