My Net Nightmare AKA Internet Connectivity Issues Catch-All

My home's Internet service leading to my main computer drops and then reconnects again. I'd love to get to the bottom of the issue and so far have tried various suggestions. Any assistance would be awesome.

Strangeblades wrote:

Net connection issues.

Um, okay.... did you have an actual question?

Malor wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:

Net connection issues.

Um, okay.... did you have an actual question?

Oh snap. I knew I forgot something.

While some say there can be no bad questions, the worst kind of question is a generic problem description followed by a generic "and I've tried things".

We who help people dread getting into the spiral of sending detailed potential fixes answered by "Yup. Tried that. Didn't work!" while simultaneously trying to pry for more details about what service you use, your modem/router, your system, and your network so we can get a handle on what it might be.

The more work you put into the question, the better and more helpful other people can be in resolving the problem.

(So... I'm working on the first problem that can be addressed. The original post.)

There's a lot of context in the questions thread that Strangeblades should probably copy over.

My home's Internet service leading to my main computer drops and then reconnects again.

A more complete description of the problem would be useful. A few questions:

1. Are other machines also having dropouts, or is it just the one?
2. How is your system connected to the Internet? What does your local network look like, roughly? (ie, how many clients, do they connect wired or wirelessly, and are you having issues anywhere else.)
3. Do you know any way to make the problem happen consistently, or is it random?
4. How often does it happen, and does it seem linked to time-of-day at all?

edit: oh, two more questions:

5. When was the last time the system was working properly?
6. What's different about your machine or your network between then and now? (heh, other than the network being unreliable. )

Wembley wrote:

There's a lot of context in the questions thread that Strangeblades should probably copy over.

Ahh! A link would be okay too.

Look, it's simple: he doesn't have the Internet and the computer won't let him.

Now FIX IT.

Strangeblades wrote:

My home's Internet service leading to my main computer drops and then reconnects again. I'd love to get to the bottom of the issue and so far have tried various suggestions. Any assistance would be awesome.

So this is why I can't remote into your webcam!

Did you try turning your ISP off and on again?

Seriously, though: to add to Malor's questions:

1b) Do you know anyone else in your apartment block/immediate neighbourhood that uses the same ISP and are they also having problems?

2b) If you have multiple computers on your home network can they be accessed when the internet is unavailable?

4b) How long does it go off for? Is it a brief period that seems fairly consistent or does the time the internet is down vary? Interminable, even?

How does one turn off an ISP? Is refusing payment enough, or do you have to forget to shave for a few weeks and skip the bathing?

OK. I've compiled relevant photos, screen grabs and links for my problem. Incoming in two minutes.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/BQovJ3V.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/T2v1do0.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/McVJ9BX.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/5lpQatE.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/w7uCXDC.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/L7cQIqo.png)

LINK 1 Results of running tracert in the command window with some suggestions from Cayne. I also posted some screen grabs.

LINK 2 Results from ipconfig when the net is connected and when it's not connected.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/J0qOd9J.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/9L0RzKD.png)

LINK 3 Three ping results.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/xadbK3h.png)

LINK 3 Screengrabs of my network map as seen from my computer, my wireless netbook and from my wife's machine.

Ok, one definite problem: you have two computers named almost the same thing, Shannon-PC and SHANNON-PC. That shouldn't be allowed, but apparently you managed to sneak it through by changing the case.

Don't do that. Each computer should have a unique name.

So all these problems started when you reinstalled Windows, right? That name thing could definitely be causing fairly severe issues, and a reinstall is when you'd be likely to change it.

Here's how to change it something else: http://windows7themes.net/en-us/how-...

Malor wrote:

Ok, one definite problem: you have two computers named almost the same thing, Shannon-PC and SHANNON-PC. That shouldn't be allowed, but apparently you managed to sneak it through by changing the case.

Don't do that. Each computer should have a unique name.

So all these problems started when you reinstalled Windows, right? That name thing could definitely be causing fairly severe issues, and a reinstall is when you'd be likely to change it.

Here's how to change it something else: http://windows7themes.net/en-us/how-...

Roger that. Changing now.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ZBa7gbG.png)

It actually says STRANGEBLADE-PC. I hit the max number of characters (15).

OK, after a reboot, has anything changed, or are you still getting dropouts?

Malor wrote:

OK, after a reboot, has anything changed, or are you still getting dropouts?

So far, no drop outs that I have seen. Sometimes I was working out in the other room so who knows what could have taken place while I was gone but so far I've seen no dropouts.

