*sigh* Another problem, LAN Connection issue...

[Planeswalker]

Ugh, I hate bugging people about this stuff but I'm too stumped for this.

My wireless connection connects just fine, but gaming is starting to be a problem. However, I try hooking my laptop (an Acer Aspire 6930) up to the router, I'll get ten-ish minutes of working Internet, then it goes down to "Limited Connection."

I can't figure out why it does this, and the only solution is either restarting the router, or doing a hard shutdown of the laptop. I shouldn't HAVE to do that every ten minutes just to play a game, download a movie, or whatever.

Here's the kicker though, my roommate connects to the router with a LAN cable as well, but he has zero problems like this. He loses connection when/if the Internet goes out, not because the router/computer throws a hissy fit.

Does anyone know what I might be able to do about this? I'd like to connect strictly through the LAN cable if possible. I've got a combo NETGEAR router/switch, a WGR614v9, if it helps.

Thanks!

 

[chapp]

If your friend doesn't have the same issue you do, it's probably your computer causing the issue. Intermittant network connectivity issues can be tough to troubleshoot. Things to try would be:

Safe mode with networking. You won't be able to play any games but you can surf the net for an hour and see if the connection drops. If the connection is fine in safe mode, then were probably looking at a background app causing the issue. If the connection drops in safe mode, you might try rebuilding TCP/IP with this tool:

http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html

I've had good luck with it.

Troubleshooting background apps can be a pain too. I would recommend using msconfig and unchecking everything in the startup tab, the reboot and see if the net drops. If it doesn't, start checking boxes one by one until the issue appears again.

Also, when the net drops, you should open up a command prompt and try pinging google by DNS name and also by IP. Also try pinging your ISPs DNS server. These are all steps to see how bad your net connection is affected. A lot of people think that because you can't browse, means the conn is down when sometimes its the DNS server or another routing issue.

Try these things and let me know what happpens.

Good luck!