Vista and Connection Problem

[taya74]

I bought a new computer which has Vista and a wireless modem. It worked perfectly until 3 months ago when every 1-2 days the Internet and Email will suddenly stop working and give error message such as page cannot be displayed.

But I can ping, the network and sharing centre still says I am connected, including the little 2 computer icons at the bottom right and says I have an excellent signal etc, I can still use my laptop via the same modem at this time. The only way to fix it is to restart my computer. When having this problem, my laptop can see my computer but my computer can't see my laptop.

I contacted my ISP who said they can't help me as it can't be a modem problem. I contacted Dell who told me it looks like it is a software problem (which I don't have warrenty for) but put me through to a Dell software guy as a good will gesture who told me the modem is hanging and to switch the computer off at night but this didn't work.

I reinstalled my modem drivers twice. I uninstalled my anti-virus (which does give me other problems). I also reinstalled Vista (I didn't reformat - just replaced the Vista files). I also tried turning my modem off at night and resetting my modem when the problem occurred. I clicked the diagnose and repair button which tells me either there is nothing wrong or it pinged but did not receive a response (even though I did). Sometimes it said trying to repair but couldn't or removing the malfuncting network component.

I didn't know whether the problem might have had something to do with the Wireless Network Connection Properties? I just noticed when I have the connection problem the Uninstall button for the Link-Layer Topology etc and Qos Package is greyed out, but when the connection is ok, it isn't greyed out but I have no knowledge about how they work or whether they could be the problem.

A TCP/IP address is obtained automatically and the DNS is Automatic from ISP. I have WPA2 security and password protected. When the problem occurs I also can't get into the modem router page (http://192.168.2.1) etc either.

Thanks

Sarah

[UrbanKhoja]

Evening Sarah,

Are you only getting these problems on Internet Explorer?

Dazza :cool:

[taya74]

Hi Dazza

I have tried Netscape and Firefox and my FTP but none will work when I have the problem.

Thanks

Sarah

[scru]

Do you by any chance have that McAfee suite on it?

[binoj_daniel]

For how long does this issue last?
What do you do to bring it back?
How often does it happen?

This will help me answer your problem.

[bobbyraw]

I bought a new computer which has Vista and a wireless modem. It worked perfectly until 3 months ago when every 1-2 days the Internet and Email will suddenly stop working and give error message such as page cannot be displayed.

But I can ping, the network and sharing centre still says I am connected, including the little 2 computer icons at the bottom right and says I have an excellent signal etc, I can still use my laptop via the same modem at this time. The only way to fix it is to restart my computer. When having this problem, my laptop can see my computer but my computer can't see my laptop.

I contacted my ISP who said they can't help me as it can't be a modem problem. I contacted Dell who told me it looks like it is a software problem (which I don't have warrenty for) but put me through to a Dell software guy as a good will gesture who told me the modem is hanging and to switch the computer off at night but this didn't work.

I reinstalled my modem drivers twice. I uninstalled my anti-virus (which does give me other problems). I also reinstalled Vista (I didn't reformat - just replaced the Vista files). I also tried turning my modem off at night and resetting my modem when the problem occurred. I clicked the diagnose and repair button which tells me either there is nothing wrong or it pinged but did not receive a response (even though I did). Sometimes it said trying to repair but couldn't or removing the malfuncting network component.

I didn't know whether the problem might have had something to do with the Wireless Network Connection Properties? I just noticed when I have the connection problem the Uninstall button for the Link-Layer Topology etc and Qos Package is greyed out, but when the connection is ok, it isn't greyed out but I have no knowledge about how they work or whether they could be the problem.

A TCP/IP address is obtained automatically and the DNS is Automatic from ISP. I have WPA2 security and password protected. When the problem occurs I also can't get into the modem router page (http://192.168.2.1) etc either.

Thanks

Sarah

here are a few things you should try, power down the modem, power down the router. unplug the Ethernet cable between he the modem and the router. Then in this order power up the modem, Wait 5 min. then power up the router wait 3 min. During this time you should get a message on you Pc that a network cable is unplugged. then connect the Ethernet cable between the router and the modem. message should go away and the computer acquire a new ip address.

[binoj_daniel]

As a quick tip which everyone missed here.

- Update the firmware of the wireless router.
- Update any patches or driver updates related to your wireless card.

[scru]

Hmm. updating firmware isn't always a good thing. I think it is best left as a last resort. Drivers are a go though.

[taya74]

I had CA Anti-virus which just recently expired so I have completely uninstalled it. I did once scan my computer from my laptop which had McFee on it and I got the blue screen of death (not sure if it was a coincindent or not) but I think it was quite a while beforehand.

[taya74]

Hi

The problem occurs every 2 days or so. The only way to fix it is to restart my computer which completely fixes the problem.

I have a wireless modem/router - I have tried turning it off (but probably no longer than a minute (and resetting it). And uninstalling and reinstalling my modem drivers.

