Losing Network Connection

[Guest]

I was running XP Home SP2 and had no issues. I ran an upgrade to XP Pro SP2
and now have an issue with my network connectivity. If my p.c. sits idle for
an extended period, lets say 4 hours, I can no loger connect to the internet
or mail server.
The p.c. is connected to a D-Link 604 router via ethernet, the router is
connected to a Motorola SB5100 modem via ethernet. The modem shows it is
on-line and connected, the leds for the WAN/LAN ports show activity. The NIC
is available an shows "connected" but I am locked out. I have XP firewall
disabled and have Zone Alarm and Norton virus scan running. I don't have to
boot the modem or the router to re-connect, I only have to boot the p.c. The
IP is obtained dynamic with the modem and the router has a radio button
checekd for DHCP.

The part that is frustrating is that XP Home SP2 had no issues at all
formonths with this hardware before I upgraded to Pro SP2. I checked an
there is not a firmware update for the router. A second p.c. connected to
the router running ME does not have connectivity issues. Any ideas? Thank
you.

 

[Chuck]

I was running XP Home SP2 and had no issues. I ran an upgrade to XP Pro SP2
and now have an issue with my network connectivity. If my p.c. sits idle for
an extended period, lets say 4 hours, I can no loger connect to the internet
or mail server.
The p.c. is connected to a D-Link 604 router via ethernet, the router is
connected to a Motorola SB5100 modem via ethernet. The modem shows it is
on-line and connected, the leds for the WAN/LAN ports show activity. The NIC
is available an shows "connected" but I am locked out. I have XP firewall
disabled and have Zone Alarm and Norton virus scan running. I don't have to
boot the modem or the router to re-connect, I only have to boot the p.c. The
IP is obtained dynamic with the modem and the router has a radio button
checekd for DHCP.

The part that is frustrating is that XP Home SP2 had no issues at all
formonths with this hardware before I upgraded to Pro SP2. I checked an
there is not a firmware update for the router. A second p.c. connected to
the router running ME does not have connectivity issues. Any ideas? Thank
you.

Instead of booting the problem computer, see if these two commands, entered in
this sequence, make a difference:
"ipconfig /release"
"ipconfig /renew"

Check power settings for the network card. Are you allowing the system to turn
the network card off to save power?

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Guest]

Instead of booting the problem computer, see if these two commands, entered in
this sequence, make a difference:
"ipconfig /release"
"ipconfig /renew"

Check power settings for the network card. Are you allowing the system to turn
the network card off to save power?

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

Thank you for the time. I do power management "off" for the device so it
should be allowed to turn off. This is te same cared (intel pro 100) that
was happy in Xp Home. I did a release & renew without booting and it did
refresh the connection and re-establish connectivity. In event viewer I have
noticed a couple times where DHCP failed to optain an I.P. I've just cleared
to the log to track it fresh. In the event log I see where messenger times
out for DCOM but I don't use messenger at all.

 

[Chuck]

Thank you for the time. I do power management "off" for the device so it
should be allowed to turn off. This is te same cared (intel pro 100) that
was happy in Xp Home. I did a release & renew without booting and it did
refresh the connection and re-establish connectivity. In event viewer I have
noticed a couple times where DHCP failed to optain an I.P. I've just cleared
to the log to track it fresh. In the event log I see where messenger times
out for DCOM but I don't use messenger at all.

Do you have the most current XP compatible drivers for the card? Does the
router have the most current firmware?

Can you use another (preferably known good) cable / router port?

You don't use Messenger (MSN Messenger? Windows Messenger? Messenger Service? -
what's the exact text of the message?)? Or you don't have Messenger started?
Check your running applications. MSN / Windows Messenger comes installed, and
may be started, by default.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Guest]

Do you have the most current XP compatible drivers for the card? Does the
router have the most current firmware?

Can you use another (preferably known good) cable / router port?

You don't use Messenger (MSN Messenger? Windows Messenger? Messenger Service? -
what's the exact text of the message?)? Or you don't have Messenger started?
Check your running applications. MSN / Windows Messenger comes installed, and
may be started, by default.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

Thank you again for the info and time. I did see there was a driver for the
NIC posted mid-month, so i picked that up. I will also change the LAN port
the p.c. is using on the router. I did check and I'm at the most current
firmware version on the router and I don't even see any firmware on the
motorola site for the SB5100.

The messenger I was refering to was MS Messenger the instant messaging
client that is so great?? The event log was still free of errors since I
cleared it earlier.

I'll post back tomorrow after the p.c. is up all night. I'll post back it
it was up, if it wasn't I'll post any errors in the even log. Thanks again
fo your time.

 

[Guest]

Thank you again for the info and time. I did see there was a driver for the
NIC posted mid-month, so i picked that up. I will also change the LAN port
the p.c. is using on the router. I did check and I'm at the most current
firmware version on the router and I don't even see any firmware on the
motorola site for the SB5100.

The messenger I was refering to was MS Messenger the instant messaging
client that is so great?? The event log was still free of errors since I
cleared it earlier.

I'll post back tomorrow after the p.c. is up all night. I'll post back it
it was up, if it wasn't I'll post any errors in the even log. Thanks again
fo your time.

Well, no such luck. I still lose the connection. Very frustrating indeed.
Especially since the entire set-up hardware/cables/ports.... are the exact
same that has no issues with Xp Home SP2.

