World's strangest networking problem

[Carrot44]

Once in a while my internet will just drop. Actually every two hours or so. But only parts of it. Web will be down as well as e-mail but my weather program works and so does some other things like my antivirus auto update also I can ping any site.

The big strange problem is the computer that is networked off of me still has full access to the internet.

Am running Windows XP with cable modem (comcast) and two nic cards both Linksys. I have replaced them to no avail. Use a crossover cable to the next computer and it is running W2K. I am using the bridged setup.

Anybody got ideas?

Have scaned for viruses and trojans and come up clean.

Ken

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

sounds like a DNS problem. find out comcasts DNS server addresses and enter them manually into the TCP/IP settings.

 

[Carrot44]

Manual DNS did not work. Deleted and rebuilt the network bridge in XP see what happens?

Ken

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i'm really not too certain how the networking bridges work in XP, on 2000 it used to make a connection between to two inferfaces and the PC itself couldn't access what was coming through. so i really don't know how it acts in XP now or what could be causing it.

try removing the bridge and see if that fixes the problem. if it does go from there.

 

[Carrot44]

This is odd.

I had my power option set to spin down my hard drives. Set them not to spin down and my problem went away or my internet stays on............... Scratches head in awwwwww

Ken

 

[Carrot44]

Well that did not work. Rebuilt my bridge to no avail and also took out one nic and am now using the P4P800 on board nic. Same error :disgust:

Am about to turn this computer into dust.

 

[Edge3D]

Thats wierd. Try hooking up only one computer to the cable modem and see if both work perfectly for hours on end.
Also, check your crossover cable.. I'd replace it if you dont have a cable tester. Thats cheap and easy to do.

And if its happening on both, *something* is messed up in your network. If you end up not finding the solution just get a $40 router.

I suppose the biggest thing is to see if both computers work fine directly connected to your cable modem.
That'd at least get you down to see if you have a problem with an individual computer or your cable modem itself, your internet service or if its your crossover cable network.

Good luck.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Carrot39
Once in a while my internet will just drop. Actually every two hours or so. But only parts of it. Web will be down as well as e-mail but my weather program works and so does some other things like my antivirus auto update also I can ping any site.

The big strange problem is the computer that is networked off of me still has full access to the internet.

Am running Windows XP with cable modem (comcast) and two nic cards both Linksys. I have replaced them to no avail. Use a crossover cable to the next computer and it is running W2K. I am using the bridged setup.

Anybody got ideas?

Have scaned for viruses and trojans and come up clean.

Ken

Check your Hosts file.

 

[Carrot44]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Carrot39
Once in a while my internet will just drop. Actually every two hours or so. But only parts of it. Web will be down as well as e-mail but my weather program works and so does some other things like my antivirus auto update also I can ping any site.

The big strange problem is the computer that is networked off of me still has full access to the internet.

Am running Windows XP with cable modem (comcast) and two nic cards both Linksys. I have replaced them to no avail. Use a crossover cable to the next computer and it is running W2K. I am using the bridged setup.

Anybody got ideas?

Have scaned for viruses and trojans and come up clean.

Ken

Check your Hosts file.

What where when who how is a Hosts file?

 

[Carrot44]

Originally posted by: Edge3D
Thats wierd. Try hooking up only one computer to the cable modem and see if both work perfectly for hours on end.
Also, check your crossover cable.. I'd replace it if you dont have a cable tester. Thats cheap and easy to do.

And if its happening on both, *something* is messed up in your network. If you end up not finding the solution just get a $40 router.

I suppose the biggest thing is to see if both computers work fine directly connected to your cable modem.
That'd at least get you down to see if you have a problem with an individual computer or your cable modem itself, your internet service or if its your crossover cable network.

Good luck.

Have tried it with just my computer. Will try hooking it up to the other computer and seeing what happens.

Also noticed in the system errors that I am losing my dhcp license will check that at about the time it goes down.

Ken

 

[Crucial]

I had strange problems like this and found that changing the power management setting of the NIC solved the problem. If you go into the properties of the NIC and click configure you will see several tabs acrosss the top. Click Power Management and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" then OK.

 

[Carrot44]

Ok that was enabled will disable it and see what happens

 

[Carrot44]

well csaddict that seems to of been it. After several hours it appears to still be working.. So a reluctent yippeeeeeeeeee OMG it works!

 

[Carrot44]

That was a short lived yipppeee the problem remains..............

Every two hours large portions of my internet go down.

Ken

 

[PowerEngineer]

Are you using any software firewall, and are you getting any warnings?

I had what looked to me like a selective internet connectivity problem that was actually caused by Norton Internet Security blocking traffic from sites that it thought were sending too many suspicious packets in a given time frame. Sites like Google and Anandtech would suddenly drop out, but later come back; I was really scratching my head. I eventually disabled a couple of "rules" dealing with "TCP/IP flags" to eliminate the problem.

Probably not what's happening to you, but worth a mention just in case...

Good luck

 

[Carrot44]

Originally posted by: PowerEngineer
Are you using any software firewall, and are you getting any warnings?

I had what looked to me like a selective internet connectivity problem that was actually caused by Norton Internet Security blocking traffic from sites that it thought were sending too many suspicious packets in a given time frame. Sites like Google and Anandtech would suddenly drop out, but later come back; I was really scratching my head. I eventually disabled a couple of "rules" dealing with "TCP/IP flags" to eliminate the problem.

Probably not what's happening to you, but worth a mention just in case...

Good luck

Just the XP firewall and it does it with it on or off. I use AVG antivirus not norton.
There are no warnings at all and no system errors either. I won't be able to get to a web site thru a browser but I can ping it just fine