Randomly Losing Internet Connection

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jstwinkles

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Hi, I have what seems to be a very weird problem going on. My roommate and I have a LAN set up for our three computers (his laptop, my netbook, and my desktop, all Windows 7) on a D-Link DI524 Wireless 802.11g router which is connected to an Arris modem, model # CM550A. His laptop and my netbook connect wirelessly, and my desktop connects via an Ethernet cable which has to be extended using a switch and another Ethernet cable because my desktop is so far away from the router.

Anyway, here's the problem. I'll have normal network access and access to the Internet, with no indications of any problems, and the connection will just randomly drop. The network icon in the taskbar will have the yellow exclamation mark, and when I run the troubleshooter it gives me these two errors: "'Local Area Connection' doesn't have a valid IP configuration," and "The default gateway is not available." It attempts resetting the "Local Area Connection" adapter, but this doesn't help. Nothing I can think to do via software seems to fix anything. However, pulling the power on the router, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in fixes the problem. Unfortunately, this only works temporarily, and the problem will pop up again in maybe the next fifteen minutes, or it may be an entire week before it happens again, it seems totally random.

My roommate claims that the loss of connection doesn't happen to his laptop, but I know for a fact that it happens to both my desktop and my netbook. This makes me think it's possibly something that I've done with the settings, but I can't think of anything that I changed, let alone something that would cause this to happen. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if anyone needs more info or specs, I'll be happy to oblige.
 
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Guest

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It would help if you could establish whether your flatmate is correct or not. Because if he's suffering the same problem it suggests that the issue could be your ISP or the link between them and your property. Otherwise you're into more esoteric stuff regarding your own system.
 

jstwinkles

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He only ever experienced a similar glitch once, and that was fixed by running the troubleshooter which reset his adapter. I'm fairly certain that it isn't a problem with our ISP since this only started happening within the past three months, and we've had the same ISP for longer than that. What puzzles me is that the problem is happening on both of my systems, so it seems unlikely that it's a setting in the OS, unless I made the mistake of changing the setting that's causing the problem on both systems. My guess is that there's something going on with the router, especially since resetting it fixes it temporarily. However, I'm by no means experienced in networking, my forte is more along the lines of system hardware and software, so take that for what you will. :)
 

khubani

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Can you hardwire yourself into the modem temporarily to detrmine if this is an issue with the router? Maybe the connection is dropping because of router related issues or excessive bandwith usage
 

jstwinkles

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Next time it happens I'll do it, but there's no way to tell when that will be. I doubt it's because of excessive bandwidth usage though, because it happens all the time and my roommate and I hardly ever do anything more than listen to Pandora or general web browsing. On a side note, right after I said that I knew for a fact that it was only happening to my computers, lo and behold, the problem took effect on all of our systems this afternoon... So, it does effect all of our systems, he just probably isn't using his laptop when I have the problem happen to me or something...
 

jstwinkles

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please go to the cmd prompt and do the following

netsh winsock reset
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh interface ip reset E:\DAF-interface-resetlog.txt
netsh interface reset all
netsh firewall reset

Reboot

then back to cmd

ipconfig /all

route print

copy and paste both here
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : JS-Twinkles
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : knology.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet #
2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-04-4B-17-00-2B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : knology.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-04-4B-17-00-2A
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d963:de2c:651c:5066%13(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 24, 2011 12:04:10 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, January 25, 2011 12:04:10 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 184550475
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-FF-D6-8C-00-04-4B-17-00-2B

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.1.30.43
69.1.30.42
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e76:209d:14cf:e729:d741(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::209d:14cf:e729:d741%15(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.knology.net:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : knology.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Mason>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
14...00 04 4b 17 00 2b ......NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet #2
13...00 04 4b 17 00 2a ......NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
15...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
17...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.5 20
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.0.5 276
192.168.0.5 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.5 276
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.5 276
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.5 276
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.5 276
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination Gateway
15 58 ::/0 On-link
1 306 ::1/128 On-link
15 58 2001::/32 On-link
15 306 2001:0:4137:9e76:209d:14cf:e729:d741/128
On-link
13 276 fe80::/64 On-link
15 306 fe80::/64 On-link
15 306 fe80::209d:14cf:e729:d741/128
On-link
13 276 fe80::d963:de2c:651c:5066/128
On-link
1 306 ff00::/8 On-link
15 306 ff00::/8 On-link
13 276 ff00::/8 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None




I understand what I'm doing with the ipconfig /all command and route print, but what happened when I did those other commands?
 

jstwinkles

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Go to your connection settings. go to tcip properties then check if you have a fixed ip assigned. You can either put it on auto or go onto the other pcs and assign them all a fixed ip. Its seems like two pcs have the same ip on the network hence the getting kicked of it. You can do a ip config on their pcs when its connected and see what's their ip numbers. If you assistance manual ones just change the last 3 between -->2to20. Do not use 01 its the routers ip.

Or

If its the D-link Dir 655 router make sure you updated its firmware or it has the following firmware

http://www.userdrivers.com/BIOS/D- [...] de-1-32NA/

To help you out with the DHCP http://www.dlink.ca/products/?tab= [...] ev=DIR-655 Hope this help. If you got any further questions just let us know
Thanks, Dadiggle. The IP was actually one of the first things I checked, and they're all set to automatically get one. I thought about switching them to static for a while, but I went to a website (don't remember what) and it supposedly told one how to set up a static IP address, and it seemed a lot more involved than just typing in a number... Stuff with port forwarding and all sorts of other things I don't remember off hand. Is there any more to setting up a static IP than just typing in the one you want?
 

jstwinkles

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Lol, sorry, I guess I should have put down a total list of all the things I've tried before starting this thread. Checking the router's settings was probably the second thing I did once I couldn't find anything wrong with the computers' settings (that I can find.)

