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Resolved Question

Internet connectivity random lost, both LAN and WIFI

by Mar 7, 2012 11:33PM PST

Hi, my Toshiba NB100 Netbook w/ WinXP SP3 loses internet connectivity about once a day. Once it happens, only way to recover is to restart the computer.

The wireless network adapter remains in the status "obtaining network address" but apparently it does not find any. Also, in that moment, If I try a cable (Ethernet) connection directly to the router it happens exactly the same and it will not connect.

But restarting the computer works every time and the connection is recovered automatically without problem.

Router is Comtrend ADSL Router CT536+ with SW version A101-220TLF-C35.

A couple of times Windows showed a an error window saying something was wrong with a "DHP server". I do no t know what it is, whether it could be related to the problem and even less, how could I fix it.

It is very annoying because the complete restart takes several minutes. Almost five minutes wait each time!

Thank you for any help!

Discussion is locked

jose_luis2006 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
7 Posts
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Best Answer

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Link, comment. "Change dsl router"
by Forum moderator Mar 9, 2012 1:25AM PST
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I think I solved the problem
by jose_luis2006 Mar 12, 2012 8:40AM PDT

Or so I hoped.

I contacted the ISP, they updated the router Firmware but this changed nothing. So I decided that the router was not assigning correctly the private IPs. probably a DHCP problem. So I found out how to use static private IPs within my WLAN, chose an IP for my Netbook and it has worked flawlessly since then.

In case you do not know how to use static IP is very simple (in XP). Just go to your WLAN adapter, check properties and then in protocols used select TCP/IP and check this protocol properties. Uncheck "assign IP automatically" and complete the IP fields with an IP of your choice. I used 198.168.1.22. and mask 255.255.255.0. The default gate is 192.168.1.1 (the router address). other routers may erquire differnt IP, see below about the ipconfig command.

For the other fields required you can copy from the parameters listed with "run"-->"cmd"-->ipconfig/all.

It is very simple and looks like it works fine. Note that it is not necessary to use static IP in all devices connected to the WLAN. For the moment I only use it with my Netbook, the other two computers in the WLAN run DHCP without much problem.

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Answer
Me too.
by Forum moderator Mar 8, 2012 2:59AM PST

But it's often when there is some wifi interference or a power loss. My laptop with XP (the last we have of that) appears to suffer the same issue. Given the OS's support today I do no expect any fixes. But did discover that I could throw the wifi on/off switch to off, wait a bit and back to on and it would reconnect.

But today I'm running into folk that expected such things to have all the bugs worked out. The truth can upset them.
Bob

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Could it be just bad XP?
by jose_luis2006 Mar 8, 2012 6:01AM PST

I hope we get more feedback from other people with similar problems out there. Because it could be that WinXP has this bug and the best solution could be to switch to Win7 or to Mac?

I have tried anything I could imagine, turning radio on off, the "repair" function, disabling the Wifi adapter, starting new session, nothing works, only a restart will cure the problem, albeit for for a while.

It cannot be related to the WIFI adapter because it happens with the cable LAN also.

And what about a DHP problem? I have noticed that my loss of connectivity happens when my wife turns on her laptop and gets in the same WLAN. But not always and not only then.

Now I have a doubt about the Windows message: maybe it was DHCP error. I saw it just twice during the machine turn-off process so it did not last enough to be sure or note it down.

Any way to diagnose this DHCP thing?

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Researched this model a little.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 8, 2012 8:55AM PST
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Toshiba-NB-100-Netbook.16722.0.html and other readings didn't turn up much.

Did you try another router? For example I've found folk get upset when they hid the SSID and this happens. In those cases the cure is pretty simple. But does not explain the ethernet issue.

Could be as deep as something that's not stock. That is, looking at the discussion I have no idea what's changed since the factory OS was re-installed.
Bob
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Bad router... it could be
by jose_luis2006 Mar 8, 2012 11:14PM PST

Good idea, only that I have to find a router compatible with my ISP.

The router could also affect the Ethernet connection as I plug the Ethernet cable directly on the same router when I test the LAN. If a function of the router (the one assigning the ip to each network element) fails, I would have the same problem both on WiFi and LAN. That is, obtaining an ip never ends, until a timeout closes it.

I will talk with the ISP and see if they can help.

Thank you anyway.

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Answer
Update on connectivity randomly lost in XP
by Mar 23, 2012 7:12PM PDT

In reference to my previous post, I thought I had solved the problem by using fixed IP instead of the DHCP. Unfortunately, it was not so.

Fixed IP solved only a part of the problem: I was no longer stuck in "waiting for an IP address". But I was still losing connectivity. That is, the Netbook now remained "connected", but randomly unable to navigate in any way (browser, mail).

When I lost WiFi connectivity, there was no way to restore it: direct Ethernet connection did not work and most important, I also tried an USB modem with access to a completely different ISP and it did not work too.

I concluded the problem was not in the router or the ISP, but in Windows. OK, but where?. After consulting several threads in Internet I found a reference to a possibly faulty Winsock. Whatever this Windows module is, looks like it can get damaged by Security applications, such as Adware eliminators. A program to fix Winsock was mentioned: WinsockxpFix.exe

They recommended to use it as a last hope, as it makes changes to the Register and could cause much harm. But I was desperate enough, so I tried it. I made a (partial) Register backup, the same program allows for this and then run the Fix.

Now my Netbook has operated for about a week without losing connectivity. Could it be I found a cure? I hope it remains so.

I wanted to share this. Just be careful and try all standard approaches to the problem before using this Fix. It worked for me, who knows for others.

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