http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Intermittent-loss-of-Internet-Router-ZAlarm-OS-or-22694270 en Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:30:42 EDT Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:30:42 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Intermittent-loss-of-Internet-Router-ZAlarm-OS-or-22694270
The problem is for many months now I have intermittent internet connections. I can make the initial connections, but then have trouble maintaining the connection as time passes. The compaq seems most noticeable, although we use it less. I checked two days ago, and every thirty minutes the network icon in the systray would pop up and say the PC was reconnected, and then the connectivity would stop. Sometimes I have to just restart the compaq and other times I have to restart the main PC, the Dell, down in the basement. Usually, but not always, if one of the machines losses connectivity, they have all lost connectivity. I have not noticed the 30 minute problem on the Dell and Toshiba, but the Toshiba we are seldom on for 30 minutes and the Dell I have certainly been on more then 30 minutes without a problem (like right now). Although with all machines, the problem happens eventually. Sometimes the problem happens within a couple of minutes. COX says the signal is getting to me fine.

I have recovered the OS on the Compaq from the D drive. That was a pain and seems to have made no difference.

I have also used a Scientific Atlanta 2100 modem. It also made no difference.

In the spring I was getting blue screens on the Dell related to netio.sys. Dell said that program is related to how I connect to the internet. I already had the MS patch for the problem and so Dell said I would need to reinstall the OS. I have not done that yet because the blue screens went away and I didn't want the hassle.

Day of Defeat, a computer game, is the only program we use that seems to hang up from time to time and have trouble closing if we restart the Dell PC. Not always, but sometimes. We could have logged out of the game the day before, but if we close the PC or restart it the next day, sometimes it will say DoD did not close properly.

In all my searching on the web and in talking with Dell, it seems the problem could be related to: the old D-Link router, the Vista OS on the Dell, Zone Alarm (free), or something else about which I have no idea.

Questions.
1. Any ideas to improve reliability of our internet connection?
2. Should I get rid of Zone Alarm on all computers? IE the windows firewall will do the job fine and be more compatible with the network connections, shared printers, files, etc?
3. Should I replace my old D-Link with a new router? If so, should I just get th N (I am inclined to) and which brand/model would be the best for a home network? I have liked the D-Link in the past, and they are pretty cheap right now for Ns, but I am a bit scared of D-Link at this point. Are those fears unfounded?
4. How likely is it the OS on the Dell is the problem and I really need to reinstall that? I don't want to do this, but if I have to, I guess I have to.

Thanks much. :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Intermittent-loss-of-Internet-Router-ZAlarm-OS-or-22694270 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:08:23 EDT