Networks Windows 7x64 - loss of internet connection every few days ...

I have two nominally identical Windows7x64 Pro machines I built at the end of last year, and since getting them up and running, I have a niggling problem in that every few days they drop their internet connection ....

1. This does not affect my Win XP 32 or Ubuntu Linux64 machines on the same network.
2. If I check the "ipconfig /all" settings when one of the two machines has lost the connection, the output looks the same as for the machine still up (obviously apart from the IP address etc).
3. Running the Network diagnostics does not fix the problem - it says there is nothing wrong with the set-up, but that it cannot access www.microsoft.com
4. Though I cannot ping www.microsoft.com when it goes down, but I can ping other websites.
5. I thought the problem was related to ZoneAlarm, however, this has been removed from one machine and replaced with Kaspersky - same problem present.
6. I have tried to reset the modem when one lost its connection - no change.
7. If I reboot the two PC's about the same time, they both tend to loose their internet connection about the same time several days later.
8. Only way, so far, to get the connection back is via a re-boot.

Any thoughts on the possible cause of the problem, as its been driving me nuts!?

PC core: Asus P6X58D-E (Bios 0303), with i7 930 stock, 6GB Corasir Dominator DDR3.
Router: Billion BiPAC 7800n. All PC's routed via CAT6 through a Netgear GS724T smart switch

 

have you checked to see it windows is turning off the network adaptors?

one thing i tend to do, is untick that option from the device properties

 

Are you referring to the power saving tick box in the 'Power Management' tab of the network adaptor (in this case a Marvell Yukon one)?
If so, I have this unticked (it was one of my first options ). The other thing I've done is disabled IPv6 (based on some posts I'd seen).

 

do the machines go down at the same time or just 1 or the other every few days ?

 

If they've been re-booted at the same time, they go down within a short while of each other as far as I can make out.
I rebooted one on Thursday last week, and it went down Tuesday this week. The other I rebooted on Friday and it went down yesterday - that's about 5 days a piece this time.

 

Are you using DHCP or static adressing?

They may not be renewing their lease correctly.
A winsockfix should reset them for you.

 

Hi Saspro - I'm using the modem/router as the DHCP server. The default lease is set to 24hrs, and I've set the max lease to 3 months. How can you tell if the lease is not being renewed correctly?

Is Winsockfix a temp fix for each time it goes down (or is it a permanent fix)?

 

Try setting static addresses.
If they're not getting a DHCP address it should issue itself an IPIPA address 162.254.x.x

Winsockfix will reset the networksing on the machine & fix the stack.
You should only need to run it once

 

Try this?

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=180025

 

Sas - The PC's still seem to get an IP address assigned (in the range set by the modem/router), as this shows up under ipconfig, even when the connection is lost.
I'll try Zoon's fix first (easy enough to try), then move on to Winsockfix and static IP's ...
Thanks guys.

 

My windows operating system is not working properly. It's taking too much time to start. Sometime, after starting, internet connection isn't being connected. After restarting PC it connectes. Sometimes, after starting PC, a message shows that the windows wasn't shut down properly. Then some options come i.e. "Start windows normally" and so on. After pressing 'Enter' it starts.
So, please help me.

 

ipv6 shouldn't be an issue to be fair, leaving it on, makes little or no difference to most users.

the only thing turning it off does, is reduce some of the resources it uses.

 

have you entered the mac address? go into advanced under the driver properties and look for network address. if it says not present, you need to enter the mac address. in many drivers it will use a generic mac address until the user enters the one that is on the motherboard. if you have two of the same system, the dhcp server may think they are the same one at times, which will especially be a problem when both are on, as it will cause a conflict, making one or both systems drop off.

 

I can't see anywhere in the network driver properties to enter a MAC address (the IP address is set to be obtained automatically at present) .... but checking the DHCP Table status of the modem/router shows that all the connected devices have their own unique MAC addresses and assigned IP addresses.

 

1. Doc, when they go offline, do you lose ethernet link?

2. Have you tried looking in the switch's management interface for the state of the ports these two machines are connected to? Anything mentioned in the logs?

3. While they are down, have you tried pinging the router, the switch or each other? What is the result? Try and write down some ip addresses of sites such as yahoo.com, google.com, kernel.org, etc. Try pinging their ip's directly to rule out a dns problem.

