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
    2009-11-04T21:46:31+00:00

    This problem still persists.  Nothing has changed.

    All of my hardware -- everything!  -- has the latest firmware and drivers.  (All of these individual hardware companies are posting certified/guaranteed Windows 7 compatible drivers/firmware.)

    There must be something here that Microsoft missed in designing their OS.

    It's difficult to believe that what is supposed to be the most advanced personal OS ever released to the public is having such tremendous difficulties for so many people.  I am hearing about Internet connection horror stories (and other hardware problems) right and left.

    I realize that with the release of every brand-new OS there are always some incompatibility issues, but this is ridiculous!

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-11-03T09:07:38+00:00

    Hi,

    I am having the same problems as Highland had - this has occured since installing windows 7 prior to installing any anti-virus, I ensured my belkin firmware drivers were up-to-date and have rebooted it.

    Any suggestions?

    I read somewhere that there could be a conflict between my motherboard drivers and the standard windows drivers.

    Thanks,

    Ant

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-11-03T05:09:00+00:00

    Thanks very much for the info provided!

    Thus far, I have taken the following 4 steps……..

    ….  But before I get into those steps, let me briefly just say the following as an update on the situation:

    -- My Internet connection has been regularly disconnecting throughout the weekend while I have attempted to follow a few of your suggestions, and throughout the past 24-48 hours my desktop system has even blue screened on 3-4 occasions.  I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit edition, by the way.

    -- Firefox (3.5.4) has crashed at least 8-10 times throughout the weekend.  This is HIGHLY unusual.  Firefox NEVER crashed prior to upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista.

    First, I made certain that the Apple Time Capsule had the latest firmware.  It did.  The latest was 7.4.2, which I have on board already.

    Secondly, I made certain that my network adapter (NVIDIA) had the latest drivers.  I did upgrade these about 24 hours ago (Sunday afternoon) since a later version of the drivers was indeed available, but the system has nevertheless blue screened a couple of times since updating the drivers.

    Third, I uninstalled my free antivirus software (Avira) as apparently it is not Windows 7 ready.  (I'm not 100% certain about this, but on download.com it doesn't list Windows 7 as being one of the compatible OS's.)  I switched over to the free version of AVG, as it lists Windows 7 as being one of the compatible OS's.

    Lastly, disconnecting the Windows Firewall doesn't seem to make a difference one way or the other.

    However, since I uninstalled Avira (early this morning) I have not had one single instance of a lost connection to the Internet.  I'm crossing my fingers at this point; maybe Avira was the problem after all.

    I still have not restarted in Safe Mode.  That will be my next move if I lose the connection again.

    Thanks again!

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-11-02T18:48:45+00:00

    Can you expand on this bridged connection idea.  Does that mean you connect a second ethernet cable to your router.  How do you bridge the connection?

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