Win 7 Intermittent Internet Loss

[ratdog]

I've been trying to get this resolved in some way for the last (who knows how many?) months.
In short, Verizon Fios, Actiontec Router. Windows XP machines (wired) (2) never any internet loss whatsoever.
Running the wireless from the Actiontec and also a Linksys that is on one of the ports. (distance issues)
The Linksys always syncs up and both wireless systems work 100% all the time with either XP or Win 7 laptops.

Here's the issue: two wired desktops running Win 7 have intermittent internet drops. One is older, one brand new fresh out of the box. Turned off the power saver NIC card function on both, WOL disabled. That's not the problem because the internet losses occur sometimes after the machine is on for a few minutes, the PC does not sit long enough to go into power saver anyway. There's no rhyme or reason as they say when the loss will occur. Sometimes this will not happen for a day or more, other times it can happen after using the machine for just a few minutes.
One thing I have been trying is to disable IPV6 then I can get the internet back, othertimes re-enable it to get the net back. Go figure. Again, disabling it will not fix the problem, however switching it on/off will. Disabling and re-enabling the NIC will only fix it sometimes, most instances that does nothing. There are different types of NIC cards in the machines, one uses a Realtec on board, the other uses Nvidea on board and a plug in NIC (brand?) all NIC cards/board performs the same.
One person in another forum has reported that he went to an Intel NIC and then his problem was solved. Not sure about that one, but if that was a valid fix, I'd purchase an Intel NIC right away.

Also, when they DO work, if I let them boot for a while, usually they will be fine, but that's looking at a 10-15 minute boot up. (doesn't take an excessive time for actual boot-up but I mean just leave it alone for 10-15 min)

The Actiontec has the most current update version, and is about two years old.

Somehow these machines lose the internet portion but not the network portion. Such an annoying problem, even more so when I added a brand new machine and get the same issues. I would be willing to bet that if I ran them wireless there would be no issue, but that's going to slow down the dl/ul speeds that I get with a wired connection.
Any comments/suggestions could help!

 

[Jacee]

Do you have Bonjour installed on any of the computers? ... It may be 'timing out' trying to connect to the Internet.

 

[ratdog]

I had previously checked but I'll check this again....I don't think its on the new PC freshly loaded but can't hurt to take a look....

 

[marsmimar]

It could be an issue with the Winsock protocol. Per Microsoft, this protocol is used by Windows to communicate with other computers and to access resources on the Internet, such as e-mail and Web sites. If there is a problem with Winsock, Windows will no longer be able to access the Internet. This previous thread has some suggestions on what to try.

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/124380-resetting-winsock-protocol.html

 

[ratdog]

OK, thanks, this gives me a few things to look at, I'll be back at it in the next few days and see what happens with both suggestions...

 

[ratdog]

In checking out and messing with all the settings I noticed that my connection was staying on for a much longer period of time. Still takes a real long time to do the initial connection, but stays on for many hours however still drops at random times. What I found is that if I toggle on/off these NIC settings, I can re-establish the connection with fairly good consistency. I toggle File and printer sharing,IPV6, Link Layer Topology IO driver, Link Layer Discovery responder. Can't seem to pin down which setting has the most effect just yet, and only toggling IPV6 does not solve the issue as I have seen in some other posts. By toggling these settings I can now keep the connection on for much longer, but did experience printing issues to a printer on my network, so even though I seem to be closer to the problem, It's not there yet.
I've been leaving some/all of these unchecked and then sending the machine to hibernate and the internet connection does come back on which was definitely not happening before.

 

[ratdog]

Last update to this issues is that if I let the PC boot up for at least 5 minutes, it usually will come up with the internet. If for whatever reason there is loss, I just toggle the IPV6 setting and usually it will come back up. At this point I have gone thru so many troubleshooting suggestions, I may have fixed something at least to make this an easier process. I guess if it stays up for 90% of the time then I have to be happy with that.

 

[TonysPC]

I don't wish to hijack this thread but, by way of moral support, I am expriencing a similar problem. This started happening last week. I haven't finished checking averything yet so I will watch this thread with interest.

If the suggestions don't work for me, I will start my own thread. If I find a solution, I'll post back.

Good luck!

 

[lewiscarey]

maybe try setting up static ip addresses for the machines see if that solves the problem...sometimes things like that can cause problems and a static ip might just help.maybe maybe not but its worth a try..report back on your results

 

[ratdog]

I had prevoiusly tried the static IP, no luck with that. There were still issues....This IPV 6 toggle works for me, last night I fired up one machine, did not use it for at least an hour, so when I came back to it I noticed the yellow no internet triangle....So I was going to go into the settings to toggle but instead I clicked on a browser and presto, it opened up and the triangle went out, go figure. Very random on everything....always these losses occur for no obvious reason.

But, please do take over the discussions, I'd really like to put it to bed someday!

 

[monkeylove]

I experienced this recently and found out that the option to allow the computer to turn off the device in the power management settings of the network adapter was enabled.