Random Connection Drops During Specific Hours

[Johnathan Lyman]

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: W7] 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.

 

[chev65]

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

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

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.

 

[zigzag3143]

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: W7] 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.

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

 

[Everlong]

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

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

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.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

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.

 

[acurasd]

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.

 

[WindowsStar]

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.

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.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

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.

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

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.

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.

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

 

[acurasd]

You have the same kind of router that I have... Well my dad but I work on it because he has no idea how that stuff works.

I just have the Version 1.

Why don't why try to upgrade the firmware. Another thing that we need to do is restore the factory default of the router as well. Becuase if you do a firmware, it will keep the settings with the upgrade.

I was just curious.... do you have anything behind or forward of the router.. for instance.


My network is

Cable Modem (WAN IP) 192.168.100.1 ===> Vonage (192.168.45.1) =====>> DMZ 192.168.2.1 TO BELKIN ROUTER STATIC IP ADDRESS ====>> THEN I HAVE IT GOING TO MY SWITCHES......

Another thing we have to figure out too..
Who is your ISP, maybe that have different MTU settings or little tweaks that we can do with the router?


========================================
This is what I did for all of my computers:

You may not want to do this... You can do testing.. It is really up to you:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

I have mines as:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

Here is a good page if you want to tweak your TCP settings... but I advise you to use at your own risk:
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/general-chat/29949-how-tweak-vista-tcp-settings.html

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

You have the same kind of router that I have... Well my dad but I work on it because he has no idea how that stuff works.

I just have the Version 1.

Why don't why try to upgrade the firmware. Another thing that we need to do is restore the factory default of the router as well. Becuase if you do a firmware, it will keep the settings with the upgrade.

I was just curious.... do you have anything behind or forward of the router.. for instance.


My network is

Cable Modem (WAN IP) 192.168.100.1 ===> Vonage (192.168.45.1) =====>> DMZ 192.168.2.1 TO BELKIN ROUTER STATIC IP ADDRESS ====>> THEN I HAVE IT GOING TO MY SWITCHES......

Another thing we have to figure out too..
Who is your ISP, maybe that have different MTU settings or little tweaks that we can do with the router?


========================================
This is what I did for all of my computers:

You may not want to do this... You can do testing.. It is really up to you:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

I have mines as:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

Here is a good page if you want to tweak your TCP settings... but I advise you to use at your own risk:
How To Tweak Vista TCP Settings

Ok. I factory defaulted the router, updated the firmware, dug around for my PPPoE settings for my modem and now i'm back. Only time will tell in regards to the wireless.

For the record:

Qwest DSL Modem via PPPoE > Belkin > Ethernet Switch in one wing of the house for a desktop and the printer [sometimes my laptop for extreme situations [like this one]].

I'll give the TCP/IP settings a look-see as well and report back.

 

[acurasd]

Quest DSL... alright. Its a little different from mines becuase I am using Cable.. so you got to dial in on your settings. I just have to obtain automatically.

I will start to hunt for any adnormal tweaks for your ISP.

The only main thing you want to change on your router is your ADMIN password. That is very important, you dont want someone tapping in and just turn off your Wireless until we can get this resolved.

I would just defintly try that and see if that works for you....

like you said. Only time will tell..... and then what you can do is do one thing at a time... like start to configure your wireless... so that if the problem happens then you know what makes it happen.

I read that they used a different chip from version 1 to version 2. Hopefully the firmware might fix this....

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Quest DSL... alright. Its a little different from mines becuase I am using Cable.. so you got to dial in on your settings. I just have to obtain automatically.

I will start to hunt for any adnormal tweaks for your ISP.

The only main thing you want to change on your router is your ADMIN password. That is very important, you dont want someone tapping in and just turn off your Wireless until we can get this resolved.

I would just defintly try that and see if that works for you....

like you said. Only time will tell..... and then what you can do is do one thing at a time... like start to configure your wireless... so that if the problem happens then you know what makes it happen.

I read that they used a different chip from version 1 to version 2. Hopefully the firmware might fix this....

It's actually doing it right now as I am writing this so I had to plug back into submit this, so in short, no effect.

I don't think my ISP is the problem in this case as according to every other device on the network, my laptop drops of the map, essentially and re-appears. No other ill effects have ever occurred with any other device.

I'll give the PS3 via Wireless a shot tomorrow night. I am starting to think it may be my wireless card in my computer. Which if the PS3 shows no ill effects I'll see what i can do about trying a different wireless adapter for testing purposes.

Of course I accedentially connected to the guest access we have and now that i'm back to the private wireless it won't let me login to the router; still asks for guest password. I hate guest access. I need to stop letting friends use my WiFi when they come over.

 

[acurasd]

Well lets narrow down the Wlan card...

can you plug in your computer at 830 at the LAN port instead of the WLAN and just use a cable and see if there is any lag?

I have looked through the internet and they have had alot of problems with Quest and that perticular version router, the V2, not so much the V1

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Well lets narrow down the Wlan card...

can you plug in your computer at 830 at the LAN port instead of the WLAN and just use a cable and see if there is any lag?

I do that all the time now within that time frame because of this problem. I never have a single missed ping, no loss of connection. It runs perfectly.

 

[Hobbit]

Shot in the dark here! - I use a wireless cctv camera and when this is on it wipes out my wireless to router link. Is there any security systems, microwaves etc coming on near you at 9? -or - is there any 'schedule' settings in your router that may need altering?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Shot in the dark here! - I use a wireless cctv camera and when this is on it wipes out my wireless to router link. Is there any security systems, microwaves etc coming on near you at 9? -or - is there any 'schedule' settings in your router that may need altering?

It was a good shot in the dark, but you didn't hit anything.

No CCTV, no microwaving that I know of [I live in an apartment building], and no scheduled settings that I can find on my router.

 

[Hobbit]

This may be worth a try http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider and see if there is any 'standard' wi-fi interference. If it is a big problem then you could look at the wi-spy for 'other' rf interference. Just seems a bit weird its always at the same time....good luck!

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

This may be worth a try http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider and see if there is any 'standard' wi-fi interference. If it is a big problem then you could look at the wi-spy for 'other' rf interference. Just seems a bit weird its always at the same time....good luck!

Thank you, I will take a look and see if anything looks out of the ordinary.