I've tried: checking DHCP on the computers and router, updating the firmware on the router, changing the lease time for the IP addresses in the router's settings, doing a hard reset/factory default on the router.

Here's the ipconfig and route print from the netbook, I'll get one from my roommate in the next post:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mason-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : knology.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : EasyTether Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-74-68-72
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : knology.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5B95 Wireless Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 78-E4-00-9E-41-33
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::44ed:485e:fbb1:b54a%12(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.4(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 24, 2011 9:26:12 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:26:13 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 309912576
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-14-0D-A0-52-C8-0A-A9-8F-9E-6F

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.1.30.43
69.1.30.42
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Contro
ller (NDIS 6.20)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C8-0A-A9-8F-9E-6F
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.knology.net:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : knology.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e76:2cc3:10eb:e729:d741(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2cc3:10eb:e729:d741%13(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter 6TO4 Adapter:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{980B5DFF-0DBA-4BD7-9CA7-03F70D57F3CD}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Mason>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
16...02 00 54 74 68 72 ......EasyTether Network Adapter
12...78 e4 00 9e 41 33 ......Atheros AR5B95 Wireless Network Adapter
11...c8 0a a9 8f 9e 6f ......Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDI
S 6.20)
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
19...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
13...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
14...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
20...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.4 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.0.4 281
192.168.0.4 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.4 281
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.4 281
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.4 281
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.4 281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination Gateway
13 58 ::/0 On-link
1 306 ::1/128 On-link
13 58 2001::/32 On-link
13 306 2001:0:4137:9e76:2cc3:10eb:e729:d741/128
On-link
12 281 fe80::/64 On-link
13 306 fe80::/64 On-link
13 306 fe80::2cc3:10eb:e729:d741/128
On-link
12 281 fe80::44ed:485e:fbb1:b54a/128
On-link
1 306 ff00::/8 On-link
13 306 ff00::/8 On-link
12 281 ff00::/8 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None
 

jstwinkles

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Jul 12, 2009
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Here is what is really happening. You can prove it with your computer’s own system event logs. (The logs are under Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> System)

Browser Elections from NetBIOS breaking wireless network connections is a pattern of 3 system events that all occur with the same time stamp. The easiest way to find them is to look for the Source of BROWSER. That will be the first of the three events. The other two events will be the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control, followed by The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service has been stopped.

The next events may vary depending upon how your computer is set up, but will include one indicating that the TCP/IP NetBIOS has successfully started. This is why your Windows 7 system does not know that it has lost wireless connectivity. It THINKS the link is still working and will not change the system tray icon to show a disconnected network because TCP/IP (which is what it is actually using for networking) is working normally.

Unfortunately, another service gets knocked offline during this cascade of system events that does not get restarted. The WinHTTP Proxy Auto-Discovery Service, which should be completely unnecessary for a system using legitimate networking standards, enters the stopped state and does not restart.

This prevents your computer, not from networking and sending packets, but rather it prevents your system of having any idea what to do with that traffic. The stink of this whole thing is that if Windows 7 wireless networking worked well enough without all of these “helper” services, none of this would be a problem for Internet connections because the DNS Servers would still be running. But, Windows 7 wireless configuration is too dumb to use DNS Servers for Internet traffic, because it worries more about local area network traffic. Without one of the LAN services there to tell Windows to send those packets to the Internet and use the real networking protocols standards, it flails about like a helpless child.

Depending upon how long it has been since your computer dropped its wireless connection and you look in the Event Viewer, these events may be right up at the top, or you may have to scroll down a bit to find them.

Go into Services (in Administrator Tools) and set Computer Browser to Disabled (you have to stop it first.) Then, this idiotic vestige of Microsoft blunders past won’t try and force elections to make itself the Master Browser, and thus won’t knock itself off of the wireless network. The only downside to this solution is if your network design sucks enough, or if you have old Windows XP computers sharing files and folders on your home network, you might not be able to connect to those computers by name.

You can solve this problem by using LMHOST files or other means of name resolution.

Theoretically, if there were only Windows 7 computers on your wireless network there would be no issue, with name resolution, but, you might STILL get knocked off the network because Windows 7 refuses to assume that there are no old and busted NetBIOS computers on your network until proven otherwise, which means every time you turn on a computer, or some invisible timer goes off, some computer will try and force a browser election and break the wireless connection again.

Go into Services Manager and sort by startup type. Then, scan for any Automatic processes that are no longer running and restart those as well.

If you are all on Win 7 i would start thinking of changing the security. Someone is stealing from the network

Above was written by a mate btw

http://besthubris.com/computers-internet/wireless-network-drop-connection-windows-7-error/
You, my good sir, have been an immense help. Thank you, I probably never would have found that page describing the problem, and if I had, probably wouldn't have recognized it as being my problem. I checked my event log, and sure enough, those exact error messages were there. I'll try out the fix and post back here after a while if I don't have it happen for a few days.
 
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