Intermittent Internet Problems

[gummybear68]

Ok I have read some peoples problems that are similar but can not find one that is exactly as mine. I have tried all of their fixes and they don't help. this is the problem

I Have a dell desktop with Windows XP

I connect to the internet and stay connected. I can browse and send e-mail just fine for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours no average time.

After so long i'm still connected but can not browse or send e-mail though I can ping just fine. And all it takes to fix this is to restart the computer.

But it keeps doing it over and over. I have mcaffee full suite of protection updated to the ver latest. Full firewall and virus have run adaware and ipfix and checked regedit and msconfig to no avail.

Please someone out there has to have an idea what is going on here?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[bcastner]

Does your ISP have an inactivity timeout?

 

[gummybear68]

They do after about 12 hours but this is happening every hour or so and it happens whether or not i'm doing something or not. Plus I have e-mail set to check every minute on the minute.

Also just realized this. I can ONLY Ping my ISP when it locks up no other site.

I have disabled everything in mcaffe and made it to where Nothing starts up at start up. I have deleted and recreated my network connections and everything and same thing.

I have called my isp and they say that They show me still connected.

 

[bcastner]

Q1. What does it show when you lose the connection if you Start, run, ipconfig /all ?

Q2. Does it work normally using the same phone cable, the same phone jack, etc. with a different machine?

Q3. Did it every work normally with the existing computer? Is this a new problem?

If the answer to Q2 and Q3 is Yes, replace the modem.

 

[gummybear68]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\default>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : jsrxy01
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : CNet PRO200WL PCI Fast Ethernet Adap
ter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-80-AD-87-3C-D6

PPP adapter tds.net:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.21.59.88
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 69.21.59.88
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 216.165.129.157
134.215.200.126
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Documents and Settings\default>


This only does this on this computer and it does it at work when I hook it up to DSL at work also. Other computers work fine on this line.

I have done 2 things that are the only major things I can think of that might be making this happen.

About 2 months ago I thought I had found a virus on my computer because it was acting strange and what happend was that I deleted a program that the computer needed to log me into windows. I could not get past the log in screen to fix anything. I found a site that told me how to go into the recycle bin in DOS mode and undelete the files and copy them back to the correct folders. Things were ok after that I know for at least a while I can not remember how long. Also have installed a new hard drive as a secondary drive and just use it to store pictures on nothing else.

 

[bcastner]

Start by rebuilding your TCP/IP stack, as this could well be the problem.

The "quick" fix, that often solves the issue I discuss in FAQ779-4625

If that does not resolve the issue, see the last section of this MS KB article, "How to recover from Winsock2 corruption":

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811259

Please report back if this does not resolve the issue.

Best,
Bill Castner

 

[gummybear68]

Thanks that worked once before i had a similar problem and it fixed it a year or so ago. This time have tried both those to no avail.. Simply Restarting the computer fixes the problem but it comes back within an hour or so. That is what is throwing me all off. why would it connect and work for a time and just restarting the computer fix it?

 

[bcastner]

I would look strongly at hardware issues and not the OS ans possible software at this point.

Including trying one of the many freeware tools that pings in the background or otherwise to keep an active Dial-up connection.

E.G.

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/comm/fwdisconnect.shtml

 

[gummybear68]

Tried the pinging thought it was going to work for a while as I actually stayed up for 2 hours this time I believe but could be wrong that is the longest itme yet.

I am not sure what hardware to check. If it was just with dial up and not doing the same thing with the dsl at work I would thing Modem but it does the same thing at work hooked up to DSL.

This one really has got me stumped i'm on the verge of just reformatting the hard drive but I don't really want to do that takes such a long time to transfer everything and reinstall all the programs


I have a dell that came with windows ME with the upgrade disk they sent 2 weeks later to upgrade to XP Is there a way to just do a windows repair for windows xp from an upgrade disk? And is it possible that would fix the problem?

 

[rcouch]

I'm having a very similar problem with my Dell laptop (Latitude D600), russing XP w/ DSL connection at work. Every time I reboot it's a crap shoot--sometimes it connection works for quite a while, sometimes not at all. It's very annoying, and I have a deadline coming up so I don't have a lot of time to spend trouble shooting (I'm just using my old computer), so I'm very interested if you make any progress.

 

[bcastner]

rcouch,
I have complained about this issue for a while. Using netsh.exe under Service Pack 2 will help:

. The issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;167014&Product=win2000

. As you are using XP, you can sort this issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;167014&Product=win2000

http://www.petri.co.il/configure_tcp_ip_from_cmd.htm

http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/utips/utips46.shtml

Hope it helps,
Bill Castner

 

[gummybear68]

Thanks for all the effort everyone I really appreciate it. This has been the worst problem I have ever had and have not been able to resolve it any way listed. Another guy at work who knows a lot about computers had the exact same problem. Is not a matter of not being able to get online just that after so long it stops working and just simply rebooting helps. I have done every single thing above including a repair on windows and nothing helped. I have now done a format and reinstall of windows ME trying to upgrade back up to XP but do not have my 20 digit code for that *sigh* Luckily had it for the ME on the side of the computer. I have e-mailed dell I can not get much done on the net tonight every other page says can not load even on my lap top. Assuming that is due to the virus out there at the moment. Thanks again for all the help

 

[rcouch]

I finally noticed in my device manager that there was some sort of driver error (at least after internet connection was broken). Reinstalling the driver didn't seem to help, but I didn't spend too long looking for new drivers. Instead, I simply reinstalled WinXP (from scratch, not an ME upgrade...). So far things have been working fine.

 

[rcouch]

Woops, spoke to quickly--of course it wasn't that easy (I'm sure I'd tried that before), still having problems....

Perhaps related, the internal wireless card isn't being properly recognized (shows up as 'network controller' in device manager, but it can't find drivers). Are you having that problem too, g-bear?

I should have more time next week to get the wireless card properly installed (though simply disabling it doesn't help). Also our main technical support guy's back in town now and should be able to spend more time on this, so I'll keep you posted on progress or other failed attempts....