Cable internet connection problems

[Guest]

Ok here is my problem, I have cable internet with two computers hooked up by
a router. One computer is always connected like it should be while the other
computer will always disconnect from the internet all of a sudden. I have to
restart to get it connected again. They both have Windows XP home edition.
And it has been going on even before I installed SP2. This has been going on
for months now and nobody I know has any idea what it could be. Are there any
programs or anything that I may have on the computer that would cause this or
something?

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Ok here is my problem, I have cable internet with two computers hooked up by
a router. One computer is always connected like it should be while the other
computer will always disconnect from the internet all of a sudden. I have to
restart to get it connected again. They both have Windows XP home edition.
And it has been going on even before I installed SP2. This has been going on
for months now and nobody I know has any idea what it could be. Are there any
programs or anything that I may have on the computer that would cause this or
something?

Weston,

please use http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm to solve this
problem.

If the web page does not lead you to the solution, please copy
the selections line underneath the form and post it with your
reply here.

Hans-Georg

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

I assume that the router is a NAT internet router. If one system is
connecting flawlessly 100% of the time and the other works most of the
time, but with intermittent glitches, I would suspect a hardware
(rather than software) problem. I would test by substitution. First
switch the sockets on the router that the two systems are plugged
into, then switch cables, then (if possible) try replacing the Network
Card in the problem system with a known good one. I will be surprised
if one of these manoeuvres does not locate or solve the problem.

Ok here is my problem, I have cable internet with two computers hooked up by
a router. One computer is always connected like it should be while the other
computer will always disconnect from the internet all of a sudden. I have to
restart to get it connected again. They both have Windows XP home edition.
And it has been going on even before I installed SP2. This has been going on
for months now and nobody I know has any idea what it could be. Are there any
programs or anything that I may have on the computer that would cause this or
something?

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Guest]

I have tried to change network cards, and switching the cables on the router
but that doesnt work either. By the way The router is a Lynksys model #
BEFSR41.

 

[Guest]

Here is the selections line.... Selections: sporadic=1 ip=1
third_party_firewall=1

At first I thought that the firewall program I have could be causing this
but even with it (Zonealarm Pro) shut totally off it still does it. I also
have ran WinsockXPFix and lspfix thinking that they could fix it that fails
to work as well.

 

[Guest]

Look at a recent post labeled "disconnects" by "ed" This is almost the same
problem that I have been having, with the same exact router and everything!!!!

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

You say you have switched the cables on the router, but have you
actually run system 1 via cable 2, and vice versa? If the cables are
running through walls and/or to/from wall sockets, it may be more
practical to do this by physically swapping the locations of the two
systems than by moving the cables themselves.

The other thing to check, if you haven't already, is that the
networking settings on the two systems are identical, and that they
are either (preferably) both set to "Obtain IP Address Automatically"
or each set to different IP addresses in the same "Local Use Only"
range - most likely 192.168.0.xxx.

I have tried to change network cards, and switching the cables on the router
but that doesnt work either. By the way The router is a Lynksys model #
BEFSR41.

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

I (and others) have seen the problem he is describing with bad power
to a separate network switch, and I would imagine that it can also
occur with a cable router. Some switches seem to be rather sensitive
to very transient outages - even the switching time of a UPS may be
too long for them to hold up the connection. He appears just to be
getting self-terminating connection glitches, which are typical of
this problem - you say you have to restart in order to reconnect.
Also, if your problem was bad power to the router, it should affect
both system equally.

Look at a recent post labeled "disconnects" by "ed" This is almost the same
problem that I have been having, with the same exact router and everything!!!!

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Here is the selections line.... Selections: sporadic=1 ip=1
third_party_firewall=1

At first I thought that the firewall program I have could be causing this
but even with it (Zonealarm Pro) shut totally off it still does it. I also
have ran WinsockXPFix and lspfix thinking that they could fix it that fails
to work as well.

Weston,

thank you very much for posting the selections line.

First of all, I have to mention that I see an inordinate number
of posts in the newsgroups from people running Linksys hardware.
I don't know exactly what that means, but it's conspicuous.

Apart from that, the next two points that come to mind are
these.

1. There have been repeated complaints about a very similar
symptom, but so far only in connection with wireless networks.
(Hence the web page didn't bring it up in your case.) It was
solved by upgrading the router firmware (or in some cases by
upgrading the network adapter driver, but the web page already
recommended that to you). I think you should try that anyway,
because it could be that wired networks are also affected. And
installing the most recent firmware version is a good idea
anyway.

2. You may have to uninstall Zone Alarm entirely, at least for a
test. You hardly need it, given that the router has a firewall
and NAT (Network Address Translation) and Windows XP also has a
simple firewall built in.

If one of these two doesn't hit the point, please reply again.

Hans-Georg

 

[Budget Print Center]

fwiw.. i had similar problems with same router and tried all of the fixes at
that sie as well as some others with a wired connection. what wound up
being the problem was the cable connection to the house was twisted just
enough to cause sporadic interference strong enough to make the cable modem
drop the connection. not a big problem before sp2 but became major after the
upgrade.

new cable end fixed it and havent dropped or failed connectivity in the 2
months since...

 

[Chuck]

I have tried to change network cards, and switching the cables on the router
but that doesnt work either. By the way The router is a Lynksys model #
BEFSR41.

The Linksys BEFSR41 is known for having a problematic power supply, which can
cause exactly the problems you're describing.

The symptoms include temporary or permanent loss of connectivity, by one or more
(not always all) computers on the LAN. Two to three times / week, I had to
reboot my BEFSR41. I added a paper clip to my toolkit, and kept it handy. Very
annoying.

After reading many posts in the BBR Linksys forum
<http://www.dslreports.com/forum/linksys>, I found the Linksys power supply
replacement program (somewhere on the Linksys website), and they sent me a new
power supply, free. Oddly enough, this solved the problem. I ran the SR41 for
the next 6 months, without rebooting, until I replaced it with a BEFSX41.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Ed.]

See my thread on disconnects. I posted my recent try at fixing my problem
and it seems to be working. Linksys support had me change my default IP
Address of the router from 192.168.1.1 to 10.10.10.1. They said it would
prevent conflict between the router and the modem.

So far it has been about 16 hrs and have been online all this time without a
disconnect. Usually I can be disconnected within ten minutes and up to 8
hrs.

I also downgraded my firmware from 1.46.2 dated Aug. 2004 down to 1.44.7
dated April 2002 as I saw posts on DSLreports forums that this one was more
stable. I did find before changing IP Address that with this firmware I only
got disconnected once a day as opposed to more then a dozen times a day with
the 1.46.2 dated Aug. 2004. Now with this and the IP Address change it has
been over 16 hrs so far and not disconnected. Hopefully it will continue.

Ed.