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Cable Broadband Connection Hangs After Being Idle???

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t.cruise

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Sep 23, 2005, 8:11:21 PM9/23/05
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I have a Road Runner Internet connection, with a web modem and a Broadcom 440 10/100
Integrated Controller. My problem started about a week ago. When I do not use any
Internet applications, after about an hour and a half I cannot connect to anything. No
Internet application will work. Sometimes if I opt for Repair when right clicking the
Local Area Connection icon in my system notification area the connection is repaired.
Sometimes I get a message that says the connection failed and cannot be repaired. Always
when I reboot things are fine. I did the diagnostics tests on the Broadcom adaptor, and
the tests say it is operating fine. I do not use system standby or hibernate. Road
Runner did diagnostics on my modem from their headquarters, and said it was operating
fine. But, they did send over a tech person, who looked at all of my settings, and said
they were fine. (cables, etc. had already been checked, and I do not have a router, my
HOSTS file is fine, I have no viruses, spyware, malware, etc.) The tech person swapped
out the modem for a new modem, and when he left, a few hours later the problem was still
there. I do not want to have to keep rebooting every few hours when I do not use any
Internet applications, just to renew my IP address so I can use Internet applications.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?
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T.C.
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Glen

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Sep 23, 2005, 9:07:24 PM9/23/05
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Check in system properties, hardware, device manager,network
adapters,Broadcom 440 properties, power management tab, and see if the box
for "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." is checked.
If it is, uncheck it and click OK.

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It denos't mtater waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, it's olny iprmoatnt
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.The rset can be a total
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.Tihs is bcuseae the huamn
mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

"t.cruise" <t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com> wrote in message
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t.cruise

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Sep 24, 2005, 11:48:14 AM9/24/05
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Unfortunately that did not fix the problem.
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T.C.
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"Glen" <glenrobrts@_NOSPAM_mail.com> wrote in message
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Bob I

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Sep 26, 2005, 9:56:33 AM9/26/05
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It may be a problem with the onboard NIC. When you have a failure look
in Device Manager to see if there is a error message for it.

t.cruise

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Sep 26, 2005, 10:06:34 PM9/26/05
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I thought had already tried that. Device Manager lists the device as performing properly.
Then I ran the Broadcom utility for diagnostics, which came with the onboard network
adapter, and it passed all of the tests. Then, to make absolutely sure that the problem
was NOT the network adapter: I disabled the onboard NIC in the Device Manager, then
disabled it in the BIOS, then purchased and installed a new Linksys Network Everywhere
NC100 Fast Ethernet PCI network adapter card, and still have the SAME problem, even with
that new network adapter. So, it is not the web modem, and it is not the network adapter.
The Road Runner diagnostics say that my signal is OK. AND, the new PCI network adapter
does NOT have a power saving option to turn off when not being used, so that is NOT
causing the problem. Again, the HOSTS file is fine, and there is no
spyware/virus/adware/malware on the system. Nor, had I installed/updated software or
hardware prior to problem. What else could it be, that makes me have to either Repair the
network connection from the system notification area (sometimes that works, but more often
than not I have to reboot) or reboot to repair the network connection after a long period
of not using an Internet application? I am stumped...

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T.C.
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Malke

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Sep 27, 2005, 7:18:14 AM9/27/05
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t.cruise wrote:

> I thought had already tried that. Device Manager lists the device as
> performing properly. Then I ran the Broadcom utility for diagnostics,
> which came with the onboard network
> adapter, and it passed all of the tests. Then, to make absolutely
> sure that the problem
> was NOT the network adapter: I disabled the onboard NIC in the Device
> Manager, then disabled it in the BIOS, then purchased and installed a
> new Linksys Network Everywhere NC100 Fast Ethernet PCI network adapter
> card, and still have the SAME problem, even with
> that new network adapter. So, it is not the web modem, and it is not
> the network adapter.
> The Road Runner diagnostics say that my signal is OK. AND, the new
> PCI network adapter does NOT have a power saving option to turn off
> when not being used, so that is NOT
> causing the problem. Again, the HOSTS file is fine, and there is no
> spyware/virus/adware/malware on the system. Nor, had I
> installed/updated software or
> hardware prior to problem. What else could it be, that makes me have
> to either Repair the network connection from the system notification
> area (sometimes that works, but more often than not I have to reboot)
> or reboot to repair the network connection after a long period
> of not using an Internet application? I am stumped...

If you have a laptop (or a friend with a laptop) that is known-clean and
working well someplace else, borrow it and connect it directly to your
cable/dsl modem. If it exhibits the same symptoms, then call the ISP
because you've just determined there is a problem with the cable
connection even though they came out and checked it. If you don't get
the problem with the guest laptop, then you know the issue is in your
computer. What changed a week or so ago when you started having the
problem?

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Bob I

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Sep 27, 2005, 10:19:23 AM9/27/05
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Running DHCP on the system? What is the result of IPCONFIG when the
"connection goes away"? What happens if you perfom IPCONFIG /release and
then an IPCONFIG /renew?

t.cruise

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Oct 2, 2005, 10:09:38 PM10/2/05
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The Road Runner people have been of no help. Basically it has finally been determined
that after about 4-5 hours of not using an Internet application, my system will no longer
resolve names, only IP addresses. If I do an ipconfig/renew, I get :

Windows IP Configuration

An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection: unable to contact your
DHCP server. Request has timed out.

