Losing connection (Computer->Wireless->Router->DSLmodem)

Hi, I did some searches and there are lots of people having connection issues but I couldn't find exactly what I'm experiencing. We have a (Dell) notebook with a AirLink+ USB wireless device and a no-name desktop with an AirLink wireless card. They both connect to a Linksys router which is now connected to an SBC/Yahoo DSL modem. We switched about a week ago from another DSL provider where things were working fine then (but the costs were much higher).

The desktop has only been used the last few days and it seems ok. But for the last week, I've been trying to use the notebook but it seems to lose internet connectivity every few minutes. At first, I was doing an ipconfig /release and /renew which worked most of the time (but it seems to be dropping down to only half the time). Then I noticed that I could always get to my router and if I used their utilities to do a traceroute to something like Yahoo, that would pretty much always work and then everything else would (usually) start working again after that (ping would sometimes work in this situation but never from the cmd line, only occassionally from the router utilities page).

I'm not sure how to fix this. We're both running XP, using wireless, to the same router but the notebook keeps losing the connection. One difference is that I installed the SBC/Yahoo programs from their CD on the notebook and then disabled them from 'net access using ZoneAlarm when I found out they send info to SBC. The one time I let them run, it didn't seem to drop the connection (but it also doesn't (usually) drop it as long as I'm actively using it without breaks). I'll likely just uninstall those at some point.

So is this related to firewall settings, dhcp, dynamic IPs, MTU, something else? I have line filters everywhere and I've scanned my machine for malware multiple times (with several programs) in the last week.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Reply to
sdaws06
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On 15 Aug 2006 17:17:16 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

What are the _exact_ symptoms? Does the wireless icon in the system tray show a red X? Or this just a browser problem? Can you ping the wireless router?

The next time it happens, Run: %COMSPEC% /K IPCONFIG /ALL and post the results here.

Pretty much?

What happened _exactly_ from the command line?

With a wireless router you don't need the SBC/Yahoo software -- get rid of it.

Hard to say without a lot more information.

Reply to
John Navas

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.

John Navas wrote:

I have 2 icons: the WLan Utility for the wireless device and the network connection icon. I've had the X before but in these cases, both seem to show that I'm connected (but sometimes the little animation for each one isn't going). During this time, I can't ping any sites from the command line (ping just sits there for a long time and then gives an error - maybe a lookup issue?). I *can* ping the router from the command line. And I can get to it from the browser (but no other sites). If I do ipconfig /release and /renew or if I use the router traceroute utility (from the browser), things usually start working again.

Windows IP Configuration

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

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible) Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : IEEE 802.11g USB Wireless LAN #3 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, August 15, 2006

20:37:59 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 16, 2006 20:37:59

Usually it would work, sometimes (rarely) it wouldn't.

c:\\>ping yahoo.com Ping request could not find host yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again.

C:\\>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64 ...

Browser can access router but nothing else. After /release /renew (or router traceroute), everything works again for a few minutes (cmd line ping, browser, etc).

Ok.

Reply to
sdaws06

On 15 Aug 2006 21:24:24 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

What _exact_ error? Guesswork makes it much harder to help.

Good. Then you have wireless connectivity, and the router is probably working. Thus the likely problem is Internet connectivity. Does the router have a status page that shows WAN/Internet status? If so, what _exactly_ does it say when this problem occurs?

How about when you sacrifice small animals?

Why would you withhold the MAC address?

That's a proxy in the router.

So DHCP is working and the computer is properly configured. Thus Release and Renew aren't called for.

Then DNS is failing. The router may have lost Internet connectivity.

Focus on finding out if the router is losing Internet connectivity and why. Start by checking the router status screen, and checking the lights on the DSL modem. The next time you have a problem, try just restarting the DSL modem.

Reply to
John Navas

Sorry - I did include it below. There really isn't any specific error that points to the problem - otherwise I'd use that to search for a solution.

It does have a few status pages (Router, Local Network, Wireless).

working, everything looked alright (I'll check again when the problem recurs).

I only have one so I haven't tried that yet.

For fun?

ok......

