PC losing connection

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I have a PC at home that I use only for one purpose: BOINC running Climateprediction. The system is running 24*7 and sends up a trickle a few times a day. The monitor is usually turned off.

The PC is connected via a wireless adapter to a router in another room. Every few days I turn on the monitor to see the progress, and each time BOINC Manager displays a balloon that it needs to connect to the Internet.

But the little connection icon in the systray says it is connected, and that the signal is "good" or "strong". But when I open Internet Explorer, or ping something on the Internet, I can't get a connection.

A reboot usually cures the problem. Until a few days later...

Right-clicking on the connection icon in the systray gives me the option to "repair" the Internet connection. This will terminate the connection, then re-establish it. However that doesn't cure the problem - only a reboot does.

Any suggestion what I should look for, or how to diagnose this lost connection?

[-pops-]

I'm having a similar problem at the moment but I know the reason for my dropouts (I think). The telephone company is upgrading the local exchange to 8Mb and they are severing the connection periodically.

Most times, a line dropout reconnects automatically for me but these one aren't doing that for some reason and I need a hard reboot. Have you asked the telephone company?

BTW I keep getting short periods of 8Mb connnection speed. It's so fast that it's here almost before I asked. Hope it's not too expensive! :)

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Have you asked the telephone company?

None of the other computers at home are having any problem (connected to the same router). But then the others are normally shut down when not in use.

[dagwoood]

A stab in the dark this Pat but I assume your router is connected to your pc via a network adapter. Check in the adaptors properties > configure > power management that there isn't a tick in the "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power" box.

HTH, dagwoood.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks for the suggestion, Dagwood. I have changed some of the driver settings, and I will see in a few days if the behaviour changed.

[Invisible§niper]

I have a PC at home that I use only for one purpose: BOINC running Climateprediction. The system is running 24*7 and sends up a trickle a few times a day. The monitor is usually turned off.

The PC is connected via a wireless adapter to a router in another room. Every few days I turn on the monitor to see the progress, and each time BOINC Manager displays a balloon that it needs to connect to the Internet.

But the little connection icon in the systray says it is connected, and that the signal is "good" or "strong". But when I open Internet Explorer, or ping something on the Internet, I can't get a connection.

A reboot usually cures the problem. Until a few days later...

Right-clicking on the connection icon in the systray gives me the option to "repair" the Internet connection. This will terminate the connection, then re-establish it. However that doesn't cure the problem - only a reboot does.

Any suggestion what I should look for, or how to diagnose this lost connection?

What makes me wonder is because you say it happens when you turn on your monitor, so what I'm wondering can it be that your monitor is causing some kind of eltro-magnetic interference. Maybe try and turn off the monitor while your Internet connection is working and turn it back on straight away to see if it does the same thing. Or try and move the router closer to the PC to stop any possibility of electro-magnetic interference.

One other possibility could be that your ISP could be kicking you off the Internet periodically, which some ISP's do. This would explain why the icon in the system tray states that you are still connected. And technically if that assumption was true it would just be referring to the LAN connection established to your router and not an actual connection to the Internet.

[catgate]

I am having similar troubles. I have just read Nellie's article on Zero Day Exploit, minimised WF, then checked my security settings as described.On coming back found I had no connection. This is the second time today that the connection dropped out. The last time was after a period of a couple of hours of inactivity.

There seems to be no pattern to it. (Other than it does not occur when I have the computer shut down at night.)

Edit:- I have just realised that, in view of my other post in this section,it may be assumed that it was all going on on one machine. It is not. This problem is associated with a stand alone box of tricks whilst the othe problem is on an entirely different box of tricks and, of course, a laptop.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks for the suggestion, Dagwood. I have changed some of the driver settings, and I will see in a few days if the behaviour changed.

No, still losing connection.

What makes me wonder is because you say it happens when you turn on your monitor, so what I'm wondering can it be that your monitor is causing some kind of eltro-magnetic interference. Maybe try and turn off the monitor while your Internet connection is working and turn it back on straight away to see if it does the same thing. Or try and move the router closer to the PC to stop any possibility of electro-magnetic interference.

Actually the balloon does not appear when I turn on the monitor; it had already been sitting there invisibly. The BOINC message log shows that it had been trying to connect for a long time - several days.

One other possibility could be that your ISP could be kicking you off the Internet periodically, which some ISP's do. This would explain why the icon in the system tray states that you are still connected. And technically if that assumption was true it would just be referring to the LAN connection established to your router and not an actual connection to the Internet.