But if I reboot the system, all is well as long as I keep using Internet applications.
Otherwise, after about 4 to 5 hours, I lose the ability to connect anywhere UNLESS I
EITHER reboot, or type an actual IP address. If I were to type a name address like:
http://www.usatoday.com I would get a "this page cannot etc." screen. Nor, would I be
able to use my news reader, because the name of the server will not be resolved. What
would cause an idle system, after 4-5 hours of inactivity to lose the ability to be able
to resolve DNS, but still be able to resolve IP addresses, and then lose the problem until
another 4-5 hours of not using Internet applications when I reboot? Road Runner wants me
to believe that the problem lies with my system, yet 6 other clients have the same
problem, which commenced at the same time, about 4 weeks ago, and we are all tired of
having to reboot. (Clicking Repair for the Local Area Connection in the system
notification area brings up a similar failure to repair message). All 6 clients have
different systems (hardware/firewalls/routers etc.) To me it would seem unlikely to
believe that all 6 of our unrelated systems (devoid of worms/spyware/malware/viruses and
no problems with the HOSTS file), at different locations, should get the same problem, on
the same day. My patience wears thin when a RR tech person asks me if I have the Zone
Alarm Automatic Internet Lock enabled. Does anyone have any ideas?

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T.C.
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Bob I

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Oct 3, 2005, 4:52:41 PM10/3/05
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What ip address is on the PC before and after the restart? Same one or
different?

DN

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Oct 7, 2005, 6:18:02 PM10/7/05
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T.Cruise:

I belong to an business corp and they are experiencing the same issues. It
is a wide number of computers and after a hour, sometimes even once every 2
days the IE goes out. Remote desktop and other applications may still work,
even IMing while IE cuts off. Our company watches out for virus and
spy-ware, don't have anything like that on the network or on the computers it
happens to. Our IT dept. has been trying to figure this out, even changed
duplex settings to "100-Full" and static ips. Non which has assisted in
resolving the issue yet. Not sure if you have found a solution yet, things I
have seen online is changing the MTU size and turning off the power save
modes on the NIC and the computer. Still doesn't seem to help, but when
things cut out pinging will still work to addresses. Nslookup, sometimes
works, depends on the address, which is really weird. But when the IE cuts
out, IMing stays on unless you disconnect and try to reconnect, which to me
see like there is a layer issue in the network. Possible a socket issue, but
when doing a "netstat" in the command line, seems to be fine, not over loaded
or doesn't seem to be. What we are trying now is on multiple computers,
putting a packet sniffer (ie. Ethereal.com) on watch packet leave and see if
they return back to the computer. Not 100% effective, but if you have any
other suggestions or found out anything new, please let me know. I would
like to work with people to see if this can be resolved for the company I
work for.

Thanks.
DN

rhomboid315

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Oct 7, 2005, 8:33:35 PM10/7/05
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I'm going through this same thing and missed this post when I initially
posted my problem here. If you can see IP addresses but not urls my
guess (and I plan to try this this evening on my machines) is adding
the DNS server to my firewall trusted list. Another cludge that might
work is have your email automatically check for email every ten minutes
or so to keep some activity on the line.

My thinking is that roadrunner pings or tries to communicate to its
connections when its time to renew the lease for the connections. If a
firewall doesn't know to accept that, the ping goes unanswered and
roadrunner shuts down the connection for inactivity.

I paste my original post here to include it in this thread:
Motorola Cable Modem connected to Linksys Router WRT54GX wired (NOT
wireless) to two PC's running XP-SP2. One PC has Linksys Ethernet PCI
card. Other PC has built in port on ASUS A8N-E nvidia nforce4 ultra
motherboard. Firmware and drivers all up to date. Powersaving turned
off except for monitors. After an extended amount of idle time (not
sure how short, but two hours brings on symptoms) computers no longer
see internet. Repairing link doesn't work. ipconfig /release ipconfig
/renew doesn't work. Rebooting does work, but I'd hate to have to
reboot everytime I want to check email after a few hours away from the
machine.
When I had just one computer connected to the cable modem it was always
on as advertised with no problems. Introducing the router started
problem. I've tried setting autodisconnect in registry to ffffff and
not allowed windows to power down internet card without success. After
the disconnect the two machines can see each other but neither can see
the internet. Some interaction between my ISP (Roadrunner), their cable
modem, and my router causes the disconnect (?). Rebooting the computer
(leaving the router alone) reestablishes the connection. Firewall
issues ? CA EZFirewall on computers and Hardware Firewall on Router.
How do I convince router and cable modem/ISP to stay connected?

rhomboid315

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Oct 7, 2005, 10:40:23 PM10/7/05
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Bingo! When I got home both machines couldn't see the internet, but
could see with IP addresses. Did an ipconfig /all and noted the DNS
server IP. Went into my Firewall Program and added that IP to the
Trusted list. Browser now sees and email works without rebooting. I
think I've fixed it. Whoopee.

Chuck

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Oct 9, 2005, 12:21:00 AM10/9/05
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I had a similar problem with another ISP and a cable modem connected to a
router. It turned out that the IP's service was flakey- (They eventually
fixed it.) Setting the router and PC's to fixed addresses and disabling
dynamic address service resulted in a more reliable LAN. (Part ethernet,
part wireless.) MAC filtering is enabled.
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