Intermittent Internet access problem

kevin65

Recently, I have been having intermittent internet access issues on the laptop in my home office. What happens is that after a while internet access seems to get lost. When you try to access an internet page, e.g. google.ie, the browser just sits there like the web page is slow to load, but it never loads.
I can ping the router and get a response so it doesn't seem to be an issue between the router and the PC. If you restart the PC, it will work fine again for a while.
I'm getting a new router from eircom this week to replace the existing one which is old, but I think the problem lies with the PC since I can access the inernet from my iphone fine when the PC has lost it's internet connection?
Any ideas before I run out and buy an new PC?

superb choice of username

And if you simply disconnect and then reconnect again (rather than restarting), I presume it works as well?

Initially, I'd be lead to thing it's a problem with the router. Easiest way to check, take in a second laptop. I don't know if the iPhone can count as the wifi may go to sleep, and then come back on (essentially restarting the wifi), whereas the laptop has a constant connection.

Others can correct me, but it sounds like a problem with the DHCP server. If you do the above, and find after the same length of time that the second laptop is still connected to the router but not the internet, then we can take it from there (although if you are getting a new one, probably little point!)

nucker

You haven't told us what type of connection you have

This sounds similar to those dongle internet connection where the transmitter has developed a fault.

Also, if its the normal wired connection, it could be a number of things, ranging from the internet exchange box being at fault or engineers working (I assume you can check that up with your ISP) on it to faulty ethernet cable assuming you are using that to your computer.

Buying a new computer is not going to solve the problem

kevin65

Thanks for the feedback lads. I have DSL broadband from eircom with the older silver netopia router. For convenience I use a wireless connection for the PC and the printer.
At one point when the issue occurred I did try switching off and on the router but this didn't make any difference. The only thing to sort the problem is to reboot the PC. I now have access to a second laptop to try it in parallel with my own, but of course everything has been working fine since yesterday.:rolleyes:
Eircom didn't see any issue on their side, they said they could see when connection commenced the day I rang and there was no drop they could see even though I had the issue. They are sending out a new router anyway, so I'll see what happens when its installed.

kevin65

Got new wireless router installed and problem occurred again. When the PC lost internet access I powered up the other PC and it connected to the internet fine. This seem to point to the PC as the root cause.

yoyo

Have you turned off power saving on the wlan card? Locate the wifi adaptor in device manager>Properties>Power and untick "turn off the adaptor to save power". It's odd you can ping the router but not access the web :S. Are the WLAN drivers up to date?

Nick

nucker

kevin65 wrote: »

Got new wireless router installed and problem occurred again. When the PC lost internet access I powered up the other PC and it connected to the internet fine. This seem to point to the PC as the root cause.

I can't believe its the computer, get your ISP to check the line

superb choice of username

kevin65 wrote: »

Got new wireless router installed and problem occurred again. When the PC lost internet access I powered up the other PC and it connected to the internet fine. This seem to point to the PC as the root cause.

Does there seem to be a specific length of time before it looses the internet access? And did the second PC stay connected **definitely** for longer?

kevin65

When I contacted Eircom they checked the line and said they found no issues, but they sent out a new router anyway as I had the old model.
I didn't get the chance to do a back to back comparison with both PCs, i.e switch both on at same time and check the second one when internet connectivity is lost, so can't say that one stays connected longer than the other, but when there was an issue on the first one, the second could connect to the internet successfully. I'll try to do a back to back test this week.

I have updated WLAN drivers and turned off the power saving option on the WLAN card.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see if the above makes any difference.