Windows 7: Win7 no internet connection at startup but works after pinging gateway

OK so i upgraded some of our PCs from a old machines running XP to a new DELL running Windows 7 Professional 32 Bit - I am on a wired LAN with a server and separate gateway/firewall PC



When I start my PC everything is just fine - connects to the network etc and I start receiving my e-mails from exchange BUT I get the little yellow exclamation on my network connection and the the 'No Internet' message

When I start a command box and ping the gateway I then have internet connection

I have to do this every time I shut down/re-start - this happens on the other Windows 7 PCs on the network - I also have a laptop running Windows 7 but this connects wirelessly and never has the issue

I have a guy across the road who is on a small network connected to us wirelessly - his machine will need to ping three or four times a day

Our IT guy gave up so i am looking for some clues as to where i might start looking - and why is this only with Windows 7 machines?

Thanks in advance

Welcome to the Seven Forums!

Here is a link to more than you ever wanted to know about what Windows 7 does to determine if it has an internet connection:
Appendix H: Network Connectivity Status Indicator and Resulting Internet Communication in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

For your setup, it appears that none of the things that Windows 7 tries gives it the return that it is expecting. This might be caused by the gateway/firewall that you are using. Your pinging seems to make Windows 7 happy :-)

If I'm understanding your post correctly, everything works - it is just an annoyance that Windows 7 indicates no internet connection when in fact the connection is fine. As a work around, you could have the ping occur automatically with each boot.

As far as the guy across the road connecting via wireless - it could be that his wireless card is set to sleep when not used - thus losing its connection. He could just run a constant ping:

ping google.com -t