Intermittent Internet Access

[leebreeze]

Hi, This is my first post and I am not really sure this is the right section but there did not seem to be a section for internet problems generally.

Please advise if I should put this somewhere else. My problem is as follows.

I have a network set up at home with my desktop wired to my D-Link router and 3 other computers wirelessly networked.

I have intermittent access to the internet but only on the desktop. The desktop is running Windows XP home SP2. 2 laptops are running XP pro SP2 and the media centre is running XP media centre.

I can access the other computers from the desktop so I think the network is running ok, and I can access the internet about half of the time. It makes no difference if I use IE or firefox.

The funny thing is it is so sporadic that if I do a google search it works but if I then try to connect to one of the search results it does not??? So it seems to be working on some sites even when it's not working??

In the meantime the other computers work fine so I do not think the problem is with the router. Just the desktop computer.

I am at the point of trying to format and reinstall windows. However that brings up another problem as I have a preinstalled version of windows with an I386 folder on my harddrive and a sticker with the product key on the computer casing. And I am not sure how to re-install as there seems to be conflicting information about this on the internet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have tried with and without firewalls etc. Removed McAfee completely, Ran spybot S&D, all these things make no difference.

Thank You in advance for your help.
Lee

[johnwill]

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

Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Make and exact model of the broadband modem.
Make and exact model of the router.
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.

[leebreeze]

Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Orange (UK)

Make and exact model of the broadband modem.
Make and exact model of the router.
D-Link wireless router and modem combined Model DSL-G624T

Connection type, wired or wireless.
The computer with the problem (desktop) is wired, the other 3 (that work) connect wirelessly

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

Make and model of your computer.
Advent 3418 (UK)

Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP1-SP2, Vista, etc.
Running XP-Home on desktop with SP2 and I have auto updates so I assume all patches are up to date.

Thank You!!

[johnwill]

Ok, so we have one machine with a wired connection failing. Did you try changing the port it's connected to on the router, and try a new cable.

When it's working, then again when it fails, let's see this.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type 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.

[leebreeze]

OK, I tried another port on my router and it is working at the moment. I don't have another cable to try, but will get one as soon as I can.

I have done as you asked and below is the result.

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

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

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DeskTop
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethe
rnet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-30-BD-6B-AE-B8

Ethernet adapter D-Link:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
on #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-76-7D-3E-80
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.13
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth PAN Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F6-01-D2-E6

C:\Documents and Settings\Lee>

Next time it fails I will do the same and paste it here.

Many thanks for your help. I can see from the other posts that you are kept very busy.

As an aside, when I search the forums on this site, I very often get some type of fatal error. Am I doing something wrong??

Thanks again. Lee

[johnwill]

All of that looks good, so if it keeps working, you may have a bad port, or possibly a damaged cable.

As far as the fatal errors, I have no idea. If you post a screen shot of the exact error you get, we may be able to look into it.

[leebreeze]

Here is an example:

I tried searching
re-install windows without CD and got

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 75497472 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 17 bytes) in /home/tsf/public_html/search.php on line 884
Cheers, Lee

[leebreeze]

Hi,
OK I have replaced the cable with a cat6 and am using a different port, but the problem is still there.

Do you think I should do a full reset of my router?

Otherwise I am ready to do a harddrive format and re-install but I still have the problem of no windows CDs. I only have recovery disks it asked me to make when I first turned it on, or a folder on my c:/ drive labeled I386.

Thanks again, Lee

[johnwill]

I think you have bigger issues that just network issues.

If you have the recovery disks that you created using their recovery disk wizard, that's what you need to do a complete reload of the system.