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IT bods: Vista 'drops' internet connection!


RedM

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For some reason I've been using Vista a fair bit lately and, surprise, I've got a problem with it.

 

After about 30 minutes it drops my net connection BUT it still shows as connected! Rebooting is the only way to reconnect. Nothing happens. Pages don't load, can't send email etc etc. Vista can't diagnose a problem and pulling the cable and replacing doesn't work either.

 

I have a wired connection and I've changed the cable. No luck. Our other PC (XP based) can still access the web via our router.

 

I've looked at power management and it's set NOT to turn off anything to save power. I thought this might be it after finding many references to this on the web. I've also disabled IPv6 as suggested elsewhere. No joy.

 

Now I'm stumped. What else can I try?

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Windows 7 or Linux??

 

Not much help am I? ;)

 

LOL! I normally use Linux but for approx the last two months it has been very slow when browsing while Vista flies along. As most Linux browsers seem to be built around Firefox I'm guessing that is where the problem lies. Mind you, FF on Vista is very rapid.

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I've thought about it. Not sure if my laptop meets requirements. I'm going to download the latest drivers for everything over the weekend and then run the W7 upgrade advisor again.

 

TBH though I hate MS. I'd rather buy an Apple and not eat for months than buy an MS OS.

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If your laptop runs Vista it will definitely run Windows 7, it is a lot less resource hungry. It is also compatible with a lot more programs and doesn't have the same annoying confirm the confirmed confirmation boxes.

 

Onto your problem... My Wife had the same problem with her laptop, it was a wireless connection though. Every now and again it would drop connection, and wouldn't come back until she either re-booted or disabled/enabled the device again. We didn't really get to the root cause of the problem but it seemed to be driver related. I re-formatted her laptop with vista ultimate (as opposed to Home that was on there) and in doing so I installed all the latest drivers. This cured the problem and she has had no issues since.

 

If you can get your hands on a copy of Win 7 you could try it out for 30 days to see if you fancy it? You could then go "legit" if you so wish :)

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I've thought about it. Not sure if my laptop meets requirements. I'm going to download the latest drivers for everything over the weekend and then run the W7 upgrade advisor again.

 

TBH though I hate MS. I'd rather buy an Apple and not eat for months than buy an MS OS.

 

If you can run Vista, then you can install Win7. Your only issue will be with drivers and as they share the same kernel, that should be trivial to overcome.

 

With regard to the original issue, is it an ethernet connection to a router or USB to a modem?

 

Have you installed all the patches/hot fixes?

 

If it's ethernet, have you downloaded and installed up to date NIC drivers? What router are you using and have you upgraded the firmware?

 

Can you get hold of another router/modem to swap out as a test? If using a router, can you get someone to plug in a different PC/laptop whilst you're using yours to see if they both drop at the same time?

 

That should keep you occupied for a while (or, possibly, I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs) ;)

 

K.

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Check the NIC's properties in Device Mangler (press Win & Pause/Break keys) and see if "Turn off to save power after 30mins" or somesuch like that is enabled (I forget the wording but you should be able to find it)

 

Also maybe check if a different driver version is available on the net.

 

BTW, Vista sucks.

 

 

 

------------------------------

ETA:

Just checked my system, in w7 it's "Allow computer to turn off device to save power". VistArse will be something similar.

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I'd seriously recommend Win7 (and this is coming from an open source guy), win7 is much more finished compared to Vista. I've only had one app so far that didn't run as totally expected in win7 and that was virtualbox. (And it was an RC release of win7)

 

:yeahthat: I had vista from start and it was total poo from the start. 7 Iv had no problems with!

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I have already:

 

tried a different router,

installed my Netgear DG834g v2 latest firmware,

turned off power saving.

 

One thing I haven't done is update any hardware drivers bar my gfx card. I erm... figured that if they are working fine then I can't see any real need to update them. Of course, a Windows update may have 'broken' them. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

 

In the meantime I've been told to check the Internet Connection Sharing is off and also to disable WUAUCLT.exe.

 

I can't believe that I'm actually wanting this to work. That's how slow FF is running in Linux that it's driven me to Vista!

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I have already:

 

tried a different router,

installed my Netgear DG834g v2 latest firmware,

turned off power saving.

 

One thing I haven't done is update any hardware drivers bar my gfx card. I erm... figured that if they are working fine then I can't see any real need to update them. Of course, a Windows update may have 'broken' them. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

 

In the meantime I've been told to check the Internet Connection Sharing is off and also to disable WUAUCLT.exe.

 

I can't believe that I'm actually wanting this to work. That's how slow FF is running in Linux that it's driven me to Vista!

 

Thats a bad day.

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Okay here we go...

 

* Internet access works fine on your other machines while the Vista goes down, eliminates the router.

 

* When it does disconnect, have you tried pinging your router? website like say BBC or pinging your gateway?

 

* I'd say the problem could be due to the network card, either a driver issue or maybe a hardware fault.

 

* Well Oct 13 MS did release a shit load of updates, I take its been happening before than?

 

I am sure you have covered all the bases but just thought I'd double check with you.

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Vaguely remember an XP Laptop in with similar prob., corrupt TCP/IP stack - try to rebuild

here http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5109840.html

 

This is also a very valid point. I had similar issue with a HP4010 & as we had to get the fee earner up and

running quickly I did a system restore which fixed the issue. We also put it down to a corrupt TCP/IP Stack issue.

 

Are you connecting via a static IP Address or using DHCP from the router?

 

Keep us updated after the driver update.

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Vaguely remember an XP Laptop in with similar prob., corrupt TCP/IP stack - try to rebuild

here http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5109840.html

 

Good work that man. I did some Googling and pretty much every site described a corrupt stack as causing identical problems to mine.

 

I'm on Vista right now (Linux, even with FF 3.5 was running like a one-legged dog. Need to fix that next) and I'm giving it an hour. If it fails before then I'm calling it quits for today.

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Your network card will have an IP address. This is either

 

static - You have told the network adapter the IP address you want to use and it stays the same.

Dynamic via DHCP - Your router gives your network card the ip address everytime it connects. Its usually the same one each time.

 

I doubt that would be the issue though. You could try a static IP to see if that helps.

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