troubleshooting

[desh]

My new WinXP Pro computer seems to lose its internet connection entirely if the connection is completely idle for too long. There was a helpful option in the hardware manager to tell the network adapter to go to sleep if it's idle for too long; I disabled that, but it didn't help. The only workaround I have is rebooting; logging out of Windows and back in doesn't help. (At least, I don't think it does, if I remember from last time; I can't test it this time, since logging back in seems to be hanging the computer. Whoever said XP Pro got the bugginess out was lying.)

Now it could be a problem with my crappy crappy router. (Don't buy D-Link!) In fact, that seems likely, because I can successfully ping my other local computer. But does anyone know of anything else it might be? Known issues with ZoneAlarm, XP Pro SP1, or ethernet adapters onboard NVIDIA mobos?

Edit: Apparently it's DNS that stops working! I can get to Google by its IP address, but not by "google.com". I'm totally confused now. Ideas?

Edit 2, ~6:15pm EDT: What timing. Now my cable modem is entirely non-functional, and Comcast has a message on their tech support line that there are widespread problems. Yippee. This dialup is painful.

Comments

[flyinbutrs.livejournal.com]

Why are you using SP1? Upgrade to SP2... it's much better. Sort of. And XP pro is still way better than home. Or any other MS OS. If you can ping the other computer on your network / the gateway/router, then your network connection is operational. Can the other computer access the internet when this happens? If it can't, it's definitely a router issue. You might want to check to see if there is a newer firmware for the router... if you haven't updated it since you bought it, there probably is.

Other things to try: go into control panel > network connections > local area connection, right click and either repair, or disable and then enable it.
Worst comes to worst, if it really is a sleep issue, there are plenty of "keep alive" connection programs that will keep sending packets and such.

[desh]

Computer couldn't survive the SP2 upgrade. It kept freezing somewhere during the install (different place each time), and then it was screwed up afterwards and I had to recover with Ghost. Will try again some other time.

I could try upgrading the router firmware, but I'd rather just hook up this new router I got. Motorola. I know, I should've only gone Linksys, but this was $8, so it was worth a shot. I'm lazy, though, which is why I haven't done it yet.

And I've tried the disable/enable thing. Yeah, I'll just get some little keep alive program if I need to.

Thanks!

XP SP2

[dredpiraterober.livejournal.com]

I have an XP SP2 CD I can loan you if you want to try installing with that

Re: XP SP2

[desh]

I might at some point.

[bumonyou.livejournal.com]

what is this ghost thing that everyone talks about? Is it awesome?

[chincotaco.livejournal.com]

Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/) is a utility for making images of disks, almost like an ISO. That way, if your HD gets fscked, you can just take your Ghost image that you made when your HD was working, and revert back to that working state.

I worked at a computer store where we sold 100s of computers to freshmen, and they all needed to be configured exactly the same way. So we configured one laptop, made a Ghost image, and then just applied that image to every other laptop. Bingo.

[bumonyou.livejournal.com]

wow...I wants!