Windows 7: Random Connection Drops During Specific Hours

Ok so here's my situation. I will try to make it make sense as much as possible.



We have a home network with two laptops [IBM ThinkPad: XP and Sony Vaio-mine: Windows 7] and two desktops [HP: XP and Compaq: XP], along with a wired-networked OfficeJet AIO, and a wired-networked PS3 On a Belkin N+ Gigabit Router. Everything is on 10/00 Cat5; the gigabit router was on sale and cheaper at the time so why not.

Anyways, this is the problem I am having. It is with my laptop specifically, the Sony Vaio running Windows 7. Every day, between the hours of around 8PM local and around 5AM local, I can be on the internet on Facebook, watching something on Hulu, streaming a movie from my laptop to my console, or playing a game, it doesn't matter: My connection will seemingly drop out. When it does, I try to ping the router at 192.168.2.1 and when I DO get a response, it's roughy 3500-4500ms before a response comes back, if it comes back at all. After about 10 minutes, it slowly returns--as in pings will come back, but will take 2500ms, 1500ms, 500ms, 200ms, and then back to <1ms like normal. This can happen as many as ten times in a night, or as few as three. I do know for a fact it WILL happen every night.

So I tried something, I turned off my wireless and plugged into the network via Cat5 and not only did my internet connection come back to normal but it does not drop at all. I thought it might be the wireless radio, but the other laptop that connects via wireless never has this problem, either.

At no time does the "status" of my connection change. It consistently says I have Internet Access.

I'm stumped. It just started happening one day with seemingly no reason and has done it every night since.

I'm sure there's a reason for it, I just can't figure it out.

No doubt the problem would be gone if you just used a different router.

Maybe, But again, if it was the router, I shouldn't be the only one that's suffering from it. And when we first got the router, this didn't happen. It took roughly 2 months before it started happening.

I would like a more solid explanation than product biasedness and speculation.

By chance are you using "homegroup"? on some mixed networks homegroup has connectivity issues. Slow downloads, lose of shares, etc.

You can test it for yourself. Simply make a new network connection using "workgroup" instead. If the problem disappears, you can disable IPv6, and kill homegroup.

Let us know if you need help

Ken

You could also try downloading TCP/IP Auto Tuning. I had my connection dropping out on me and disabling this fixed it and never had it since and have had it fix some high ping problems friends have been having.

Go to Start and type cmd, right click on cmd and run as admin. Simple type

netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

And hit Enter and see if it fixes your problem. If you still have the same problems, then just enable it again with

netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=normal

Thanks I will try that. I did what was mentioned about homegroup and IPv6 and that made no different. In fact right at 9PM local [literally at the stroke of 9pm on my computer clock] my connection dropped and lethargically came back to life.

I'll give the tuning a shot and report back.

Ok, unfortunately, setting auto-tuning to 'disabled' served no effect. I counted sixteen drops within the 9 hour time frame.

Actually Can we get the Model and Model Version and the Firmware you are using for that perticular router...

I have a Belkin N+ router.... I just want to see if its the same version. If it is, then I can help you on my end by going through my settings and giving it a whirl. If not, at least we can look in the background of the router to see if there is a firmware upgrade or downgrade that will fix this problem for you.

Any chance your router is a netgear or lynksys? and 2 or 3 years old? If so for some unknown reason I have seen these routers do this. Many times flashing the firmware fixes it, but only for a 6 month or a 1 years’ time. Replacing it with is the only true fix.

This is what I have:

Belkin N+ Wireless Router
Model No. F5D8235-4 V2
Firmware: v2.01.07 [latest according to router, belkin.com has .08 as latest]
More specifically: This: Belkin : Support : Routers : N : F5D8235-4 : v2000

1. Neither brand.
2. About 2 months old
3. Latest firmware.