Internet Problem

I wonder if someone can please offer some advice.

One of my relatives is having an intermittent problem with a pc which looses internet connection. At such time the pc needs to be rebooted (sometimes twice) and then all is fine again for perhaps a day.

The ADSL itself is fine ie router is not rebooting or frozen. There is a Vonage ATA attached which works fine when the problematic pc looses internet connection.

I have made sure that there is no issue with the router or any other such hardware. As regards the problematic pc itself, I have also changed the wired NIC (Netgear FA311) changed the RJ45 cable leading to the router all to no avail.

The only possibility now is for some form of software corruption to exist on the pc itself and to this end have searched extensively and have compiled a hit list of items to look at.

1. Re-install driver for wired NIC
2. Repair the TCP/IP stack
3. Repair Winsock

As regards the 3 points list which I compiled above, does anyone have any ideas suggestions as to whether I should do all three. I have never been faced with this type of problem before and have never tried to repair either the TCP/IP stack or Winsock.

Any info much appreciated.

Cheers

How's the PC getting it's IP addy? Best to let router's DCHP dish them out.

Do an "IPCONFIG /all" when it works and when it doesn't.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 11-Feb-11 02:05:48)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

How's the PC getting it's IP addy? Best to let router's DCHP dish them out.

IP address is dished out by router.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Do an "IPCONFIG /all" when it works and when it doesn't.

Tricky as my relative is 80+ so even though I have written instructions for ipconfig /all already, I am working kinda with one hand tied behind my back trying to solve this.

Cheers

Just a thought or 2! I recently had similar problems but on my secondary wireless-ed laptop losing the Net haphazardly. Both down to the router.

1. Internet Gateway was running on main XP PC: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/dslrouter/t/3950339... . Solution: switch uPnP OFF on the router.
2. IPs went stale after 1 router day: bug in router firmware. Solution: Upgraded firmware.

What router and what's PC's OS?

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 11-Feb-11 03:08:20)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Just a thought or 2! I recently had similar problems but on my secondary wireless-ed laptop losing the Net haphazardly. Both down to the router.

1. Internet Gateway was running on main XP PC: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/dslrouter/t/3950339... . Solution: switch uPnP OFF on the router.
2. IPs went stale after 1 router day: bug in router firmware. Solution: Upgraded firmware.

What router and what's PC's OS?

XP SP1. DG834GT with DGTeam FW 1.02.16 rev 0848. An older FW which I run on my DG834GT and which on my system has been really solid with no issues.

The pc in question has never dropped the internet while I have been there but it looks perfectly normal no signs at all of any additional Network Connection of Internet Gateway (IG). upnp is on.

Cheers

XP SP1

really ? I should get the SP3 exe file on a CD and mail it to him.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

XP SP1

really ? I should get the SP3 exe file on a CD and mail it to him.

A bit behing the times but works ok and when I have time I will upgrade the SP.

One other point which may be of interest and which would (I think) rule out the router is that the problematic pc did the same thing prior to changing the router to a DG834GT.

I changed the router in the first instance to rule it out that possibility.

Any other thoughts or ideas much appreciated.

Cheers

Assign the PC a static IP address.

A bit behing the times but works ok

lots of security vulnerabilities though ?

diagnosis really needs data from when it's in the failed condition - like does it have an IP, can you ping the router, does nslookup work etc. You could remote access it while working and create some desktop shortcuts / batch files etc to test these things when it fails.

Does it have alternative browsers installed to check that out ?

In reply to a post by risk_reversal:

DG834GT with DGTeam FW 1.02.16 rev 0848.

Ah, both my problems were with the DG834GT. The DHCP 1 day stale problem was with FW v1.03.22 and fixed in v1.03.23 ( http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13321/... ). Perhaps it was also present in v1.02.16.

I do wonder why an old inexpert relative has need of DGTeam