Normally when I have the problem, it still tells me I am connected to the Internet. If I then switch off my modem and turn it back on, it will then say can't connect to Internet and I will still try the usual things to get it back on but nothing works but turning my computer off.

[taya74]

I have also switched my wireless modem for my old normal broadband modem (to completely rule out my modem) and still had the same problem.

Could the problem be my network card?

[Laser]

I have also switched my wireless modem for my old normal broadband modem (to completely rule out my modem) and still had the same problem.

Could the problem be my network card?

By 'normal' do you mean you are now connected with a network cable?

Which Dell notebook are you using? What are its specifications(i.e what type of wireless and/or wired network adapter is/are installed)?

You can get this info from the Device Manager control panel. Driver versions may also be useful.

[taya74]

Yes it is now connected with a network cable with a completely different modem that doesn't have wireless which still had the same problem. My computer is a desktop, Dimension E520 Dell. I have a laptop as well (which has never had a problem but I don't have it on very often) and it will work with my wireless modem and I can connect with the internet on that while I have the problem with my desktop.

Adapter on desktop is Intel 82562V 10/100 Platform Lan connect. (is that what you meant?) also says driver provided by Microsoft. Driver version 9.6.8.0 Date 21/6/06

Thanks

[Laser]

Yes it is now connected with a network cable with a completely different modem that doesn't have wireless which still had the same problem. My computer is a desktop, Dimension E520 Dell. I have a laptop as well (which has never had a problem but I don't have it on very often) and it will work with my wireless modem and I can connect with the internet on that while I have the problem with my desktop.

Adapter on desktop is Intel 82562V 10/100 Platform Lan connect. (is that what you meant?) also says driver provided by Microsoft. Driver version 9.6.8.0 Date 21/6/06

Thanks

yes that is what i meant. it seems to me the problem is not with the networking hardware since both wireless and wired have the same issue. I noticed that there are several bios updates for that system and some dealt with wake on lan issues, so my guess is that your bios setup is configured to allow the system to turn off your network connections and it is just not 'waking up' properly.

You could enter setup and under the power or power management setting turn OFF the settings that allow turning the network devices off. You may also want to consider updating the bios if you have a very early version. There are detailed instructions on Dell's support site.

[taya74]

Thanks my Internet has just shut off 5 minutes ago so had to restart again so will try that now. I won't know for at least 2 days if it has worked.

[taya74]

Just had the problem again.

I have updated my BIOS, set my Power Management to the highest one but I can't see any option in the Bios to change the network devices off. There is a power management but it only had the following options:

AC Recovery
Auto power on
Auto Power time
Remote wake up
Quick Resume

None had anything about network devices. This problem has happened while I was in the middle of surfing the net, I clicked on one site and it was fine, clicked on a link about 10 seconds later and it came up with the error message and I couldn't connect and had to restart as usual.

I have also had this problem when I was downloading a large email, my connection stopped working as usual and my Internet wouldn't work but it actually finished downloading the large email first before giving me the usual error message with the email program.

[taya74]

I have updated my Intel 82562V 10/100 Platform drivers plus a few others from the Dell website and am now finding the problem occurring once a day instead of every couple of days.

Plus I have just noticed when the problem occurs, my printer also doesn't work (comes up with error message "The printer cannot communicate with the computer" but it is directly connected with a USB cable to my computer.

[keg38]

I am having this same problem. I am using windows vista ultimate x64. It started recently and I want to say either it has always been there or I only noticed it recently. I say recently because it happens while I am playing Packrat on face book.

I will be going back an forth in the browser and after a while I lose connectivity well at least partially. I cannot use any of the browsers,,, IE7, IE7 64 bit, Firefox or Apples Safari. They all give me various messages to the tune of I lost connection.

Interestingly enough though I still have connection to Trillian (Aim, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN) just nothing that uses a broswer.

I tried resetting the adapter, tried using the repair option and nothing works.
The only thing that works is a restart of my system.

The other thing is that my computer is connected through a switch and the other machine on the same switch running XP has no issues.

I found various articles relating to netsh, one suggested:
set global ecncapibility=enabled

that made it so that the problem was happening every 8 or so hours instead of 2. The only thing I can figure is that the I am somehow overwhelming the connection or some aspect of Vista with the paging back and forth within the application on facebook to play the game and it is crashing some networking component in Vista that can only be remedied via a restart,

Any thoughts or fixes would be great.

KEG

[taya74]

To KEG Try unchecking your TCP/IPv6. I have now unchecked the TCP/IPv6 on mine. I have been told this can cause a lot of problems in Vista. Since then I haven't had the usual problem I get (where it says I am connected when I am not and the only way to fix it is to restart my computer) but I have had a slightly different problem twice where I couldn't connect, it brings up an error message but instead of having to restart my computer to fix the problem, I have just had to switch off my modem or I went away and came back and it was ok. As it usually only happens every 2 days or so I still can't confidently say the whole problem is fixed but it is certainly better than what it was.

[taya74]

Unchecking the TCP/IPv6 has not fixed my problem, it just happened again. And I couldn't print again either so it must be connected somehow.