Internet Stops working after Idle Time

[bigal40]

I recently upgraded the hard drive in my laptop to the Hitachi E7k60. I did not ghost my old disk to the new one; I just reinstalled windows using the restore disk that came with the computer. Since doing this I have noticed that after the computer sits idle for about 3 hours the internet stops working and the only way to get it to start working again is to restart. The same thing happens after sitting in standby mode or hibernation mode for more than about 3 hours. (again to get it to work I have to do a full shutdown and restart). This computer is connected to the internet wirelessly with a D-Link DI-524 router. By saying the internet doesn?t work I mean FF and IE are not able to load any pages, I cannot ping any websites, and I can't access my POP3 email using Outlook Express. However, I am able to ping the router, ping my desktop (hardwired to router), and access files on the desktop. The desktop does not lose its internet and the laptop has no trouble connecting to the wireless network, so I am kind of ruling out the router as the problem. I have run the winsock-fix.exe thing and it did not help.

 

[tweekah]

Next time that happens try pinging websites by ip (yahoo-66.94.230.75). Seems you have no problem getting to router/desktop because you're using the direct ip.

If you can ping yahoo by ip. Try to release/renew in command prompt to see if you surf again w/o rebooting. Sounds like it may be a DNS issue which may be solved by hard coding DNS to the tcp/ip settings. Good luck, check back and fill us in.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: tweekah
Next time that happens try pinging websites by ip (yahoo-66.94.230.75). Seems you have no problem getting to router/desktop because you're using the direct ip.

If you can ping yahoo by ip. Try to release/renew in command prompt to see if you surf again w/o rebooting. Sounds like it may be a DNS issue which may be solved by hard coding DNS to the tcp/ip settings. Good luck, check back and fill us in.

Thanks fo rthe reply, next time It happens I'll try pinging by ip. It's kind off bad because everytime i try to fix it I have to let it sit for like 3 or 4 hours to see if it worked.🙂

Also is the release/renew commend the same thing as the repair thing in the wireless conection window? I have done the "repair and that doesn't help.
What is the release/renew commend for the command prompt.

 

[tweekah]

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

I think the repair does a release and renew. Since you did the repair and that didn't work. You can try to disable then enable your wireless adapter in "network connections" which is in the control panel. But try to ping yahoo by ip first next time this happens before the disable/enable thing.

 

[bigal40]

Ok, I tried pinging yahoo with their ip adress and it worked. Then I enabled/disabled the wireless adapter but that didn't help and neither did the release/renew command.

 

[Markbnj]

Ok, if you have IP connectivity outside, then it has to be name resolution. Is your router set up as a DHCP server to your client machines? Make sure that the TCP/IP properties of the network adapter are set to "Obtain xxx automatically" where xxx is IP address and name server information. I assume this is working since you have an IP address, but maybe the DNS part is configured wrong.

Try doing nslookup www.yahoo.com at a command prompt and tell us what it says in detail. It should report your router ip as the DNS server address, and then give a "nonauthoritative answer" that contains the IP addresses used by that server.

Also check the router admin page, wan settings, and see what DNS server it is set up to use. It should be getting that from your ISP's upstream DHCP server.

 

[bigal40]

Is your router set up as a DHCP server to your client machines?

I don't know how would I find this out

Make sure that the TCP/IP properties of the network adapter are set to "Obtain xxx automatically" where xxx is IP address and name server information.

done

Try doing nslookup www.yahoo.com at a command prompt and tell us what it says in detail. It should report your router ip as the DNS server address, and then give a "nonauthoritative answer" that contains the IP addresses used by that server.

****Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.1 - non existent domain
****Default servers are not available
Non-authorative answer
name: www.yahoo.akadns.com
addresses: 216.109.118.79, 216.109.117.108, 216.109.117.204, 216.109.118.64, 216.109.118.67, 216.109.118.73, 216.109.118.75, 216.109.118.77
aliases: www.yahoo.com

I did the above while the internet was working if that makes a difference.

Also check the router admin page, wan settings, and see what DNS server it is set up to use. It should be getting that from your ISP's upstream DHCP server.

The router is set to Dynamic PPPoE, so the primary dns address and secondary dns address are grayed out and say 0.0.0.0

 

[Markbnj]

I don't know how would I find this out

I think the answer is yes, given that the nslookup worked. And yes it does make a difference that it worked while the Internet was working for you. It would be interesting to see the result when it isn't working.

Next time it isn't working, look at the system tray in the bottom right of the screen, and see if there is an icon there with the tooltip "Acquiring internet address."

 

[MrPickins]

Do you use ZoneAlarm?

If so:
I had the exact same problem with my latest pc build, and was tearing my hair out. I thought the only way to fix it was to reboot, but then I realized that closing ZA worked every time.
On the zonelabs forum, it was suggested that I put my DNS server's IP in the Trusted Zone. Problem solved.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
Do you use ZoneAlarm?

If so:
I had the exact same problem with my latest pc build, and was tearing my hair out. I thought the only way to fix it was to reboot, but then I realized that closing ZA worked every time.
On the zonelabs forum, it was suggested that I put my DNS server's IP in the Trusted Zone. Problem solved.

I am using Zone Alarm. I will have to try shutting it down to see if that helps.
Where can I find my DNS servers IP address to put in the Trusted Zone?

EDIT: nevermind i found it

 

[tweekah]

That would have been my next question, if you had a software firewall. Seems like you'll have the problem solved and can stick a fork in it!