| [Northeast] PC keeps losing internet connectivity Hopefully this is the right forum to post my question in.
I have a Windows XP Home PC connected to the internet via Verizon FiOS. About 2 months ago it started losing it's internet connection several times a day. I don't know if the problem is with the PC or the router. This PC has a wired Ethernet connection to the router. Other wireless devices continue to be able to access the internet when the PC has lost it's connection.
The router is the Actiontec MI424WR.
The PC in question was set up with a static DHCP lease because I use ssh tunnels from remote locations to access the PC sometimes and I wanted it to always get the same IP address. It's the only device on my network using a static lease.
I've tried moving the cable to a different port on the router but it didn't help.
I've also tried reinstalling the network driver and that didn't help either.
The firmware version on the router is 4.0.16.1.56.0.10.14.4
Some observations...
In the router's configuration, if I look at the list of DHCP connections, I see the PC's MAC address appearing multiple times with different IP addresses. On the PC itself "ipconfig" shows it has the address that was assigned with static DHCP. The other addresses are all listed in the router as dynamic. Those addresses don't ping. This makes me wonder if there's a bug in the router's DHCP address assignment logic.
When the internet connectivity drops if I go to the Network Connections on that PC, the Internet Gateway (or perhaps it's called Internet Connection) has disappeared. If I run "ipconfig /release & ipconfig /renew" it comes back and everything works fine for a few more hours. Then it drops again.
I've also noticed that my remote administration access to the router seems to be flakey at times. I've enabled it in the router but sometimes the connection drops even though I'm actively using it and there's no chance it's timed out. Other times I'll get the login page, enter my credentials, and the next page partially appears then the connection drops.
I'm at a loss as to what to do to permanently fix the problem. Continually having to release/renew the lease isn't a good solution. Especially when I'm the only techie in the family.
Does this sound like a problem with the router or the PC?
Does this router have problems with static DHCP? If so can I just manually assign an address on the PC that's outside of the range that DHCP assigns? |
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| Do you have the static IP set on the router, or in the Network Connections settings of the PC? |
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| it's set on the router is a static DHCP assignment |
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| reply to Chuck
I'm wondering if this is a related issue and not my router after all?
»MI424WR Router Rev. F Issues |
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| reply to Chuck
said by Chuck :it's set on the router is a static DHCP assignment
I'd say trying to set it to assign an IP outside of the range of the DHCP server may be a good idea. Also, if that alone doesn't help, try having the IP set static in both the router, and in Windows. You shouldn't need to do it, but sometimes it could help. |
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| I left the static assignment in the router alone figuring that will prevent it from assigning that address to any other device.
Then I disabled DHCP on the PC and manually assigned the address, gateway, and subnet mask. So far so good. It's been over 24 hours now without the internet connection dropping. Previously I couldn't get through more than about 4 hours.
For 2 months I've been thinking the problem was with the PC but it's beginning to look like its a problem with the router's DHCP server. Interestingly this router saves a copy of the old firmware in memory and tells you when it was last updated. I dont know exactly when the problem started but if my memory is correct, the last update occurred right around the same time. I might try rolling back the update to see what happens. |
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| After a few days my problem came back. I tried to do a "Repair" on my network interface and received an error that it couldn't clear the ARP cache. That's cool. This is the first time I've received a useful error message regarding this issue! It turns out this entire problem has been caused by ARP cache corruption on the PC! I disabled the "Routing and Remote Access" service based on something I found on a blog post. The problem has not returned. I believe it is solved.
I have re-enabled DHCP on the PC in question. It still has the static lease in the router too. Just no "Routing and Remote Access" service running. Come to think of it this problem started a few moths ago right after a monthly MS update was applied. I'll bet that update introduced a bug in the service.
Hope this helps someone else. |
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| reply to Chuck
said by Chuck : This PC has a wired Ethernet connection to the router. Other wireless devices continue to be able to access the internet when the PC has lost it's connection.
This could indicate that you need the router replaced.
The same thing happened to us a while back. Wired PCs didn't get connection while wireless laptops did and we had to get the router replaced.
Edit: whoops! NM. It appears that you solved your problem.  |
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