Windows 7 and loss of Internet connection

Anonymous
2009-10-30T23:58:23+00:00

In our home office we have a desktop system running Windows 7 as well as an iMac.  Both are connected to Apple's Time Capsule, which serves as a router as well as a backup hard drive for the iMac. (our Internet connection is cable-Internet, by the way.)

Ever since upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7, the Windows 7 desktop is encountering frequent Internet connection errors.  It generally loses the Internet connection several times per day.

Today is the worst manifestation we have seen thus far (since upgrading to Windows 7 last week).  We generally only have an Internet connection for about 2-3 minutes, then it is lost and must be repaired.

We go into Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Troubleshoot Problems > Internet Connections

We allow Windows 7 to automatically diagnose and repair the problem.

Each and every time it goes through the steps of diagnosing and repairing, it ends up "resetting the local area connection adapter."

At the end of the process -- after everything has been repaired -- we get the following report:

"Default gateway is not available - fixed."

What steps do we need to take to permanently solve this problem?

By the way, the iMac is NOT experiencing any Internet connection problems whatsoever.

Thanks in advance!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2009-11-09T19:53:05+00:00

I don't know what you are using to assign addresses, so I am assuming it is a router of some sort. You will need to go to the manufacturers site, look at the manual and find out how to limit the DHCP address scope. I changed mine to limit the assigning of DHCP addresses to 192.168.1.200 through 192.168.1.250. Your router may use the 10. subnet, so your addresses may be different, depends on the router manufacturer, or if you use a DHCP server, the scope set with the DHCP server. That gives me 50 IP addresses for any guests that may want to use wired or wireless connections, and should be more than enough. This allows me to assign 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.199 to a device and not have to worry about the DHCP server trying to use one that is assigned permanently to a device (Printer, switch, PC, Server, Virtual Server, etc).

Once you have that setup in your router, you will now need to assign a static ip to your PC. This is all done from the network adapter.

From the start menu:

Control Panel

Network and Internet

Network and Sharing Center

On the right hand pane of Network and Sharing Center

Change adapter settings

Double Click your network adapter

Select the "Details" radio button

Write down the following lines:

Connection Specific DNS (May or may not exist, depends on provider)

IPv4 Subnet

IPv4 Default Gateway

IPv4 DNS Servers

Once you have written those down, you can close that box.

You should be back at the "Local Area Connection Status" box.

Choose the "Properties" radio button.

Select the "Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4)", which will be in a blue box when selected. 

Now select the "Properties" radio button

The "Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties" box should have popped up. If so:

Select the following:

"Use the following IP address"

In the IP address box, enter an IP address. Example: 192.168.1.20

Press the tab, the subnet should fill in automatically, if not, enter the value from "IPv4 Subnet" you wrote down from the above step. Examp,e: 255.255.255.0

In the dafult gateway, enter the value from the steps above. Example: 192.168.1.254

Now to move on to the next 2 boxes, DNS Servers. You may have only 1 DNS server entry from the DNS entry you wrote down from above.

Enter the DNS servers you notes above.

If there was "Connection Specific DNS" entry or entries, do the following (If not skip the "Connection Specific DNS" sections:

Select the "Advanced" radio button.

The "Additional TCP/IP Settings" windows should open

Select the "DNS" tab

If there is more than 1 "Connection Specific DNS" entry, do the following:

Select the "Append DNS suffixes (in order):"

Select "Add..."

In the "Domain suffix", enter the first Connection Specific DNS entry.

Select the "Add" radio button.

Add all the DNS Specific suffixes you wrote down. You can only enter one at a time.

When finished sleect the "OK" radio button

If you only have 1 entry in "Connection Specific DNS":

In the box labeled "DNS suffix for this connection", type in the entry you noted above for the "Connection Specific DNS".

When finished sleect the "OK" radio button

Check the "validate settings upon exit" box.

Select the "OK" radio button.

Select the "Close" radio button

You should see the 'Windows Network Diagnostics" open, and check for any problems. Hopefully all is well and it states "Troubleshooting could not identify the problem", and choose "Close the Troubleshooter".

Close any additional boxes or pop-ups that are open, and check and make sure allis connecting. If not, go back and verify any steps. the most common are the IP addresses and gateways.

