workstation loses internet connectivity after X hours

[srsanborn]

i have a small home network setup, three computers sharing DSL through a netgear router. one workstation is connected directly to the router, while the other 2 connect thru a hub which goes to the router. my problem is this: the computer that is direct to router works fine. one of the hub workstations works fine. but one of the hub workstations (the primary one, unfortunately) loses internet connectivity after a certain number of hours, which i have estimated to be between 3-5 hours of uptime.

however, the internet loss is not total - a few domains can still be loaded and email can be checked from one of my POP servers (different accounts, however, time out), so it almost seems as though the computer is accessing the internet thru a crippled DNS server (since a handful of domains = OK, but most = NOT).

this has not been a problem until the last week or so. previously, the whole network was up and running fine. no noticeable software/hardware changes have taken place around the time that the problems started.

does anyone have any clue what may be causing this? everything is fine after a reboot, until another X hours pass, and the behaviour repeats. i've tried plugging the troublesome workstation into a different hub port, plugged the hub into a different router port, and changed the cable running from the troublesome workstation to the hub. full DHCP is on, network settings are appropriate (as mentioned above, the whole network was working fine up until a week or so ago). any ideas, anyone? thanks!

 

[mastertech01]

Brother I have a Netgear RT314 and with 2 machines it worked flawlessly, but its been pure hell keeping all my machines connected since I added 4 more machines. I have tried new network cards, cables, an additional switch.. just no luck. Im going to try another router, as I just dont think the Netgear will cut it.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Could be the IP stack getting fubarred on that 1 machine, have you tried removing tcp/ip, rebooting and re-intalling tcp/ip?, this will clear the stack. It may also be an issue with the os, some of the beta's of Win2k had a registry hack that set a network timeout, I wish I could tell you how to fix it, but I can't remember where the fix was supposed to be done. all I remember is you had to set the timeout data to some ungoddly high number to get it to stop dropping off the network. Those sites that appear to be working may be cached sites, and just appear to be working, if you hit refresh, do the pages load?

 

[rayster]

Have you tried pinging and tracerouting one of the addresses that don't work? That should tell you something right away. The ping will show whether or not DNS is resolving the name to an IP address. If it is, the traceroute should show you where the communication is failing.

 

[ScottMac]

Check your NIC properties. Many of the newer drivers come with the option enabled to allow the computer to shut down the NIC to save power.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[srsanborn]

lobadobadingdong: Sites aren't cached - I can also connect to a particular POP server as well to retrieve mail, so I know there's *some* life to the connection. In re: uninstalling/reinstalling TCP/IP, is this done some other way than going to the LAN connection properties page? When I go to there for the proper LAN connection, uninstall TCP/IP is unavailable (unlike QoS, File/Print Sharing et. al).

Is there a different way to disable TCP/IP for this device? Shall I just remove the entire device from my hardware profile, to have windows pick it up on another plug&play scan? Or even physically remove the network card, reboot without it, then reboot with it again? Would either of these methods yield the same results you suggested?