I just set up my LAN (2 computers, both Windows XP) with Charter Cable. In addition to the Charter modem I have a 4-port router sold under the CompUSA brand.

Problem: Once connected to the internet everything is good; when I close down my computers at night I leave the modem and router switched on. In the morning when I power up the computers there is no internet connection until I power re-cycle both the modem and router. I do not have to shut down the computers; they both go online when the router and modem re-power.

Neither Charter nor the router mfg considers this their problem, saying that since I do have an internet connection the fault isn't with their respective equipment.

I can live with the extra steps if I have to, but it doesn't seem right. Thanks for any reply.

There could be many reasons, but let us start with the most obvious.

Have you ever checked how long that public IP lease lasts from your Internet Service Provider? It is possible that the router does not renew after it's IP expired. Which is why you have to restart it. Once you restarted it, you get a new IP, and everything works fine.

If you cannot get this info out of your router, try to only cycle the router and see if you get a new public IP, and would it solve the problem.

Thanks, Libertate, for the reply. I just checked and find that under "network connection details" lease expires in one hour.

Then, I loaded the router setup disk and in the "advanced" menu under DHCP settings, find "lease time = 1 hour. It gives me the option to extend that time all the way to "Forever" (that's what it says).

Should I just select "forever", shut down the computers tonight as usual, but leave the modem and router powered, and see what I get when I power up the computers tomorrow?

Sounds like a plan. I'm on Comcast, and the lease doesn't really expire, from what I can tell. It won't hurt to give it a try...

Alex is right, to a point. But you should be able to renew the lease anytime you power back on your computer.

This is a love letter; it works! Thanks to Libertate, Alex and Zeroth for your help. Thanks to Dani for such a well-constructed and friendly-feeling forum; and in the hope that a casual reader of this thread will benefit I want to detail the short history of my problem:

My wife and I first shared a LAN using DSL; after two years of dropped internet connections several times daily I decided to switch to cable. It is definitely faster except during one evening when I'm convinced the entire neighborhood was downloading complete albums of extended music; we haven't lost an internet connection in the two weeks we've been online.

Our previous DSL setup also used RJ-45 cable for the wired LAN; when I first setup the new high speed cable service I couldn't access the internet; not until I replaced the seemingly good cable did I make a connection to the internet. (So, sometimes a simple solution isn't obvious.)

Finally, when Libertate suggested we start solving my connection problem with an "obvious" first step, please note that it was obvious only to those who had the big connection picture. This was all new to me; I appreciate the hand holding.

Hola, im having hella problem with my connection...
my cable comany is "millenium Digital Media"
problem is, i lose connection to the net often, sometimes a few times in less then 2 hours, sometimes a few times in 8 hours, its random..
i'm usually using a router "linksys wrt54g" my modem is an aeris modem, when my connection is on and working, im usually on a game "ultima online" and using "ventrilo" i'll be ok one minute, and ping outragious the next minute, but when i run ping tests and bandwidth tests all over places everythings ok.
i've tried, straight hooking modem up to 3 pc's all have the same issue, i've replaced all the cables, i've replaced all the eth and wireless cards, i've replaced the modem 4 times, 2 diff kind of modems, replaced router 4 times, my isp argues with me, that everything checks out every single minute they ping my modem.
if i run a p2p program such as limewire, i can download really good, but it bogs everything else to a stand still "normally it should not do that"
i've had tech guy out here 6 times, and everytime its "everything checks out fine, im completely stumped on what could be the problem"
i've used different outlets in my house for power, i've reformatted all the pc's, to see if its hardware or software failure etc. i've turned my connection into a static ip, and port forwarded alot of stuff...
im literally at my wits end on this...
i've been reading boards for almost a month, trying all kinds of things i see suggested, non seem to work at all...
plz.... anyone with best suggestions, i need help :/

For someone to see your particular problem, you probably should post a separate thread rather than tack on to another similar thread that may have been fixed and nobody is paying attention to it now.

Just from reading your problem, if you have gone to these extraordinary lengths to resolve it, I would suggest that the game itself could be causing your problems. I would contact their support and discuss...but don´t give up here, Daniweb has some great help for you!!