So on a different avenue. Do you suppose this could be software related? I
have added 2 software packages that are working without issues. But do you
suppose one of these could be tripping Norton to block the ports? I am
running Zone Alarm (free) and Norton systemworks 2005 (were previously
Installed). The software I added is Secure Connect (a VPN Client) I have no
issues connecting to the VPN through Norton and Zone Alarm when I use it
though. The other piece is just a GUI app to connect to my remote machine.
It's Client Express from IBM.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks agni for the tmie.

 

[Bobo]

Any thoughts on this? Thanks agni for the tmie.

My thought is that I have a similar issue but it is with WinXP Home.
System goes idle or certain connections are not used and they die and
refuse to come back. Network is still up, other components still work,
reboot required to get connection back.

The problems are not there on the same clients when they run win2k.
It's an XP issue. If you do a search here you will find a lot of
similar posts about XP. Something is timing out... I haven't found any
posts yet that detail what the solution is.

 

[Guest]

My thought is that I have a similar issue but it is with WinXP Home.
System goes idle or certain connections are not used and they die and
refuse to come back. Network is still up, other components still work,
reboot required to get connection back.

The problems are not there on the same clients when they run win2k.
It's an XP issue. If you do a search here you will find a lot of
similar posts about XP. Something is timing out... I haven't found any
posts yet that detail what the solution is.

I do see the other posts, makes one wonder just what the heck is causing it.
I'll keep trying to find things. I'm going to dig into Norton a little
further to see if it blocking a worm threat that isn't real. Unfortunatly I
put Norton 2005 on right after the upgrade to Pro. But everything works just
fine as long as I'm doing something. I've even set Outlook to check messages
every 1 minute hoping that would keep it alive and that didn't work either.

 

[Bobo]

I do see the other posts, makes one wonder just what the heck is causing it.
I'll keep trying to find things. I'm going to dig into Norton a little
further to see if it blocking a worm threat that isn't real. Unfortunatly I
put Norton 2005 on right after the upgrade to Pro. But everything works just
fine as long as I'm doing something. I've even set Outlook to check messages
every 1 minute hoping that would keep it alive and that didn't work either.

I am convinced there is something in XP that times out from inactivity
since I see so many posts in here on it. Combined with the other
symptoms (other network features still operating), reboot fixes the
problems, it seems like there's no question it's software. I also have
Zone Alarm running so perhaps that is suspect but I see nothing to
indicate that it is the issue. Perhaps I'll try removing it... it's
only really there as an outbound filter for me.

Do your local drive connections (mapped drives) still work when IP
stops? Can you ping anything or lookup anything in DNS?

 

[Guest]

I am convinced there is something in XP that times out from inactivity
since I see so many posts in here on it. Combined with the other
symptoms (other network features still operating), reboot fixes the
problems, it seems like there's no question it's software. I also have
Zone Alarm running so perhaps that is suspect but I see nothing to
indicate that it is the issue. Perhaps I'll try removing it... it's
only really there as an outbound filter for me.

Do your local drive connections (mapped drives) still work when IP
stops? Can you ping anything or lookup anything in DNS?

I didn't try to ping anything besides my router and it came back ok. I made
one tweak to Zone Alarm that cured the sympton, at least for a day anyway.
I've not dropped off since I chnaged it on Friday. I still don't know if
I've completely blown a hold in the protection I was getting from ZA, but I
still get program requests so I know it's not wide open. Hopefully I don't
find out the hard way that I've annoced myself to the world with the tweak.
I am still behind a router with a firewall, so hopefully that is some
protection. If the connection does't die again, I'll add windows firewall
back in as well because honestly, I don't know the ramifications of the
settings adjustment I've made.

Again though, this has only worked for a day now, but it's the longest I've
been able to hold a connection since my uprade. In ZA, I found my NIC in the
Internet zone. I moved it to the trusted zone and rebooted. 1 day and
coutning without dropping off . BUT, I don't know what I could have done to
theprotection level ZA was providing my doing this. I'll post back in a day
or so with an update.

 

[Bobo]

I'll add windows firewall
back in as well because honestly, I don't know the ramifications of the
settings adjustment I've made.

Don't run two firewalls. Pick one. I like ZA personally.

in ZA, I found my NIC in the
Internet zone. I moved it to the trusted zone and rebooted.

Where is this option ?

 

[Bobo]

Where is this option ?

BTW - I tried shutting off Zone Alarm when the problem occurred.
It cured the problem. I am keeping it off and will see if the problem
comes up today.

Bob

 

[Guest]

BTW - I tried shutting off Zone Alarm when the problem occurred.
It cured the problem. I am keeping it off and will see if the problem
comes up today.

Bob

I am still having good results with the tweak. I can leave my box on as long
as I want again and service is always available. I found my NIC in the zones
setting for under the firewall (left side menu option). Selected the
"Zones" tab and that is where my NIC was defined iin the internet zone. I
moved it to the trusted zone and I'm back to a stable DHCP connection for as
long as I leave the box up. So it definetly cured my ills. Now......whether
r not it was the right thing to do is an entirely differnt issue. Good luck!

 

[Guest]

The solution from Twodsne worked for me since I was also using the ZoneAlarm
firewall.