XP Professional loosing network connection on home network

[jcmoffitt]

I have two workstations at home, both running Windows XP Professional connected to the Internet via a cable modem which is tied to a Linksys Router/switch/firewall.

Comcast provides my router/switch with an IP address through DHCP and my router/switch provides my internal network setting on 192.168.1.* with IP addresses. Both computers can get on the Internet without a problem. My wife's compaq computer however will loose network connectivity to the Internet after a specific period of time. At first I thought that it was because of inactivity so I checked the bios and OS to make sure that sleep mode was not on. Then one day while my wife was reading and responding to email she lost connectivity while at her computer.

Someone told me to get rid of DHCP on my internal network and try static ip addresses. When I did that I lost all connectivity to the Internet so that did not work worth a flip. I got DHCP running again so I am back to square one.
Is this an XP related issue?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

James C. Moffitt

 

[TheOldMan346]

jcmoffitt,

There appears to be an issue with certain Linksys routers and firmware versions. You can check the Linksys forum on

http://www.dslreports.com

and the Linksys site for further info. Make sure you are using the current firmware.

Changing to static should have resolved the issue. It should not have interfered with internet access if done correctly. Sounds like the default gateway was not set correctly. If you want to try this again, set each computer with an IP address outside the DHCP range, e.g. 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.11 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. You will also need to specify DNS server addresses. There is an undocumented DNS proxy in the Linksys that allows you to specify the router's address of 192.168.1.1 but that si where some of these issues are coming from. Get the actual DNS addresses from your ISP and set them in the TCP/IP properties on each machine.

Jope that helps.
The Old Man

 

[scholar24]

JC- I'm running the exact same setup (linksys sr41 cable dsl router) over network and four computer accessing, WinXP Pro, Win2k Pro, Win2k Server, and Win ME. To find your DNS server addresses open a command prompt, type ipconfig /all, this will list all local adapters, there ip's, the dns addresses from the isp, and other info. Then after following the old mans's suggestion of going to

http://www.linksys.com

and downloading the latest firware, (there's been revisions that fix outlook problems along with security concerns) follow the read me instruction to install, takes a minute, then open your web browser and type "192.168.1.1" which is the default gateway address specified by linksys and will allow you to configure the router. Enter the DNS addresses from ipconfig /all and try dynamic (DHCP enabled) ip addressing, you can also set other information there but don't worry about that now. Do that and keep the forum posted.

regards

Tom Caldwell
NexusSoft Consulting

 

[jcmoffitt]

Thanks for the prompt replies folks. I will give these suggestions a try this afternoon when I get home. Thanks ! James C. Moffitt

http://jcmoffitt.com

jcmoffitt@jcmoffitt.com

 

[jcmoffitt]

Ok, the changes suggested have been made.

A. Upgraded the linksys router to the latest firmware
B. Installed Zone Alarm Pro and turned it on in the router
C. applied static ip address outside of dhcp zone on both computers
D. exempted my wife's compaq from using zone alarm Pro on the router because I only have one license for ZAP for now.

Now I will let my wife's computer run on the network for awhile and see if it drops the connection.

James C. Moffitt

http://jcmoffitt.com

jcmoffitt@jcmoffitt.com

 

[TheOldMan346]

jcmoffitt,

Good. Just to clarify ...
ZoneAlarm doesn't run in the router. If you turn the ZA option on in the router, its software checks the comnputers on its attached LAN to ensure that THEY are running ZA. The same holds true for PC-Cillin antivirus.

Good luck.
The Old Man

 

[scholar24]

yep the laptop must have a zap pro license or she won't be able to connect but running it standalone on the OS should be fine plus using it through the router will consume bandwidth. Keep the forum posted

 

[jcmoffitt]

Yes, I understand that I am only selecting the ZAPRO option in the router. Apparently, even after I made all the changes that I listed, my wife's computer is still dropping the network connection. This is irritating.
It seems as if the connection stayed stable for much longer than it used to though. Any other thoughts or ideas here?

James C. Moffitt

http://jcmoffitt.com

jcmoffitt@jcmoffitt.com

 

[scholar24]

jc- uncheck the option to have zone alarm check the router, it uses bandwidth, it requires you to specify which IP the errors report to (which could be causing the lost connection), and using ZAP within your computer alone will protect you from hackers. Try that and don't give up.

Tom Caldwell
NexusSoft Consulting

 

[butchrecon]

I noticed abve that scholar24 mentioned seting the DNS addresses in XP. DID you do that? It could help. Not having the DNS settings there can cause internet connectivity to be lost. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[jcmoffitt]

Yes, I deselected the ZoneAlarm Pro section in the Security settings of my router.

Yes, I added the DNS settings in the adavanced tab under TCP/IP properties and added all three of the DNS enteries.

I uninstalled ZoneAlarm Pro off my workstation because it was becoming way too much hassle for me to manage. Every single time I was doing something my computer would freak out and ask me a million questions. After awhile it caused my computer to NOT gain access to the Internet at all. Good grief.

Anyway, I dont think that Zone Alarm Pro is the problem with my wifes computer because I never installed it on her machine.

We are both still running static ip's so that is not the answer either.

James C. Moffitt

http://jcmoffitt.com

jcmoffitt@jcmoffitt.com

 

[chuka]

HI

I heard about this problem from someone else.
As far as I know it wasn't related to the router but to the computer.

When he switched from win98 to XP he started facing this problem.

I think it was the distance between his computer to the router, 98 worked great but XP didn't.

Try the following and post a reply:

1) When the laptop will loose connection open a dos window and type netstat -rn, compare before and after.

2) try ipconfig /all, compare this one too.

3) Ping to the router, see if there is any response.

4) run, ipconfig /release , then ipconfig /renew and check if you have connection now.

Good luck.