Network Connection Problems

[jabdor]

Hey everyone,
This is my first time using the forums to help my situation, hopefully it will end my problems.

I have 3 laptops (wifi), 1 desktop(usb), and 1 xbox 360 (wifi) that all use the same router. The 3 laptops lose connection approximately every 5 minutes. When they lose connection the computer cannot find the router and it disconnects the Wireless Network Connection. Usually it will reconnect within seconds, but there are times where it will be gone for 5 minutes. This makes it hard to update virus protection, windows updates, and maintain a game over the internet or between the computers.
The desktop does not lose connection, and the xbox severely lags.

I've done a lot of research and I still have no clue what the problem is. My only guess is that the router cannot handle the multiple computers, but if this were true then if only one computer were using the router then it would be fine. This is not true.

This is very frustrating when you spend so much money on a router, computers, games and then it doesn't work. If you have any advice I'll take it, thanks.

[johnwill]

Please supply the following info, exact make and models of the equipment please.

What country are you located in.
Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
What is the expected Upstream/Downstream speed for your ISP Connection?
Make and exact model of the broadband modem.
Make and exact model and hardware version of the router (if a separate unit).
Model numbers can usually be obtained from the label on the device.
Connection type, wired or wireless.
If wireless, encryption used, (none, WEP, WPA, or WPA2)
Make and model of your computer.
Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP1-SP2, Vista, etc.
The Internet Browser in use, IE, Firefox, Opera, etc.




Please give an exact description of your problem symptoms, including the exact text of any error messages.

If you're using a wireless connection, have you tried a direct connection with a cable to see if that changes the symptoms?

If there are other computers on the same network, are they experiencing the same issue, or do they function normally?




On any affected computer, I'd also like to see this:

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following commands:

PING 216.109.112.135

PING yahoo.com

NBTSTAT -n

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.

[jabdor]

What country are you located in.
-USA

Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
-AT&T Yahoo

What is the expected Upstream/Downstream speed for your ISP Connection?
-Unknown, I dont know how to find out

Make and exact model of the broadband modem.
-2wire 1701 hg gateway

Make and exact model and hardware version of the router (if a separate unit).
-I do not believe there is any other hardware

Connection type, wired or wireless.
- The three laptops are wireless and the computer is wired

If wireless, encryption used, (none, WEP, WPA, or WPA2)
-WEP

Make and model of your computer.
-All Dell,
Two Inspiron 6000 (laptop)
one Latitude d630 (laptop)
one Dimension 8400 (desktop)

Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP1-SP2, Vista, etc.
-All are XP-Pro

The Internet Browser in use, IE, Firefox, Opera, etc.
- AT&T Yahoo and Firefox, but the loss of connection affects all browsers


There aren't any "error" messages, only the message that askes you to connect to a wireless network because I have lost connection. There is an error message when I try to repair the connection. It says: "Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following actions cannot be completed:
Clearing the DNS cache"


If you're using a wireless connection, have you tried a direct connection with a cable to see if that changes the symptoms?
-I don't have a cable to connect it directly, but I have connected my xbox directly to the router and it has the same lag/disconnection problem as it had with the wifi adapter.

If there are other computers on the same network, are they experiencing the same issue, or do they function normally?
- all of the computers have the same issue, but not to the same degree.
The two inspirons have the most trouble, the lattitude (which is the newest and most powerfull computer) has problems, but it comes and goes. The desktop (which is connected via usb) has the least amount of problems, but every couple of days it will disconnect numerous times.

Here are the Command Prompt reports:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\dabrandts>PING 216.109.112.135

Pinging 216.109.112.135 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=56
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=76ms TTL=56
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=56
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 74ms, Maximum = 90ms, Average = 78ms

C:\Documents and Settings\dabrandts>PING yahoo.com

Pinging yahoo.com [66.94.234.13] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=56
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=56
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 66.94.234.13:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 77ms, Maximum = 96ms, Average = 85ms

C:\Documents and Settings\dabrandts>NBTSTAT -n

Wireless Network Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.112] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
DABRANDTS <00> UNIQUE Registered
DABRANDTS <20> UNIQUE Registered
4MNMS <00> GROUP Registered
4MNMS <1E> GROUP Registered
4MNMS <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [169.254.158.51] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
DABRANDTS <00> UNIQUE Registered
DABRANDTS <20> UNIQUE Registered
4MNMS <00> GROUP Registered
4MNMS <1E> GROUP Registered
4MNMS <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

C:\Documents and Settings\dabrandts>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DABRANDTS
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : gateway.2wire.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Cont
roller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-12-3F-E0-D2-6D

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Networ
k Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-CE-23-11-55
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.112
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, May 19, 2008 2:17:59 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 20, 2008 2:17:59 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\dabrandts>

[johnwill]

Well, you are connected with a wireless connection to the Internet, you pinged an Internet site by name and IP address.

Connect one of the computers directly with a cable, disconnect the other two, and run the following test.

Register at DSLReports and run their Line Quality Tests. It's best to run this test with a direct wired connection to eliminate any wireless issues from the results. It's useful many times to run this test several times, and we'd like to see each of the results. Post the results link from the top of the test display page for each test run here.

The link to post is near the top of the page and looks like:

If you wish to post this result to a forum, please copy/paste this URL
http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2357195 <- sample only, yours will obviously be different!
and your IP will be disguised.

Copy/paste that link here.

Note: You will have to enable PING (ICMP) request response either in your router (if you have one), or in your computer's firewall for direct modem connections. This is very important to get the most important part of the test to run.

[jabdor]

I used the desktop (dimension 8400) because it is the only computer that doesn't use the wireless connection. It uses a usb connection, I hope that doesn't mess anything up.

The desktop has the least amount of problems, I dont know if that should affect the Line Quality Test.

Here is the link for the DSL Reports:
http://www.dslreports.com/testhistory/1552909/0a1db

As for your note about enabling the PING (ICMP), I think it is enabled because the tests ran fine, but I don't know how to check to make sure. The Firewall setting Allows for incoming echo request, but that is it.

[johnwill]

Well, those tests look fine, so the ISP side appears to be working properly.

[jabdor]

I guess that is good and bad.
Good because it isn't a problem then, but bad because then there is something else that is causing all of this.

What should I do now?

(p.s. thanks for your help so far)

[wrench97]

Originally Posted by jabdor

I guess that is good and bad.
Good because it isn't a problem then, but bad because then there is something else that is causing all of this.

What should I do now?

(p.s. thanks for your help so far)

Sounds like a Wifi access point issue. If it's built into your gateway does it belong to your ISP? If so call them have them troubleshoot and send a
replacement. Secondly I've heard of issues with using the USB connection
instead of a Cat5 cable if it's possible you should switch over on the desktop.