I have now contacted my ISP's support desk.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

ISP says they are not dropping any DSL connections.

Maybe I should have a look at the Event Viewer...?

[Invisible§niper]

ISP says they are not dropping any DSL connections.

Maybe I should have a look at the Event Viewer...?

Does this happen only when you run this program or does it happen randomly even when you are not using this program? If it happens when you are not using this program then you might have some kind of physical networking problem. On the flip side if it happens only when you run this program, then it might be just the program causing the problem. One thing you could do is search the program manufacturers website for other people with the same problem and try and find sollution that way. I have found some interesting google results on this topic http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=BO...le+Search&meta=.

One possibly useful trouble-shooting technique is here http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboin...read.php?id=960.

Also what kind of Internet connection do you have(ADSL, ISDN, Dial-Up, Cable, ect)?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

First, nothing in the Event Viewer.

I'm on ADSL, and my BOINC general settings for "Confirm before connecting to Internet" and "Disconnect when done?" are both "no".

BOINC and ClimatePrediction are running all the time, so it could or could not be caused by this application. However, I asked the question also in the ClimatePrediction forum, but nobody else has this problem.

In a way I completely do not understand what is happening - the connection between the wireless adapter and the router is fine, but it's not possible to connect to the Internet. Other computers on the same router have no problems. (But they do not run 24*7).

I am baffled by this...

[Invisible§niper]

First, nothing in the Event Viewer.

I'm on ADSL, and my BOINC general settings for "Confirm before connecting to Internet" and "Disconnect when done?" are both "no".

BOINC and ClimatePrediction are running all the time, so it could or could not be caused by this application. However, I asked the question also in the ClimatePrediction forum, but nobody else has this problem.

In a way I completely do not understand what is happening - the connection between the wireless adapter and the router is fine, but it's not possible to connect to the Internet. Other computers on the same router have no problems. (But they do not run 24*7).

I am baffled by this...

One of the first things you have to do when diagnosing a computer problem is to work out if it's software related or hardware related. So I guess if the other computers are fine whenever you leave them running for 24/7 with BOINC/Climate Prediction operating then it's obviously not BOINC/Climate Prediction causing the problem. Is there any other programs on your computer that utilise Internet bandwidth when you are running BOINC?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Now that I have the new wireless adapter istalled, and set up the home network, back to this old topic.

The BOINC computer is still losing connectivity after a few hours work. However, I know a bit more now. When it happened again yesterday, I stopped ZoneAlarm: the connection for both Internet Explorer and BOINC came immediately back.

Started ZoneAlarm; no problem with the connection. Until a few hours later, again...

ZA has all IE, BOINC and BOINC Manager defined as Trusted and Internet access allowed. What could this possibly be - I have never seen this on any other computer...?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Looked around the Zone Labs support fora. One suggestion for a similar situation was to add the DNS/DHCP Servers IP address to the trusted zone.

Done that, and now observing for a few hours.

[homecomputeraid]

Pat,

Please check you DHCP lease times. It could be that your lease is only a couple of days long, and the PC isn't successfully pulling a new IP address from your router when it expires for some reason.

To check this, go to a command prompt (Start, run, cmd if using XP), and type ipconfig /all. Look for the following line:

		Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, May 13, 2006 6:45:03 PM
		Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, May 21, 2006 6:45:03 PM

The interval between them tells how long your lease is. The computer will usually start trying to negotiate with the server after half of the lease time has elapsed. If you only have a couple of computers on your home network, you can bump the lease time up on your router.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks, Ted. I will check it this evening.

P.S. Your Japanese (in the other topic) is still perfect!

[catgate]

I have been having drop outs for weeks and have not yet found the answer, but I had a 'phone call about an hour ago from an expert electronics friend of mine in Wales, which has shone a little more light the matter. He has had a mysterious drop out problem and cured it by putting ferrite rings around the various cables into and out of his modem. He claims it is dirty mains power into the computer being picked up as a signal by the modem. He claims the main culprit in most domestic situations is central heating switching mechanisms.

I have not tried it yet but before the day is out I hope to have done so. I pass it for what it is worth.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Checked that PC every day, and the connection was OK - until this morning. So I ran ipconfig /all, and it showed Lease Obtained: exactly the very time I typed the ipconfig command, and Lease Expires: exactly 24 hours from then.

And interestingly the connection was restored.