However, my best guess is the NIC is faulty. I see it's a Marvell Yukon, not one of the best out there, to put it mildly. The Internet is full with reports of these losing connectivity. You could try a second hand Intel fast ethernet card that usually goes for no more than £3. The problem might just go away.

 

Current status;
a. Disabling TCP Checksum Offload (Zoon) - did not work
b. Winsockfix (Saspro) - this didn't seem to run smoothly, came up with some failure messages - does it work with Win7x64?
c. Static IP (Saspro) - Just set the two machines to static IPs ....

Chicken76 - thanks for the post;
1. The ethernet lights on the NIC port remain on (is that what you mean?)
2. I'll have a root around see what I can find ....
3. Lost track of what I've done - will make some more notes next time(!)

Can't easily swap out the existing NIC's, as they are part of the ASUS P6X58D-E mobo(!) - the NIC drivers are those chosen by Microsoft. The Asus website has one driver which is slightly older. I could add a new NIC, but the chances of two mobo's both having the same NIC fault (unless its driver related?) would seem slim (or at least jolly unlucky!).

 

If you can get your hands on some other NICs would be great. Disable the onboard ones and see if the disconnects happen again.

You wouldn't believe how bad many cheap NICs are. I remember having a nightmare of a flood in one network segment that had a couple of Via Rhines on it. As it turns out, these cr4ppy things just decide to enter a loop and retransmit over and over some random sequence of packets from their normal output. I was unlucky in having two of these things on the same segment and having the switch's storm control just shut down the port. With no way of logging on to the machines in question the only thing that was left for me to do was to go to those clients and 'listen' to the network traffic from their end. Seeing flooding from one of them, I would take it offline and had the port on the switch re-enabled. Some time later storm control kicks in again. Went down there again only to find the other one was doing the same thing. I thought of foul play, as the machines in question were gateways for different clients, and started investigating that. Of course, there were no haxors there. After some time, a good friend hearing about my dilemma asked casually what NICs did I have. I said I didn't know and why would it matter since they're both running linux, because it never occurred to me that this kind of problem could be NIC-type related. He said "I hope they're not Via Rhines, because if they are you need to change them asap. Those are not NICs, they are cheap pieces of cr4p that are being sold as NICs". Not taking his harsh advice immediately, I still looked what kind of chips they were. Surprise! Needless to say I went through a lot of hoops to try to redeem them, compiled several versions of kernel newer and older, installed them later in some windows machines and tried several windows drivers ... to finally reach the conclusion: the time was not entirely wasted as the exercise was a good one, but they don't deserve to be called Network Interface Cards.
And I have a few other tales to tell you about other brands of NICs, but I won't take any more of your time.
To summarize, I never had any problems with Intel or Broadcom NICs. See if you can find some second hand ones and give them a try. They should be fairly cheap, unless you need gigabit ones, in which case they shouldn't exceed 25 euros.

 

OK - was actually sitting at the PC when it did it this time!! .... first signs were that the web pages were not loading correctly (with images shown as white boxes with red squares in), and the wording as plain html text. Shortly after, I could not access any webpages with IE.

Tests run:
1. Access to modem or switch via IE8 - No access
2. Pinging - Yes - could ping modem, switch, other PC's on network (and vice versa), yahoo and google (and their IP addresses), and my DNS.
3. Network trouble-shooter - Said "your broadband modem is experienceing connectiviity issues" - (Not really, as all the other 9 PC's were fine ....!). On clicking 'Next' it said the link between the router and internet was broken (mmmm, maybe just this machine is broken!)
4. NIC connection status - Said it was still connected and had been for the last for over 3 days.
5. NIC disable/re-enable - No joy.
6. Event Viewer - nothing in last 24 hrs.
7. Modem log and switch log - Nothing obvious regarding the MAC or IP of the PC in question.
Finally, re-booted the PC, and 'hey voila' - back to where I was (for another 4 to 5 days before the next drop out!!)

I thought perhaps the problem may be with IE8, however HFM (Folding monitor programme) also loses the status of the other Folding clients on the network (which seems strange in itself).

@Chicken76 - Looks like my next step is to buy a new NIC ...... unless the above diagnostics points to something else I've missed ....

 

Hi Doc

I don't have a solution, but every few days on my (only) XP machine that loses t'internet and HFM loses status of other machines (You have ten?) which is only solved by a reboot - all other machines are fine - will follow this thread to see if the solution helps me ...

 

have you tried removing the nic from device manager, rebooting and letting windows re-install nic driver?

i don't mean disable, i mean uninstall