HELP: graphics/sound stutter in net games

[WiZarD]

Thanks for listening folks...
Installed Creative 4x2x24 CD-RW and internet game play is screwed. Connect to a server and while ping remains constant,
graphics/sound begin to stutter, becoming more severe until a step echoes a half-dozen times; take a step, pause, take another,
another pause, etc. Games play fine in single-player on my box so it's not the video/sound cards. Launched a multiplayer and it ran
great; then connected to it from my wife's box on our LAN and soons she came in, problem started; soon as she left, it disappeared.
Box is AbitBX6,Celery 300a at 450; 256 mgs. ram; Canopus TNT; SB Live Value; Lynksis network card; CD-RW; CD-Rom, 20 gig
tape drive. CD-RW is secondary device behind 13 gig hard on primary IDE; CD-Rom is primary device on secondary with tape drive
behind it.
Updated to latest bios and IDE driver from Abit; moved CD-RW to primary on the secondary and yanked the CD-Rom; removed both
devices from device manager and let Win98 reinstall; uninstalled and reinstalled the CD-RW driver; reinstalled DX7; checked various
.dlls, etc., on advice from Creative; downloaded a 50 mg. file at constant download speed with no burps even while at the same time I
connected to a Q2 server and slowed to a crawl as sound echoed very severely so don't think network card is screwed. Rebooted at
300 mgz. but no help.
Checked/unchecked DMA on hard and both CDs. Don't know else to do.
WTF would cause games like Q2, Unreal Tourney, Q3A, etc. to run fine on my box but as soon as I hit the net, these problems start?
Can anyone help, PLEASE???
I appreciate it!
WiZarD

[Axel]

Wizard - did Creative tech support say anything about updating your sound-blaster driver?

Perhaps it's time to blow away your current SB driver and re-detect and re-install that? That's about the only thing you didn't do already.

You say these are net games - are you the host? or is your wife's PC the host - could be her system has the problem.

What about your LAN - are you on 10BT or 100 BT and are you cross-connected on the NIC's or going through a hub?

Been long since your wife's system had a defrag done and the RAM checked?

What game is it? - Have you looked for a patch to the game itself? - Lot's of the early Net games had problems as you are describing.

Your NIC - is it ISA or PCI? - Does ABIT have a new system driver for the ISA or PCI bus on your system? - your wife's system? - have you checked both for conflicts?

[WiZarD]

Thanks Axel:
- Creative never mentioned SB Live drivers and I will check that tonite
- These are games like Q2 (various mods), Unreal Tournament, Sin, Half-life, etc., that I play directly from my hard drive. In single-player mode on my computer, they run just fine. As soon as I go out on the net and connect to a game server someplace (whether through Gamespy, or in the case of UT, directly), the problem developes. I mentioned the wife's box only as a test that a did on my own lan. Because the games run find on my box, I assumed the video, sound cards were OK. It's only when I connect to the world that I have the problem.
- My box, my wife's box (Gateway 333) and a Linux box I run (Celery 266 at 450 on Abix BX6) are on a hub that feeds to full cable modem. Network cards in my wife's box and mine are Lynksys, PCI, 10BT.
I'm just at a loss with this. Believe the original install of the cd-rw screwed up some driver or some such.
Thanks for help