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Loose internet connection every couple of hours

grajackgor

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Posted March 23, 2011 at 3:38PM

This has been happening for about a 5 days.
Problem cured by rebooting
Tried normal repairs and winsock repairs.
have Windows XP with Service pack 3 Take automatic updates. Desktop computer
Use AOL software and Internet explorer to access internet. Use Speedtouch 585v6 router
Windows diagnostics comes up with Winsock problem which it fixes and advises reboot. But problem is solved by reboot any way. Any body got any ideas?
Windows 7 laptop doesn't seem to have problem, but actually dont use it for that long usually

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mgmcc

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Posted March 23, 2011 at 8:34PM

Go into the router's settings and check that the DHCP Lease Time is set to an adequate value. Mine is set to 1440 minutes (24 hours), although the DHCP server *should* automatically renew the lease long before it expires.

In your case, a short lease time might be causing the PC to lose its IP address. When a PC is rebooted, it will request a new IP address from the DHCP server. Alternatively, you could try giving the PC's network adapter a fixed IP address to see if that resolves the problem.

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grajackgor

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Posted March 24, 2011 at 1:45PM

Thanks mgmmc

I managed to find the DHCpleese time settings. They are set to 24 hours.
As to giving a fixed IP address to the adapter; not really sure how to do this and could it cause other problems?

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mgmcc

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Posted March 24, 2011 at 4:40PM

To allocate a fixed IP address go into the Network Connections folder ("Start > Run", type NCPA.CPL and click OK) then right click the appropriate network connection - Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection - and select Properties. Highlight the entry for "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click the Properties button.

Select the option to "Use the following IP address" and enter addresses such as these:

IP address - 192.168.0.40
Subnet Mask - 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway - 192.168.0.1 (the router's IP address)
DNS Server - 192.168.0.1 (the router's IP address)

NOTE: The first three octets (numbers) of the IP address you use *MUST* be the same as those of the router's IP address. The final octet can be any *UNUSED* number between 1 and 254. I suggested 40 which should avoid any conflicts and be outside the 'pool' of addresses from which the router allocates by DHCP. Check first what your router's IP address is by running IPCONFIG /ALL in a Command Prompt window and looking for the Default Gateway address.

To revert to automatic addressing set *BOTH* IP and DNS sections back to getting their addresses automatically. Using fixed addresses won't cause any problems as long as there isn't a conflict with two devices having the same IP address.

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grajackgor

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Posted March 28, 2011 at 11:53AM

I found that I didn't need to reboot to fix the problem, just log out and log back in. Since I did this the problem seems to have gone away. At least over the weekend.
I will keep the option of fixed IP address, mgmcc, for reserve, in case it happens again. Thanks for your time and suggestions

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