Except that things *aren't* working unless I do that. It _looks_ like everything is fine when the problem happens but I can't get to any sites past the router (including sbc) until I get the router to do something that seems to reset things.

Ok, but why/how? And how come the other computer works (I can have this issue several times at the same time the other one is working fine

- very strange).

Ok.

Thanks.

Reply to
sdaws06

On 15 Aug 2006 22:00:35 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

I need to know _exactly_ what it says.

Something else is going on.

The key word there is "seems".

I can't tell without more information, which is why I asked for router WAN/Internet status.

Hard to say.

Reply to
John Navas

Can you email me so I can send it to you that way? I'm not sure what info is ok to disclose publicly. It just happened again and everything besides access to the router through the browser was dead. The status pages had the same info as before (ie. when it's working) and a refresh didn't change anything (nor was there any errors/messages/etc). After trying some cmd line pings, router traceroutes, and a few other things, a cmd line ipconfig /release /renew finally fixed it.

Reply to
sdaws06

On 15 Aug 2006 22:56:29 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

My email address here is valid.

Just don't disclose passwords. Your public IP address is already disclosed in your posts here, and nothing I've asked for has any bearing on your privacy or security. (Your MAC address, for example, isn't anything to be concerned about.)

If Release-Renew is really fixing it, then there's something you're not telling me. Download this ZIP:

and extract the script. Then next time you have the problem, instead of Release-Renew, run the script, and copy & paste the exact result here (scrolling the window to get all the output).

Reply to
John Navas

Ok, I'll get the info and send it to you shortly (or post it here). I'm now connected to work via VPN and it doesn't seem to happen then.

Ok.

Well, I'm telling you everything I know. Maybe there's something I don't know that I'm supposed to be telling you. One thing I just thought of was maybe some sort of temporary loss of the name lookup service. So Yahoo, Google, etc, don't work via ping or browser but my router does (since I use the IP addr). Not sure how ipconfig fixes this or using the router utils (maybe it caches the lookup service? [sorry don't know much about this]).

Ok.

Reply to
sdaws06

If your other computer is STILL working (as you say above), it is NOT anything to do with the router/dsl/etc, but the one computer that fails (while the other still works).. Is it a laptop? If so, does it hibernate or the hard disks turn off? (check power management) when it is left for a while?

Reply to
Peter Pan

In comp.dcom.xdsl John Navas wrote in part:

Respectfully, I must differ for those with high security concerns. Most posters public IPs are dynamic and many change frequently, making them effectively anonymous except for a limited time to admins/police who are willing to expend considerable resources to have logs searched before they're deleted.

The MAC is a immutable hardware [firmware in most cases] address that is more useful for tracking. Hitherto, the MAC has mostly been unpublished, but this will change with IPv6 which will likely incorporate the MAC into the disgustingly long 128 bit addresses. Fortunately, the equipment is likely to be retired long before IPv6 comes into widespread use.

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

I think MS-WinXP can also have problems with the ARP cache. `arp -d *` might fix it.

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

On 15 Aug 2006 23:45:50 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

That's a useful clue. Does your router have the latest firmware?

Fair enough -- that wasn't an accusation, just an assessment.

That's to gather information you may be overlooking. ;)

Reply to
John Navas

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply.

Peter Pan wrote:

Correct. This made me think it's some sort of XP issue - but strange that it didn't happen before with my previous dsl provider.

It is a laptop but it's always plugged in and the power mgmt settings don't do much of anything until at least 30 mins of inactivity has passed. In any case, I'm still using the computer actively during the time - just not always the internet connection.

Reply to
sdaws06

Reply to
sdaws06

I haven't ever upgraded it - I bought it just over a year ago. I was thinking of this as a possibility but still think there must be some software component to it since the other computer works. Maybe the SBC software upgraded some file/driver on my system and now that's affecting things somehow (and a firmware upgrade may fix the incompatiblity).

Will do. So far it hasn't happened tonight.

Reply to
sdaws06

On 16 Aug 2006 21:44:18 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

Perhaps, but I strongly recommend upgrading the firmware if possible in any event.

Reply to
John Navas

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