Network Connection Cuts Out When Gaming

I've noticed this only when gaming over the course of the last three or four months - firstly when I was playing MW2 and now also when playing Warcraft.
The connection just goes. A yellow exclamation point pops up over the network icon and my internets go off - to fix I have to pull the plug out of the router and put it back in.

My set up is a modem router, into which my wifi router is plugged - the PC is hardwired into the wifi router and I don't think it has ever cut out during an internet only session, only during gaming.

It's not the router - as I have recently replaced it.
I thought it might be the cable, I've replaced that and it still happens.
I have just updated the drivers for my network card, it's not fixed it.

I assume it's my network card itself that is the issue, but I wanted to know if there's any reason it could be a Windows 7 issue?

Any ideas?
Thanks.

Hi flamingkitties,

Do you have the latest driver for your network adapter? Make sure that your router has the latest firmware as well.

Also, have youdone port forwarding of your Games the Ports to your router?
Here are the Port Nos for WoW. Also, other list of Ports that you may need to Port forward.

Here's a complete guide on how to do Port forwarding using a Linksys router. The only difference might be the router settings that you have but it should give you an idea. You may also locate the exact Make and Model of your router from portforwarding.com.

Hope this helps, pls. post an update.

to try and isolate the culprit, ping devices on the path to your gaming server.

- open a command prompt and do a continuous ping on your own IP address.
- repeat, pinging your wifi router
- repeat, pinging your modem router
- repeat, pinging your modem router's gateway
- repeat, pinging your ISP's DNS server (something that is likely to still be in the ISP cloud, but not the gateway itself)
- repeat, pinging your game server (or something outside the cloud like google.com)

so when you go online, you'll have 6 command prompts continuously pinging 6 hops between you and your server.

when you notice the disconnect in game, close it and look at the command prompts. if the ping on your own IP is timing out, there's obviously a problem with your system. from that point, start another command prompt and ping your loopback address (localhost or 127.0.0.1 - both work). if that times out, you may need to reinstall TCP/IP itself on the workstation.

if you notice no timeouts on your computer, then the problem exists between you and whatever device stops responding. note: even though i suggest pinging the DNS server for your ISP, it's HIGHLY unlikely this is your problem. bottom line: troubleshoot whatever device is dropping packets starting with your computer and working your way out to the web.

flamingkitties said:

I've noticed this only when gaming over the course of the last three or four months - firstly when I was playing MW2 and now also when playing Warcraft.
The connection just goes. A yellow exclamation point pops up over the network icon and my internets go off - to fix I have to pull the plug out of the router and put it back in.

My set up is a modem router, into which my wifi router is plugged - the PC is hardwired into the wifi router and I don't think it has ever cut out during an internet only session, only during gaming.

It's not the router - as I have recently replaced it.
I thought it might be the cable, I've replaced that and it still happens.
I have just updated the drivers for my network card, it's not fixed it.

I assume it's my network card itself that is the issue, but I wanted to know if there's any reason it could be a Windows 7 issue?

Any ideas?
Thanks.

The biggest problem I see is highlighted in bold above. You stated that you plugged your router into your modem/router? This would indicate there are two routers in the system. Using dual routers in a single network is inherently unstable and requires a special set up procedure which may or may not work correctly.

If you have an actual router you need to plug it into a modem only, not a modem/router which is different.

chev65 said:

flamingkitties said:

My set up is a modem router, into which my wifi router is plugged - the PC is hardwired into the wifi router and I don't think it has ever cut out during an internet only session, only during gaming.
.

The biggest problem I see is highlighted in bold above. You stated that you plugged your router into your modem/router? This would indicate there are two routers in the system. Using dual routers in a single network is inherently unstable and requires a special set up procedure which may or may not work correctly.

If you have an actual router you need to plug it into a modem only, not a modem/router which is different.

Thing is, it's been like that for years and I've never had a problem before. The only change to any part of the set up recently has been switching over to Win7.

Anyway, I'm having a go at port forwarding. As the disconnects could be once a day or four times a game, it's impossible to know if it's worked right away but I'll come back and let y'all know.
Ta.

To make things more confusing, the connection just cut out whilst not playing a game - (I was accessing Spotify, never had a problem with that running before). Hmm. May have just been a coincidence.

flamingkitties said:

To make things more confusing, the connection just cut out whilst not playing a game - (I was accessing Spotify, never had a problem with that running before). Hmm. May have just been a coincidence.

You will want to go to a straight modem not a combo unit like you are using now. The network stack in Windows 7 is very picky about this sort of thing.

One way to check if this is a problem with your machine is to connect to the modem/router directly without the second router in the network. You could also try to disable DHCP in your second router but this isn't an ideal set up.

chev65 said:

flamingkitties said:

To make things more confusing, the connection just cut out whilst not playing a game - (I was accessing Spotify, never had a problem with that running before). Hmm. May have just been a coincidence.

You will want to go to a straight modem not a combo unit like you are using now. The network stack in Windows 7 is very picky about this sort of thing.

One way to check if this is a problem with your machine is to connect to the modem/router directly without the second router in the network. You could also try to disable DHCP in your second router but this isn't an ideal set up.

If I don't have the PC plugged into the wifi router, it won't be able to stream to my AppleTV and Network Blu-Ray though, they need to be on the same network.

Yes so the first router/modem combo doesn't have wireless so you added another wireless router to get wireless correct? Unfortunately dual router set ups are not a supported configuration.

At the very least you will need to disable DHCP in the first or second router which might give you a change at getting this to work. "these set ups are not supported and can be highly problematic".

The best way would be to obtain a "modem only" can't be a combo one. Then just run an eithernet cable from the modems WAN port going into your wireless routers WAN port, modem>wireless router>~PC, basic and simple but more importantly it's the correct way to do this.

chev65 said:

Yes so the first router/modem combo doesn't have wireless so you added another wireless router to get wireless correct? Unfortunately dual router set ups are not a supported configuration.

At the very least you will need to disable DHCP in the first or second router which might give you a change at getting this to work. "these set ups are not supported and can be highly problematic".

The best way would be to obtain a "modem only" can't be a combo one. Then just run an eithernet cable from the modems WAN port going into your wireless routers WAN port, modem>wireless router>~PC, basic and simple but more importantly it's the correct way to do this.

I'll look into that option, thanks.

Actually, hang on.
My PC is wired. I'm confused. :/