Good luck. Post back if it resolves the issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-02-08T13:22:54+00:00

    Already solved this problem by moving my PC next to my router (FritzFon 7150) which enables me to connect both via LAN and WLAN with my PCI-card without any problem. It seems this is a sensitivity issue. Whilst under Vista Home my PC was away perhaps 7m connecting through   an identical FritzFon 7150, configured as a repeater, I got a strong flawless connection, this then did not work under Windows 7, even after upgrading the drivers to allegedly Windows 7 compatible ones, turning Windows Firewall and Gdata Antivirus Off etc. even installing another PCI-card from D-Link, no luck. Drove me nuts. Perhaps the Microsoft testers have their PCs also near their routers? Should try this at a distance through walls and see if it works. Probably not. So they need to look at something in their respective softwares, which works for Vista but not for Windows 7. Hope this observation helps some of you and especially Microsoft. Upgrading the D-Link PCI driver is a must, otherwise blue screen with lovely stripes J

    Whilst I am much impressed with the new Windows 7 Ultimate US software, now I got it to work even for WLAN, I am considering joining Microsoft Masochists Anonymous, where people like myself can try to talk to each other to rid themselves of their obsession   trying to put right what Microsoft obviously did not finish AGAIN. Same story for every bloody new software release from Microsoft. They never finish the job. The users have to find their bugs. Spent a whole Sunday and nearly got a nervous breakdown ;-) Anyway, good luck to any of you and especially the Microsoft testers.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-08T12:36:42+00:00

    I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits, Asus MB with 4 GB and Encore PCI wireless adapter (with Realtek).

    I made a new windows 7 installation to the machine I built back in Nov 2009. Wireless worked fine with the new and cheap wireless pci adapter for about a couple of months.

    Recently I started experiencing all the problems listed by users here. At first thought it was a problem with my internet provider but I discarded it as the source of the problem because I have my old desktop (win xp) connected via wire to the wireless router/access point. When my windows 7 had no internet connection I checked the connection using the wired desktop and verified that it was not a problem of the router/access point nor of the dsl provider since my wired desktop had internet connection and fast access.

    I did an extended research on internet forums and tried all that is advised but the problem was still there.

    The solution for me was to uninstall all previous realtek wireless drivers and then install the driver from the manufacturers site (which was older than the one in my OS) for windows 7 64 bit. I had to do this manually (using the option where you specify the driver .inf location where the driver to install exists) since Windows 7 was always telling me that I had the best driver already.

    Now my wireless is back to work (and with fast connection) and the problem slow speed or connectivity loss hasn't happened again.

    Hope this helps out to others with the same problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-06T14:11:43+00:00

    I posted this on a similar thread. Hope it is of some use.

    Okay, I have been using the heck out of my internet connection and IE8 for 5 1/2 days with no dropped connections. It usually would lose connection within 2 or max 3 days in the past.

    I don't know if the recent updates to W7 and IE8 had anything to do with this or not. Heaven knows it would be just like Microsoft to fix the problem without ever admitting it.

    I did however make some changes to the NIC settings that may (and I emphasize may) have also been a fix. So I'll post them here for anyone else to try as they are not heavy duty changes to the registry or make any changes that cannot be easily changed back.

    First I have to tell you I am running W7 X 64 Enterprise on an Asus P6T V2 motherboard and am using the Marvell Yukon NIC. I don't know how this will work with other combinations, but it just may.

    First I went to the Marvell Yukon sight and downloaded their newest driver and installed it. I won't recommend this if you haven't done it before and I don't even know if it was necessary, but I was searching for solutions and this seemed like a logical possibility.

    Then I went into Control Panel - Network and Internet - Network Connections - (right click and select) Properties - (under) Power Management (I unchecked the power saving function) - (then went under) Advanced (and disable the "Energy Star" function). Both are easily reversed if they do not work. For other drivers I don't know if there is an Energy Star funcion or not.

    All disclaimers apply including the big one that I may not know what I am talking about.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-05T21:03:51+00:00

    toshag, Please PLEASE let me know if you figure this out! I am the IT guy in my office (Store) and I did my own machine last. I am connected to the network, but it says "unidentified network- no intenret access" and I did mine LAST! now everyone else is on with the same DNS settings and aside from "Go online for help" the best I got from W7 wss "DNS Server unavailable or incorrect" So, any ideas or assistance wil be MUCH appreciaeted

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