Internet connection Loss

[\1-SE\]

This is a weird one for me....
Internet connection loss.
Doesn't sound weird, I know, but here are the details thus far.

2 or three times a day.
No particular schedule, always seems to be different times.
Internet connection will be lost completely.
It will stay down for 5 min to 1 hour. Again, randomly.

While internet is down all network resources are still accessible.

No found spyware or virus on machine. I have done scans with multiple
software packages. All say 'it's clean'.
Windows XP SP3, IE6.

The machine is on a domain network with 15+ other machines it is the ONLY
one having this issue.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
A domain with 15 other computers might indicate a business setting.
If this is so checking with the IT people in charge would be a better idea
since it might be general system (Server, or Network) problem reflected in
your computer.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

 

[Malke]

This is a weird one for me....
Internet connection loss.
Doesn't sound weird, I know, but here are the details thus far.

2 or three times a day.
No particular schedule, always seems to be different times.
Internet connection will be lost completely.
It will stay down for 5 min to 1 hour. Again, randomly.

While internet is down all network resources are still accessible.

No found spyware or virus on machine. I have done scans with multiple
software packages. All say 'it's clean'.
Windows XP SP3, IE6.

The machine is on a domain network with 15+ other machines it is the ONLY
one having this issue.

In addition to Jack's good advice, there might be a physical (hardware)
problem with the network equipment (computer's network card, ethernet
cable, switch, etc.). So contact your IT Dept.

Malke

 

[\1-SE\]

LOL. I'm sorry I am the network admin, and yes it is a business.

 

[\1-SE\]

Good points, both of you, I'm sorry I wasn't more detailed. this is one of
my first postings to the 'Public' side of MS so I typically don't describe
that I am the network admin of the location, it's a given.
So... Yes I'm the network admin of this location it is a standard windows
2003 domain server environment.


New changes.
I recently went in and looked over ALL the settings in internet explorer and
found that some had changed. specifically ''Check for newer versions of
stored pages' was set to 'Every Visit' to the site. I changed this to be
'automatically' This has corrected many 'shopping cart' issues. We're still
having the disconnection issue from the internet. Here is the REALLY weird
thing... I CAN ping internet addresses when IE will not display them. Also
we are using a hosted exchange service and Outlook loses it's connections
during these times too.
I've not swapped out hardware but seems unlikely given the previous facts.
thoughts??

 

[Malke]

Good points, both of you, I'm sorry I wasn't more detailed. this is one of
my first postings to the 'Public' side of MS so I typically don't describe
that I am the network admin of the location, it's a given.
So... Yes I'm the network admin of this location it is a standard windows
2003 domain server environment.


New changes.
I recently went in and looked over ALL the settings in internet explorer
and found that some had changed. specifically ''Check for newer versions
of
stored pages' was set to 'Every Visit' to the site. I changed this to be
'automatically' This has corrected many 'shopping cart' issues. We're
still
having the disconnection issue from the internet. Here is the REALLY
weird thing... I CAN ping internet addresses when IE will not display
them. Also we are using a hosted exchange service and Outlook loses it's
connections during these times too.
I've not swapped out hardware but seems unlikely given the previous facts.
thoughts??

Never overlook hardware, bandwidth issues caused by failing/cheap hardware,
etc.

Malke

 

[\1-SE\]

OK, It's a built in NIC. The computers are all the same make and model all
purchased at the same time. I'll. put a PCI one in tomorrow and disable the
on board. and see. Still seems weird.
BTW: LOVE the speedy reply. Private side you have to wait 24 to 48 hours
between questions. And with the language barrier it can be brutal.

 

[usernameandpassword]

I'm right there with you on the internet loss. I have about 7 machines on my
home network and we have one laptop running vista with this very same
problem. The internet just stops. If you restart the machine, it will work
again. It's been down from 5 minutes to hours. We even tried other browsers
to no avail, on wired and wireless fromt eh same machine. Not sure what this
is but I'm beginning to think some sort of bug....maybe some update recently
ran through. All other networking and ping tests work.

 

[usernameandpassword]

My son tells me he updated the .NET framework and deleted Zonealarm and it
hasn't happened in a while. I don't believe it's zone alarm as we disabled
that in earlier tests.

Stay tuned

 

[\1-SE\]

Thank you this is the most promising feedback I've yet received.
I do have to say that I'm not dealing with Vista Or IE7. this is a XP SP3
with IE6. and we don't do automatic updates. This is a business environment
so all updates are tested before they're allowed to be deployed. If they're
not NEEDED for certain they're not deployed at all. We don't run any home
products (like zone alarm) at all and all local software firewalls are
disabled via group policy.

We have, recently, Disabled the onboard NIC and installed a PCI NIC. We
have also replaced the entire cable run from the machine back to the main
switch.

The weird part is that when this 'cut out' or 'internet connection loss'
occurs it only seems to effect viewing the internet. All websites can be
'pinged' from a command prompt and all network LAN resources as well as WAN
resources can be accessed. All networking on this machine seems to be
working.

A new note...

The internet pages can be pinged but wont display in IE. ALSO outlook will
not connect with the external exchange server.

 

[usernameandpassword]

I see we're not the only ones.....check out a few of the other threads. Seems
this is going around.

The .NET framework update still seems to be holding. Longest success so far.

 

[usernameandpassword]

Are you positive none of the 'forced' fixes recently provided by Microsoft
wasn't deployed on your network? I'm running XP SP3 and I'm pretty sure my
computer was force fed two or three in the last few weeks. I came out,
computer was restarted with that nice little box telling you they forced it
on the system because of a potential security flaw. We use Marimba at work
for deployment and my work computer (XPpro) was restarted a few times.

 

[\1-SE\]

Yes, I am certain it wasn't forced. We have updates disabled all together
unless we're actually pushing one out. This is the ONLY machine in the
environment having this issue though most all others are same install, same
hardware config purchased at same time.

 

[\1-SE\]

This issue has been corrected. Thanks to all who helped. We made two changes
simultaneously so we're not sure which one corrected the issue,
unfortunately.
The changes were disabling all the add-on's & Replacement of the cable and
the network card in for that machine.

Thank you again.