Virgin Media Internet Problem

[arvin]

I have got Virgin Media broadband services (2M). I have a connection from the modem to my laptop via ethernet cable.

I leave the modem on 24/7, but switch off the laptop after i have finished using it.

Up to now i did not have any problems, but recently, I have been loosing my internet connection when i switch on my laptop on.

I tried their technical support and they have advised that I am loosing my ip address (IPv4) and its to do with the laptop.

Anyone familiar with this kind of problem and is there any way i can lock the IP address?

[johnwill]

I have no idea what they're talking about, but that statement makes no sense. Of course you're losing your IP address, you turned your machine off!

When you turn on the laptop, please do this right after the boot.

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[arvin]

This is the ipconfig/all files. The connection is on at the moment but when there is no connection the the IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : starts with 169.....etc



Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Arvin>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ArvinCompaq
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-73-21-D9-D2
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-36-E3-18-E8
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::64db:6f37:bcb1:5743%8(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 81.97.221.38(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 July 2007 06:11:23
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 17 July 2007 17:44:36
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 81.97.220.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.253.64.20
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 201332278
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{B1864367-A822-45A6-BD96-3642981C1
F41}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::200:5efe:81.97.221.38%18(Preferred)

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2002:5161:dd26::5161:dd26(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 2002:c058:6301::c058:6301
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4136:e38c:143e:37a2:ae9e:22d9(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::143e:37a2:ae9e:22d9%10(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 10:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{0C421B5C-27FC-410D-999D-F20CE61EE
98D}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Arvin>

[johnwill]

Well, that looks like a valid connection was established, are you saying you can't connect right after capturing this IPCONFIG output?

[TheKLF99]

When you get an internet address starting 169 that is Windows temporary IP address. It is not a real IP address. Usually its when Windows hasn't been able to retrieve the IP address in the correct amount of time. The one that starts 81 is your proper Virgin Media address.

Virgin are right that you are losing your IP address every time you switch off your computer. When you first connect to Virgin media it does take a few minutes for them to register your computer on to the network, it's not quite as fast as if you were to go through a router, and during this time Windows gets impatient and just assigns you the temporary IP address.

The only way to get round this is to buy a router and plug your Virgin media into the router. You will then need to clone your computers MAC address onto the router to access Virgin. As long as your router stays on you wont get this 169 IP address anymore. Instead you'll get an IP address assigned by the router (usually 192.168) and this will be assigned a lot faster than Virgin's IP so Windows wont get impatient!

The other advantage to connecting it through a router is that you will also have a hardware firewall there, so it will stop any nasties DoS attacks getting through to your computer (note it will stop DoS attacks, not viruses). Which seeing as you've just posted your IP address onto a forum it would probably be a very good idea to either ask Virgin to change your IP address or get a router as there are people out there that will take IP addresses that have been posted to message boards and use them maliciously.

In future I would strongly recommend that if anyone asks you to post your IPConfig information on the internet you edit out the last two numbers of your IP address, as people only need to see the first two numbers to figure out where the problem is.

[johnwill]

Originally Posted by TheKLF99

In future I would strongly recommend that if anyone asks you to post your IPConfig information on the internet you edit out the last two numbers of your IP address, as people only need to see the first two numbers to figure out where the problem is.

I suggest that you're wrong here.

First off, when you're dealing with a private IP address, they'll obviously all start with 192.168.x.x for most SOHO routers. That conveys no useful information if you have more than one address in the network.

Now, consider the public IP address. Hackers don't look for a specific IP address, they normally scan a range of thousands or more to look for vulnerable systems. A single IP address is not an attractive target.

My IP address is 173.49.71.108, and I'm not at all worried about posting it. This is a non-issue, and telling people to obfuscate their data only makes assistance more difficult.