General Ping Failure driving me INSANE ... help?

[Maverick2002]

I'm getting a 'general ping failure' when doing a recurring ping about every half hour. In other words, every ~30 minutes or so my internet completely craps out for a few seconds. This is ok if you're just browsing, but if you're gaming or streaming it kills it. I looked online but wasn't able to find a solution based on my situation. I have a single modem/router (both in one) and am connected through a network cable. I read something about possible ipv4/6 conflicts, but I'm not sure if that's what it is. Any ideas/resources/thoughts on how to fix this?

TIA

 

[Comblues]

Sounds like you have an IP Address Conflict.

If the conflict is on your local network then find the device with the Mac or perhaps your own Mac and probably switch to DHCP.

If the conflict is with the IP assigned by your ISP then report the problem to your upstream provider.

If you get the message on your machine then the conflict is with your local machine.

Comblues

 

[Maverick2002]

It's a PC, Windows 7, and I'm already using DHCP.

I have turned on network discovery, so we'll see if that fixes it. I also have both ipv4 and 6 enabled, is that correct? I haven't had this problem until I got a new router, so I'm wondering if that's the issue.

Any settings on the router I should look at? This is the router that was provided by my ISP if that helps: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825122014&Tpk=sbg6580&IsVirtualParent=1

Motorola SBG6580

 

[Comblues]

You can always statically assign an IP address from the assigned range and use it.

You then need to configure your DHCP server to exclude the IP you used.

Don't forget you need to use the correct DNS settings too.


Comblues.

 

[Gryz]

Is your PC the only device in your home ? (The only device on your home-LAN, except the router of course). If not, try (for a few hours) with everything disconnected, except your PC.

If it re-occurs, with only your PC connected, then the problem is either:
1) your PC
2) your router
3) your ISP

You can test 1) by attaching another device, and shutting down your PC. A laptop (from work), or a tablet, anything that can do pings. Do you see the same problems with another device ? Yes -> problem is your router or your ISP, No -> problem is your PC.

Do you see the problem with the pings when pinging through your router, to something on the Internet ? Or do you also see the problem when pinging to your router itself ?

Do a traceroute (tracert -d in a dosbox) to somewhere on the Internet. The first IP address you see is the IP address of your homerouter. The second you see is the IP address of your ISP's cable router. When you ping those 2 IP addresses, do you see the problem every half hour too ?

You need to be systematic to find the exact location of the problem. Only then can you find the exact cause of the problem. This is basic trouble-shooting strategy.

If you don't trust the router, you can try and find a forum that discusses the type or brand of routers. The vendor (Motorola) might have one. Or your ISP might have a forum for its customers. Or there might be a newsgroup. If indeed it's a generic flaw in your router, I am sure others have ran into it already.

You might also try to upgrade the firmware of your router to the latest version. Won't hurt.

Basic steps. Otherwise it will be just wild guessing.

 

[serpretetsky]

General ping failure is pretty cryptic, but it's not the usual message you get when there is some sort of connection issue when your pc is fine.

Typical errors are:
1) Request timed out (your pc sent a packet a got nothing back)
2) Destination host unreachable (your pc doesn't know how to get to the address)
3) Could not find host <domain> (The DNS system can't resolve that domain name)

General failures generally are something wrong on your local computer. This is kind of strange that this error came up when you got a new router.

Along with what others have suggested, try running alongside your regular ping a ping to 127.0.0.1 (this is your localhost, in otherwords its the same computer your pinging from).

If your computer fails to ping that address when you lose internet I would say there is something funky going on with your computer. Otherwise I'm still not sure, could still be anything.

also see the following article
http://www.corenetworkz.com/2011/08/ping-transmit-failed-general-failure.html