Intermittent Internet Connectivity

[batti]

I have seen a number of similar threads on this topic, and tried the tips in several of them, to no avail. I was hoping the community could help me get to the bottom of this problem.

I am having intermittent internet connectivity on my laptop. Essentially the internet will cut out for 5-10 seconds every minute. If I sit at the cmd prompt running ping, it looks sort of like this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [173.194.75.106] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.75.106: bytes=32 time=342ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.75.106: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.75.106: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.75.106: bytes=32 time=147ms TTL=44

Ping statistics for 173.194.75.106:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 58ms, Maximum = 342ms, Average = 166ms

C:\Users\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [173.194.75.106] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.75.106: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=44
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 173.194.75.106:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 60ms, Average = 60ms

C:\Users\d>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [173.194.73.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=44

Ping statistics for 173.194.73.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 58ms, Maximum = 59ms, Average = 58ms

C:\Users\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [173.194.73.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=44
Reply from 173.194.73.99: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=44
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 173.194.73.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 59ms, Maximum = 74ms, Average = 66ms

All other devices on my network (iPad, iPhones, Xbox360, PS3) have no problems. My laptop is a Dell Studio XPS running windows 7. I have McAffee anti virus, and I downloaded and ran AVG Free today, which came up empty.

When I reboot my machine, the problem goes away. After a variable amount of time, can be a couple of days, can be less than an hour, the intermittent internet thing will start again. Once it starts cutting in and out, it persists until I reboot. The trigger does not seem to be a specific program I am running, but I am not sure. Willing to do whatever, short of reformatting, as far as uninstalling programs, installing drivers, taking stuff out of start up.

What other information can I provide to help?

Thanks in advance.

Some cursory system info:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Studio XPS 1645
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz, 1600 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A13, 4/1/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.99 GB
Available Physical Memory 3.60 GB
Total Virtual Memory 12.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 9.31 GB
Page File Space 5.99 GB

 

[Flareside]

The first thing I would recomend checking is the drives for the network device you are connecting with. Are you connecting via a cable or over wireless. Do you have a wireless router that supports multiple connection? I know that in my house if I have both my xboxs my ps3 and my netbook on the wireless my netbook struggles to maintain connection.

Flare

 

[dextermat]

Since all other device has no problem, probably the wireless card.

first I would go in device manager and disable power saving mode and such option.

Also if you have problem because the laptop got into hibernation or stand by: you should disable them because they cause some problem after a while.

Also, are you plugged in or on the battery when that happens ?

I would test out with a usb wireless card if none of the above worked.

Good luck

 

[batti]

I am connecting via wireless. Cisco / Linksys router. This problem is relatively new, about a month, and no devices were added to the network around the time.

Wireless Band: 2.4GHz
Network Mode: Mixed
Channel Width: Auto (20MHz or 40MHz)
Channel: Auto
SSID Broadcast: Enabled
Security Mode: WPA2/WPA Mixed Mode.

Not sure what any of that means to be honest.

 

[batti]

Plugged in. Will try to hook it up to a land line and see.

 

[Skippy27]

FYI, you can use ping -t to keep a continuous ping going instead of the stand 4 outs.

You never state if this is a wireless or wired network.

If it is only your laptop I would suspect it is something on that device. Simple things to try are:

* run combofix from bleepingcomputer to make sure you dont have any rogue software on there.
* update to the latest drivers and client software from your OEM
* be sure only one wireless client is installed/running as 2 or more may start fighting for control (Windows XP built in client was bad at this).

 

[Flareside]

Head over to the manufacturers website and get the latest driver for your wireless card and update it. See what that does for you.

Flare

 

[batti]

Works fine on a wired connection.

Common things are common. For some reason I assumed it was malware. Just 2012 paranoia I guess.

Will update wireless drivers and hope for the best.

 

[Chainzsaw]

What wireless card is in your laptop? If it's an Atheros I may be able to find a fix for you.

 

[batti]

Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN

 

[batti]

Things have gone from bad to worse - I am now posting fromy iPad which is a bad sign.

Since it was a wireless issue I decided to update my wireless drivers. I went to the intel site and downloaded the 64x drivers for my wireless card. The installer is just an icon that pops up with a sort of progress bar, then it goes away. No popups, no text message, nothing.

