Windows takes 2 minutes to `find` Internet after boot

I use a `pre-activated` version of Windows and this morning after to have rearmed it a few times in the past months it said that I had reached the maximum of my postpones. So I decided to go with a whole new stuff, then I formatted my SSD and made a fresh installation of W7 Pro 64.

Installation done, as usual my first thing to do is to establish the Internet connection to download AV and firewall. My conn here is wi-fi, so I set it up and the small bars icons told me that I was connected. However when I tried to navigate the browser just kept looking for pages forever. I tried to reinstall my wi-fi driver, removed and re-setup the connection, and nothing. Then my wife asked me to go to the supermarket. As I left computer on, when I came back I had a page not found on my screen, but just in case I pressed F5 and... page loaded!

Then I downloaded and installed my Firewall and AV with a couple other things and rebooted the PC. Guess what? No web browsing again. After a few attempts I figured out that whenever I reboot my computer it is longing around 2 minutes until `find` the Internet. But I don`t get any `!` sign over the small bars or something like that — apparently everything is fine, it is just that it doesn`t find the web for a while.

OK, here is the threat... the computer is not new, I didn`t change anything in its configuration and it never happened before. It was fine just before I reinstall Windows today. Any idea about what may be causing it and what would the heal for the problem? I am thinking about to install Windows once more to see if the problem disappear but I thought on ask here before...

Any help appreciated! Thanks!

:)

Maxie, I figured it out.

Yesterday, after a few more tests I got more details that helped to fix the issue. First, the problem was happening only with navigation (all other protocols were working fine - chat, RDC, etc) so I could focus on browser. Second, I noticed that it didn't have nothing to do with boot, but with the browser startup: if I closed the browser and opened it again the problem repeated, but after 2 minutes or so it became good to go. Third, I noticed that my favorite browser (Chrome) was stamping the message 'downloading proxy script' at the bottom left every time it happened.

With all this information and a few Googling I found the fix...

1) Internet Properties >> Connections tab >> LAN Settings
2) Then UNCHECK 'Automatically detect settings'

Voilà! The problem vanished!

:)

Maxie, I use Windows since version 1.0 (around 25-30 years I guess?) and it ALWAYS has a surprise to me.

Along this time I have installed it hundreds or thousands of times not only on my computers, but on computers of friends and clients (I worked as a PC technician for a while around 10 years ago). In the early versions (until 3.1 if I am not wrong) you knew exactly what you could expect after an installation though, and if you did it in the very same hardware and followed the very same steps the result would be always the same.

When Windows became PnP (XP version) they solved a lot of hardware configuration issues but also created new. Later versions such as 7 and newer are still more scary. The thing looks like alive and the behavior depends of its mood. Sometimes, and I have no idea why, it just 'decides' to make slightly different settings by checking/unchecking one or two checkbox here and there just to drive you crazy.

I remember to have installed Windows 7 at least a dozen times in this my current computer, and EVERY time I do that, something different seems to happen at the end and I always find myself with that WTF face. For instances, about this navigation issue: I NEVER had to go to the 'Internet properties' to uncheck that checkbox! Is this weird or is this weird?????

Yup, upgrading is something that gives me sheevers too. I sticked to XP for 10 years at least and I only moved to 7 because I started to have problems trying to install newer applications on XP and also because MS annouced that would stop to support it. Actually it was more because the applications.

I confess that I really enjoyed 7, and after one year using it I can say that it is too much better than I supposed. I had tried 8 before in wifey laptop and hated it (so does she) then I downgraded it to 7. Now I don't think to upgrade to any newer version until I start to have the same problems I had with XP, so it should give me at least more 5 years or so. LoL!

I have a regular and kind of outdated machine (a desktop i5 with barely 8GB RAM and everything onboard unless by an external sound interface) and I can say that it is stable and fast like hell, specially after I throw a SSD on it — around eight seconds for a full boot.

The only complain I have about W7 (and I have found TONS of the same complain around the web) is that for any reason MS decided to share the wi-fi channel with sound decoding. The result is that you get a crappy music playing full of cracks and pops when you have a heavy wi-fi traffic (e.g. downloading stuff). It really pisses me off. A few tweaks may reduce the issue, but every now and then it will happen again. I don't know if they fixed it in the newer Windows versions. I never had a single problem with sound playing with XP though...

So it may be a warning for whose is experiencing problems with sound decoding — if your have a wi-fi Internet connection don't even try to solve this issue as you won't get success. There are thousands of online threads discussing the subject and millions of users frustrated with it. The only possible solution is to get rid of the wi-fi and CABLE your computer to the network. Or unplug your wi-fi whenever you want to listen to music and do not need Internet. I do that when I am recording on my home studio: just pull the USB wi-fi interface out...

Other than that I am pretty happy with 7!

:)