My laptop is driving me insane...

[Charles Kozierok]

I've got this fairly old laptop.. Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, Windows Vista (ugh).

It mostly works okay (though slowly), but every few hours the Internet connectivity stops working. The connection is still there, but I can't load anything on my browser.

At first I thought it was the DNS flaking out, but I can actually ping sites.

I've tried resetting the wireless, using Google DNS, using different browsers, connecting to different access points, and anything else I can think of.. but the only thing that fixes this is a full reboot. Annoying as heck, as you can imagine.

If anyone here can help me fix this, you'll be my hero.

 

[kevnich2]

I've got this fairly old laptop.. Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, Windows Vista (ugh).

It mostly works okay (though slowly), but every few hours the Internet connectivity stops working. The connection is still there, but I can't load anything on my browser.

At first I thought it was the DNS flaking out, but I can actually ping sites.

I've tried resetting the wireless, using Google DNS, using different browsers, connecting to different access points, and anything else I can think of.. but the only thing that fixes this is a full reboot. Annoying as heck, as you can imagine.

If anyone here can help me fix this, you'll be my hero.

So when internet stops working - you can ping sites? What exactly are you pinging (4.2.2.1 or another IP address or a FQDN such as google.com)? Also - are you running any security/antivirus software and if so what?

More than likely if you are using google dns and are able to ping google.com when internet stops, you either have virus/security software that's corrupted itself leaving your internet unusable or you have a virus/malware on your laptop that's causing similar things.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

I can ping arbitrary sites. And it only does this after the machine has been online for a few hours.

My kids use it a lot so a malware scan would be a good idea, thanks. But I think it's something else.

 

[JackMDS]

Just to make sure, when this occurs try first to connect with the browser to your Router's menu system.

If it work OK, then it is probably an issue from the Router onto the Internet, or local DNS problem.

If it is troublesome than it is from the Router inward.

Next step I would try to connect the Laptop via cable to the Router to bypass the Wireless.

If the trouble occurs with wire too, then it is probably core OS problem, it might be a Good time to reformat and upgrade the OS, Core2 with 2GB of RAM should work well with Win 7.
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If you suspect "Junk" related problem.

Download Security Essentials from Microsoft.

Make a Boot CD/USB and scan from Boot to check and clean the HD content.

You can also try to uninstall all 3rd party security apps (many times they end up corrupting the TCP/IP stack), clean after them, and install the free Security Essential from Microsoft.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download