Next thing i know the internet stops working. Now I have the Unidentified Network problem, which seems to be all over the Internet with no good solutions. If I go to the services on the laptop, the DHCP service is not running. If i try to start it i get an error message. I went to the dependencies to see what wasn't running, and in the dependencies is top/ip protocol service. Well I don't have that service in my list of services.

I have the unidentified network problem for both the wired and wireless connection.

I have tried uninstalling the wireless card, the LAN connection still says network unidentified.

Is the only option windows reinstall now? What other info can I provide?

 

[Chainzsaw]

It's hard to tell what the problem could be.

I've seen "Unidentified network" caused by bad network/wireless cards, malware, viruses.

What happens if you try to boot into safe mode with network options (press F8 at restart)?

 

[batti]

Well I am in safe mode now. Same problem. It is stuck on "Identifying" with a little clock over it.

In Services, should I have a service named TCP/IP ....? I have a TCP/IP NetBiOS Helper service and a DHCP Client service, neither of which can be started. if i try to start the DHCP Client service I get an error saying "error 1075: the dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion."

 

[Chainzsaw]

It almost looks like the OS might be screwed up somehow.

How about setting your computer back to factory default - is that out of the question?

Although I cannot gurantee it will completely fix the issue - although we can eliminate an OS issue if you set your computer back to factory default.

If you do plan on going this way - you might want to back up any data that is important to you.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Here's the automatic driver find page as well:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/wireless

Maybe try that out as well instead of whatever driver you downloaded.

 

[batti]

I'm using this dell tool to restore the computer to this morning. If that does not work I have the external drive ready to offload everything I need and reinstall. So ridiculous.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Do you have a USB wifi card? If so you could try that out to see if that WIFI card is causing trouble.

 

[batti]

I did the system restore to 9 AM this morning.

Two things:
1. It is super frustrating as I am that installing drivers from the manufacturer can hose a functionality as important as internet access. The WIFI card driver hosed but my wireless and LAN connection.

2. However they implement this auto-restore function, whether they do a backup every so often, or before installation of programs, I love it. It fixed the problem.

I would imagine I am back to square one on the wireless connection being intermittent, but I think I have wasted enough time for one day. I'll take a look at fixing this after my board examinations in 13 days.

Thanks for the help. I will try to implement some of you very good adice when I give this another go.

 

[pedalbike]

Well I am in safe mode now. Same problem. It is stuck on "Identifying" with a little clock over it.

In Services, should I have a service named TCP/IP ....? I have a TCP/IP NetBiOS Helper service and a DHCP Client service, neither of which can be started. if i try to start the DHCP Client service I get an error saying "error 1075: the dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion."

This sounds like the update to the drivers did not complete as you seemed to think earlier. I would try a different driver next time (maybe a slightly older version). Secondly, next time you seem to have no connection try to ping one of your devices inside your house instead of a website.

 

[Chainzsaw]

I did the system restore to 9 AM this morning.

Two things:
1. It is super frustrating as I am that installing drivers from the manufacturer can hose a functionality as important as internet access. The WIFI card driver hosed but my wireless and LAN connection.

2. However they implement this auto-restore function, whether they do a backup every so often, or before installation of programs, I love it. It fixed the problem.

I would imagine I am back to square one on the wireless connection being intermittent, but I think I have wasted enough time for one day. I'll take a look at fixing this after my board examinations in 13 days.

Thanks for the help. I will try to implement some of you very good adice when I give this another go.

This happened to my laptop before - except I was using an Atheros wireless card.

I updated the driver - and it pretty much hosed my wireless connection (dropping out 1-5 seconds after connecting to a network). The only real "fix" I found was using a hacked driver - as a lot of others had similar issues to me. The hacked driver actually worked much better than the manufacturers driver - even the driver that originally came with the laptop!

 

[batti]

This sounds like the update to the drivers did not complete as you seemed to think earlier. I would try a different driver next time (maybe a slightly older version). Secondly, next time you seem to have no connection try to ping one of your devices inside your house instead of a website.

I could not ping the router at that time. I agree the driver update most likely did not finish since there was no dialog confirmation of any kind.