Help needed with connection loss

[AaronB]

I'll keep this simple. Every two hours my computer loses it's connection to the outside world. It literally happens at 5pm, 7pm, 9pm, 11pm, etc.

When this happens I cannot connect to my router so it seemed to be something with the computer and not the router/modem. To test this I connected directly to the modem. The problem still occurs. Even doing a system restore to a time before the problem popped up didn't help.

This problem first occured Saturday evening and has happened every two hours since. It can only be "reset" by a reboot.

Any ideas on what to try? I'm not a networking guru so even if you just tell me what to look for that might give me a clue on where the problem is, that would help.


BTW, when this happens, nothing works. No email, ftp, http, etc. Sort of like my system is being locked down by a firewall every 2 hours.

Windows firewall is supposed to be off but when I try to open it I get the following message:

"Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings"

 

[Smilin]

First:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\atl.dll

Second:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\hnetcfg.dll


Next, check this KB:
892199 You cannot start the Windows Firewall service in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;892199

use the SC sdshow SharedAccess command to see if your security descriptors look ok.

Are you in a domain receiving group policy?

 

[Cooky]

Time to reinstall Windows.
There may be a solution to your problem, but you could spend more time than its worth.

 

[AaronB]

Originally posted by: Smilin


First:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\atl.dll

Second:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\hnetcfg.dll


Next, check this KB:
892199 You cannot start the Windows Firewall service in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;892199

use the SC sdshow SharedAccess command to see if your security descriptors look ok.

After following what you posted (and a few other things) I got Windows Firewall to open. I turned it off but still have the same problem.

I may have posted some wrong information though. I have found that when this happens I can /release and /renew my ip just fine. I just can't do anything with it.

Any troubleshooting ideas? No idea is too lame because I really don't have much knowledge in troubleshooting network connections.

Originally posted by: Smilin
Are you in a domain receiving group policy?

Nope. All I had was a little home network consisting of my single computer, a Linksys router and a cable modem. The router is just for the occasions when I need to connect a second computer to the internet. Right now I have the router out of the picture and my computer is connected directly to the modem.

 

[petey117]

do a netstat when it happens, and see what is going on

 

[AaronB]

Originally posted by: petey117
do a netstat when it happens, and see what is going on

This is what it looks like when things are working and Anandtech is opened in Firefox:

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1033 66.117.33.55:http ESTABLISHED
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1034 66.117.33.55:http ESTABLISHED
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1035 66.117.33.55:http ESTABLISHED
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1030 localhost:1031 ESTABLISHED
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1031 localhost:1030 ESTABLISHED

This is what it looks like when the problem occurs (browser is still open)

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1030 localhost:1031 ESTABLISHED
TCP admin-t6sg6ntwa:1031 localhost:1030 ESTABLISHED

C'mon guys. Help keep me from reformatting this weekend!

 

[Smilin]

cooky is partially right here.

Choices I see at this point:
1. Call MS and get one of us guys on the net team to start running network traces, perfmons and sh1t on it. We'll fix it I guarantee but it won't be easy.

2. Spend between five minutes and five years (pretty big range there) troubleshooting it yourself to completion.

3. Reload.

Seeing how this isn't a dead server it gives you plenty of room to get your backups done and maybe experiment with a repair install first.

you can also try unloading everything that's hooked to your network like third party firewalls, file sharing software etc then rebuilding the tcpip stack:

netsh int ip reset c:\logfile.txt

 

[cloud639]

before formatting...log on to ur router (httP://196.xxx.xxx.xxx). It's something like that i believe. Then check the page and find something that say something like "Keep router on" and then there's a box where you can put in a time frame (i.e. 2hrs, 4hrs. etc). I think there is another box that say "keep router on forever". CLick on that one and see if it work. To test if this is the problem, select a time frame like 1 hour and see would ur internet work in one hour. If it does "turn off" ur internet, then you got ur problem and that is the router turning off everytime it past a certain time. Hope that's the case so you don't have to reformat. Good Luck