Help!! Strange Internet Connectivity Issue

applegbt said:

Okay, I have had my PC with Windows 7 installed for several months with absolutely no issues. Recently, with no changes to any hardware other than adding some Firewire peripherals I have started experiencing a random loss of internet connectivity.

The strange part is that the Network Status page shows that I am connected to my wireless router, and the internet. But upon opening IE or Messenger you immediately get a page cannot be displayed error or connectivity error in the case of Messenger. I also cannot even connect to my router gui over HTTP. But I can ping my router. Now, here's the really, really strange part. I am sure that I still have physical internet connectivity to my PC, because I have a virtual machine installed (Virtualbox) using the host adapter and it can reach the internet. I'm stumped! It almost seems like something is blocking the default HTTP port or something, but I cannot figure it out. I really don't want to re-install Windows, but I fear I may have no choice.

Oh, after rebooting my PC, my internet connectivity returns for a period of time...sometimes several hours. But eventually it gets lost again. I usually notice the problem every morning, but it happens during the day while I am away as well.

I suspect you are using homegroup, which on some systems has problems with connectivity, slow down loads, and random drops. You can verify this by simply creating a new network connection using the workgroup model instead.

Let us know if you need help

Ken

I am using homegroup, as that is how it was configured when I purchased the PC. I will try to reconfigure as you suggested. Thanks!

Well, I tried the "leave homegroup" option and disabled the two Homegroup services, rebooted, but the problem persists. I had internet for a couple hours, stepped away for a bit, and when I returned I no longer had internet. To take the wireless adapter out of the equation, I disabled it and ran a hardwire to my router connecting to my on-board ethernet adapter. This also had no affect on the problem.

You mentioned completely re-creating the network connection, but I am not sure how to do that. So if you feel that still may solve my issue, could someone please post the steps for doing so?

Thanks!
-Bret

Tews said:

try flushing your dns cache..

Code:

ipconfig /flushdns

Hope this helps..

Thanks for posting! Unfortunately, no dice. Take a look at my previous post, which I just updated with more information since you posted.

I can connect after any reboot. Problem always begins a few hours after reboot, usually during inactivity while I am afk.

The only other thing I could think of to try was to assign a specific IP address. Still no change to the situation. Apparently I've stumped everyone with this one. :) I think I'm gonna give it one more day of troubleshooting before I wipe the system and start over. Very frustrating...