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Windows 7 random network disconnects

GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Windows 7 random network disconnects

First a lttle background:
Been with Force9 since 1998, through dial-up and BB (1mb, 2mb and 8mb), and have been very satisfied with the service.
Upgraded to Win7 upon release back in Oct '09, clean install as previously running Vista 32 bit.
I'm around a Km from the exchange and since being on DSLmax, have always synched at the highest rate with a very stable connection (router is always on). It was not uncommon to have the line up for several months.

Windows 7 (64bit) SP1 fully updated with all patches via windows update.
Old Voyager 205 Router (D-Link went south - for winter maybe)
A few months ago I started seeing random disconnections, there was nothing in particular I could tie this down to, even referring to the event logs...DNS Client Events and DHCP Client Events all appeared around the time of the disconnections, but I believe are a consequence of the disconnection rather than the cause. I have noticed that once in a disconnected state, the DSL link is still up, so the issue seems to be between the PC, the NIC and the router.
There seems several ways back, depending on the severity of the disconnection
- The connection will re-establish itself after a few minutes...
- The Network Adaptor requires a reset...
- The router needs a reboot...
In most cases a reboot of the router is required.
A quick google, finds literally hundreds of thousands of similar posts around various technical sites including Microsoft answers, help and technet.
After reading many of these threads, there seems to be only one common factor, Windows 7. As I run with a single PC only, I was intrigued to find many complaining that within a network connected through the same router, XP and Vista machines remained connected, while the Win7 machines exhibited these random disconnects.
All the threads have much speculation as to the cause and its resolution  Sad but nothing definitive.
Some of the suggestions are...
replace the router
replace the NIC
reinstall windows
disable the IPv6 protocol
disble Task Offload
use a different dns
disable the Browser service
disbale the WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
Recently these disconnects have become so regular as to render even browsing almost impossible. After so many resets, my Profile is now down to 5.5Mb, with a synch speed of 6336kbps, far below what I would expect.  Cry
Is anyone else having similar issues?
Apart from going back to Vista (no, no, no, no...) or XP, does anyone have any suggestions ?  Cool
4 REPLIES 4
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Windows 7 random network disconnects

I saw that a short while ago after the computer woke from sleep despite having set the network connection as not to go into power saving.
I reset it to that again and it hasn't come back
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Windows 7 random network disconnects

Quote from: GrahamC
Old Voyager 205 Router

I would think this is the most likely cause of your problem, whatever Google tells you.  If rebooting the computer does not clear the problem and rebooting the router does clear the problem then it's a router issue, not a computer issue.
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: Windows 7 random network disconnects

Had the same issue with the D-Link that had been working well with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, up until around August this year. This is when the disconnects started to manifest themselves.
There are two config options I have made that seem to alleviate the issue a little, but not resolve it totally, they are:
Disable NetBIOS in TCP/IP (Advanced TCP/IP Settings)
Flow Control = OFF (NIC settitngs)
The NIC is an onboard Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet.
Even with these settings, I still have disconnects, even when just browsing the net.
dick:quote
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: Windows 7 random network disconnects

After a long period of testing, research, trial and error, I may have finally resolved the issues described in the OP.
I managed to get the DLink-G604T unbricked, updated and tested through many versions of firmware including UK, Australian, Russian and Italian. All would stubbornly produce the same symptoms and errors as previously described, almost always requiring a router reboot to re-establish a connection.
As a last resort I've updated the firmware to RouterTech's version 2.79 and it works a treat  Cool
For the first time in several months I've managed to keep a connection for over 6 hours, infact I've not had a dropped connection since the update, now 60+ hours and counting...
Checking the windows event logs, all errors concerning networking, DNS, DHCP are no more, very happy so far  Cheesy