OK, that might have been the problem, then. Let's see what happens.

Mmm. Dropped about 5 minutes ago (11:50 a.m. West Coast time).
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/OmuoWg3.png)

Ran a ping test.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/SjKyDBf.png)

Clicked on diagnostics tool and it was resolved.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QHNwH0q.png)

We now know the problem is very low-level; the connection to the gateway is failing. There's a lot of other possible issues that can cause what looks like Net dropouts, but this is one of the most fundamental things; you're losing connectivity on your local network.

So, there's a port on the back of the computer, and some wires and possibly an intermediate switch or two, and then the gateway. The problem could be any of those, anywhere from a failing adapter on the computer, to a loose wire, to a DCHP failure, to a router that's giving up the ghost. So the next thing to do is try to figure out exactly where the failure is.

One good way to narrow things down is to be pinging both the gateway and another machine in the network, simultaneously. If both machines stop responding at the same time, then the problem probably isn't them; it'll be the local network port, the wire to the switch, or the switch itself. If only one of them fails, then the problem is probably there.

So, to that end, start up two command prompts. You're going to be running these for a long time. In the first, figure out the IP address of another machine on your network (Katherine-PC is fine, if that's going to always be on), and then start pinging it:

ping -t AA.BB.CC.DD, whatever that machine's address is.

With the -t, ping will just keep running forever. Let it. You may be running it for hours or days.

Then, in the other window, start a ping -t of your gateway:

ping -t 192.168.1.254

And just leave both of them running. This will take just about zero resources from your computer; everything else should run entirely normally.

The next time you see a failure, pop both those windows open, and look to see what's happening. I expect you'll see ping timeouts to the router. What we're trying to find out, here, is whether they also stop at the same time to the other PC, and then resume at the same time as well.

Note that, of course, you'll need to leave that other PC running, or the test won't work. And it's possible it might not respond to pings, if you have its firewall turned on... if that's the case, we'll try to figure out something different.

Oh, and if it's not too late, doing the same thing on the Katherine PC would be handy--- get it pinging your machine, and the gateway, and then run over there quicklike as soon as you've checked your local pings after a failure.

I think what you may end up seeing is both connections failing on your PC, while on the Katherine PC, pings to your machine won't work, but pings to the gateway will be uninterrupted. That would narrow down the possible failure points to just a few.

Quickest way I've found to enable ping responses on regular computers: Run a command window as Admin and type in:
Netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 enable

That should work if you don't have a custom firewall running.

Malor - Both computers have two CMD windows running as per your instructions. We'll see what we see eventually I guess.

PING RESULTS FROM MY MACHINE
The column on the left is gateway ping. The column on the right is 192.168.1.70
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/Gbb56VL.png)

PING RESULTS FROM MY WIFE'S MACHINE
The column on the left is my wife's rig pinging my computer. The column on the right is her machine pinging the gateway.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/piyIgOg.png)

The problem has corrected itself btw.

Are those all from about the same time period? It LOOKS like what you're seeing is your machine losing the gateway, but still being able to ping your wife's machine, at the exact same time that your wife's machine loses your computer, but keeps the gateway.

I don't have any idea how you could end up with that symptom; if you can send and receive to your wife's machine, it should be able to send and receive to you.

Basically, three out of the four pings are doing what I expected, but your machine still being able to ping your wife's has me very confused.

Oops. I might have gotten the ping steps incorrect. I'll set it up again.

OK. This time the results should not be as crazy.

My rig is pinging my wife's machine at 192.168.1.70 and the gateway.

My wife's rig is pinging my machine at 192.168.1.75 and the gateway.

OK. Around 12:40 p.m. west coast time my machine did this.

MY MACHINE 1
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/dslxzCv.png?1)

MY MACHINE 2
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/DMQjGkU.png?1)

At roughly the same time my wife's machine did this.

HER MACHINE 1
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/p7Abi0s.png)

Both machines were pinging each other. Those results are in the left-hand cmd windows.

The right-hand command windows are pinging the gateway.

OK, so we can be pretty sure at this point that the problem is in one of three places: the adapter or driver on your machine, the cable, or the switch port you're plugged into. (this is assuming you're wife's machine is plugged into the same switch, and that same switch goes to the router. If that's not accurate, then we might need to work a little more.)

Do you have another cable you can try? If you can use another cable, and plug into a different port on the switch, then if you get another dropout, it has to be something about the computer's interface... at that point, we'll be almost 100% certain that it's a problem with the machine, and then we can start trying to figure out if it's software or hardware.