Just had O2 broadband installed and its great, but i've found that after a bit of use both IE7 and Firefox lose their connections. I know the PC is still connected to the net as all programs that have ran in the background have remained connected, for example BitTorrent continued to download, Windows update continued to download files then complete their install. Even in Network and Sharing Centre it shows the PC as connected to the net. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm running a fresh Windows Vista 32bit install on a P4 2.4ghz with 2gb RAM and a 74Gb WD Raptor. The internet comes wired to the PC via O2's wireless box. Previous to Vista I was runnind XP 32bit and still had the same problem. EDIT: 1. Sometimes restarting the PC works, sometimes it doesn't, 2. Sometimes disabling then enabling the ethernet connection works, sometimes it doesn't, 3. Someone in the "I've got O2 broadband thread (in general)" suggested the following, this also worked but not for long. Code: netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt 4. Installed on the machine is Office, Spybot and AVG, though i had these problems when they wern't installed too.
Are your DNS servers being picked up correctly through DHCP? Sorry for the lame questions, I know I've had this problem before, and fixed it, but can't for the life of me remember the solution.
It sounds very much DNS related. When it happens try browsing to a website that responds directly from an IP, EG: http://83.138.137.17 responds and is the same as http://www.redcross.org.uk If the IP URL works, and the normal one doesn't. It's DNS!
Now you say that, when it has all gone wrong before i've tried to get windows to fix it and its come back with something DNS related, next time it happens i'll make a note of what it says. Badders, how would i find that out? I've also jotted down that IP and URL jenny so again next time it happens i'll try that EDIT: well it just did it, so i typed in the IP and got the red cross site, tried the url and got "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage", so I clicked the "Diagnose Connection Problems" link. That brought back cannot find the host name "www.redcross.org.uk" using DNS, DNS server may be down. Windows can't fix this problem either. But interestingly, i'm writing this, so it seems that any URL's I have open work and as long as I stay within them i'm fine.
Don't know if i've fixed it, but i've found that my NAS has a number of built in servers with DNS and DHCP being two of them. nothing was enabled on the DNS but the DHCP was, so i've disabled it. we'll see what happens.
i'd say set a continous ping to say www.google.com check latency and if packets dropping when you have issues with ie/firefox if its fine, change your dns try opendns, i've never had issues with it
I have used Plusnet's dns from time to time - 212.159.11.150 and 212.159.13.150 To check your dhcp is dishing out a dns server, go to the properties of your network connection and click status. You should get a list showing your ip address and associated gateway and dns servers. If your gateway and dns are the address of the router (more than likely if you are using dhcp and haven't manually configured your network connection) you'll have to log into your router and check it's picking up the correct dns servers from your isp (or use another's if you can set the dns server(s) yourself).
