Very Strange Internet Issue...

[asdftt123]

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate some help with a strange internet issue on my desktop computer. Basically, the internet randomly cuts off in a weird way while I'm using it. It happens randomly and once it gets cut off it's very hard to get it back - though it sometimes randomly will come back. The only way I can get the internet back is to restart the computer.

Some other things I've noticed:
- In the bottom task bar, it still indicates that I'm still connected to the internet. It also says I'm connected when I look at my my Network Connections page.
- When I'm downloading a torrent or watching a stream, the internet will cut off but the stream and download will continue as if nothing even happened...
- I try diagnosing the issue and it says something along the lines of I'm connected to the internet but it can't reach out to the website.

My desktop is running on Windows 7 x64 with the specs listed below. My ISP is Comcast high speed at around 16 mbps, I think... My desktop is connected directly into my router via ethernet. I've tried switching the port on the router, switching routers (before I used a WRT54G, now I switched to a WRT160N V2). I've also scanned my computer using AVG and some anti-spyware stuff and removed anything suspicious. Furthermore, I also I uninstalled my LAN drivers and reinstalled them again. None of this worked.

I doubt it's my internet itself because my laptop, phone, and roommate's laptop connect perfectly fine to it via wireless.

Any ideas? I'd like to avoid reformatting my computer if all possible because it's just a huge hassle.

Many thanks for your help!

 

[railman]

Sounds like a TCP/IP issue to me. You might try removing the TCP/IP entries in the properties of your connection, reboot, and check to see if Windows has reinstalled them. If not then do it manually by adding services and choosing TCP/IP. Sometimes connections time out and this might be your problem as well. Check your nic settings for time out entries and increase them some to see if that helps.

 

[asdftt123]

Sounds like a TCP/IP issue to me. You might try removing the TCP/IP entries in the properties of your connection, reboot, and check to see if Windows has reinstalled them. If not then do it manually by adding services and choosing TCP/IP. Sometimes connections time out and this might be your problem as well. Check your nic settings for time out entries and increase them some to see if that helps.

Hey, thanks. I had previously a static IP set up on this computer (for playing Starcraft) but I removed them and reset everything back (TCP/IPv4). It's now running on a dynamic IP address. I thought that this would fix the issue but didn't work. Sorry I forgot to mention it in the first place. I don't think I tinkered with any settings elsewhere...

Also, what do you mean by nic settings? I know very little about networking, to be honest.

 

[railman]

Your network interface card (NIC). You can access it in Device Manager-Network Adapters. Right click and choose properties, Look in settings and/or advanced.

Also if you had a static IP address so start with and now are depending on DHCP from your router this may also be the issue. When you loose your connection try going into your router setup and look for a status page, then look there to check your connection. You can also find the DHCP option in the setup pages and choose to release and then renew the IP address. The time for most Dynamic IP addresses are set to expire once every 24 hours.

 

[railman]

You might also be having a DHCP conflict. If your service provider runs a DHCP server, which most do and your router is setup as a DHCP server as well this cna be a problem. If this is the case disable the DHCP server in your router and allow your isp's server to assign the addresses.

 

[asdftt123]

Sorry, I'm not really sure what you mean

Could you elaborate, possibly step by step? Too bad you're can't meet in person to help.

 

[pcgeek11]

You might also be having a DHCP conflict. If your service provider runs a DHCP server, which most do and your router is setup as a DHCP server as well this cna be a problem. If this is the case disable the DHCP server in your router and allow your isp's server to assign the addresses.

This is not the issue as the ISP is on the WAN Network and the PC is on the LAN Network not the same thing at all:

The ISP acts as the DHCP Server for the WAN ( Wide Area Network) and the Router gets its internet IP Address (WAN address) from the DHCP Server from the cable company.

The router has its own LAN address that is not internet routable such as 192.168.1.1 for his which is a Linksys/Cisco.
The Router acts as a DHCP Server for the LAN side of the network. These IP address' are not routable on the internet just for local connections ( That is why it is called a LAN (Local Area Network).

The router acts as the go between for the PC and the Internet.

Really Simplified Here:
LAN PC Request >>> Router WAN >>> Internet Receives Request

WAN Internet Response >>>> Router LAN >>>> PC Receives

The router belongs to both networks WAN and LAN

When it stops see if you can ping the router from a command line " ping 192.168.1.1 "

pcgeek11

 

[asdftt123]

This is not the issue as the ISP is on the WAN Network and the PC is on the LAN Network not the same thing at all:

The ISP acts as the DHCP Server for the WAN ( Wide Area Network) and the Router gets its internet IP Address (WAN address) from the DHCP Server from the cable company.

The router has its own LAN address that is not internet routable such as 192.168.1.1 for his which is a Linksys/Cisco.
The Router acts as a DHCP Server for the LAN side of the network. These IP address' are not routable on the internet just for local connections ( That is why it is called a LAN (Local Area Network).

The router acts as the go between for the PC and the Internet.

Really Simplified Here:
LAN PC Request >>> Router WAN >>> Internet Receives Request

WAN Internet Response >>>> Router LAN >>>> PC Receives

The router belongs to both networks WAN and LAN

When it stops see if you can ping the router from a command line " ping 192.168.1.1 "

pcgeek11

No idea what most of this means but I used cmd to ping my router when my internet was down.

I got this:

 

[pcgeek11]

Well it isn't hardware related from the ping results you have communications with the router. This may be a problem with the firewall software or AV. Disable all of your firewalls ( You should only have one ). And recheck your internet connection. You may need to reset the router values back to default by pressing the reset button for 10 seconds.

pcgeek11

 

[asdftt123]

Ugh...the issue still persists and I've tried almost everything I can think of. I find that having my desktop plugged in will now sometimes cause my laptop/roommate's laptop to not work.

When I have my desktop disconnected from the router the wireless and everything seems to work just fine.

I decided to purchase a USB wireless-N adapter from newegg. I also have a D-Link wireless bridge I used for my Xbox 360 that I will probably try.

Any other suggestions would be welcome. Again, many thanks.