Member Avatar for olena

Hi guys.Two computers networked together (wireless).Both computers are on Windows xp home edition.
They share internet and files fine, but the Internet connection keeps dissapearing on both of them every few minutes.
All the lights on the cable modem are "on" which means there is connection but on the mashines it is "on" and "off"
all the time.Does anyone know what is going on? Please help! Thanks,
Olena

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by tylervollan

Dani AI

Generated

A focused troubleshooting checklist and a few practical tests to find the root cause (rather than chasing symptoms). Several contributors (notably , , and ) have pointed to likely areas; the steps below turn those hints into a quick, ordered diagnostic so you can tell whether the problem is the LAN, the wireless link, the router, the modem, or the ISP.

Start by gathering objective evidence

  • Run continuous pings from a wired machine and a wireless machine at the same time, and save the output so you can compare timestamps when the drop happens. This shows whether the router or the WAN/ISP is failing.
    ping -t 192.168.1.1      (stop with Ctrl+C)
ping -n 300 www.example.com > C:\pinglog.txt
arp -a

    Also check the router’s status page/logs for DHCP leases, WAN uptime and any error messages while you reproduce the fault.

Isolation and targeted checks (do these in order)

  • Put only one client on the network and watch: wired only, then wireless only. See whether drops follow the wireless client, the router, or are global.
  • Look at DHCP behavior and leases in the router UI: long lease times or reservations reduce address churn; capture any DHCP NAKs or duplicate-address events with a packet sniffer if you can.
  • Update router firmware and NIC drivers. Old firmware/drivers are a very common source of intermittent problems.
  • Monitor connection counts/NAT table size on the router; P2P or many small connections can exhaust consumer routers and cause temporary “lockups.”
  • Use a packet capture (Wireshark/Ethereal) during a drop to look for ARP storms, DHCP failures or repeated retransmits — those point to local network problems rather than ISP outages.

Wireless-specific checks

  • Manually pick a non-overlapping channel and avoid auto-channel scanning while testing. Reduce wireless features (turn off advanced acceleration/QoS/WMM temporarily) to see if stability improves.
  • Swap or test another AP/router if possible to confirm whether the router hardware is failing.

Important precautions

  • Document current settings before factory resets or big changes. If the router consistently stops responding on the LAN side while the modem remains up, replacement is likely; if the modem loses sync or the ISP’s modem logs show drops, escalate to the ISP with the log evidence.

Recommended Answers

All 14 Replies

Member Avatar for Dani

Are you using a router to share the internet connection, or the microsoft internet sharing thingie? (cable modem directly plugged into one of the machines)?

It might be a problem with the cable modem or your cable company, as a last resort. Sometimes this happens on my computer ... despite the send/receive/online lights being on, my router will lose an IP until I restart one of the pcs on the network.

Member Avatar for olena

Yes I am using a wireless router-B Linksys, and the cable internet is plugged in the router, the router is plugged in the computer A with a Intel Pro 100m Integrated PCI NICCard, the second mashine B has wireless PCI Card Linksys (Instant wireless series WMP11).
On the mashine A IP is firewall unchecked, on the mashine B --IP is set up "obtaine automatically".

Internet connection like I said, works just fine for some time, then you click on some link and it just sits there without doing anything for about 1-3 minutes, then it would say "page not found..", I close the explorer window or hit "Reload" and the connection is back on, and so on, it's 'on' and 'off'.
Called cable company they said that they don't see any errors on my account, so to them everything is working fine.
Thanks

Member Avatar for aeinstein

what make & model of modem r u usin?

Member Avatar for olena

----------------------------
what make & model of modem r u usin?

--------------------------

modem brand new from the cable company, RCA (digital/broadband)DCM315

Member Avatar for himerus

Try unchecking "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network" in the advanced options for the wireless connection.

I just set up a LinkSys Wireless-G 802.11g & b system, and had to work out some kinks myself...

Member Avatar for aeinstein

...On the mashine A IP is firewall unchecked, on the mashine B --IP is set up "obtaine automatically"...

from the above excerpt it seems that you have one sys configured to use a set (static) ip address and the other one is set to obtain the ip address automatically (DHCP). although i don't think this is the cause of your current problem (although it may well be), having your network setup this way can definitely cause connectivity problems. the reason for this, and again going by the excerpt above, if sys A is confiugred with a set ip of and sys B is set to automatically obtain an ip from the linksys router, the router has no way of knowing that sys A has that ip address. as a result, if by chance the router gives sys B that same ip address () via DHCP, you're going to have a headache. (fyi, you can check what ip address each sys is using by going into the network props for the nic, clicking on the support tab and then clicking the details button.) i'd recommend that you configure both systems for DHCP (automatically obtain ip, and depneding on your needs, DNS server address as well), and see if by chance your prob clears up. if not, try bypassing the router & connect one of the sys's directly to the cm for an appropriate length of time and let us know if the prob is solved or not.

Member Avatar for mccartykj

I have this exact same problem! I used to use Cisco wireless 350 cards in my laptops with no problem. I just got an IBM Thinkpad with built-in Intel wireless and now I get this intermittent problem where my Linksys gateway/switch goes offline every 10 minutes or so! Then it mysteriously comes back. When it goes offline, I cannot ping the inside address () which is my default gateway. I can't ping it from my wired desktop either! It's like the entire switch is going in to la-la land for 10 minutes, then comes back. If I use my other laptop with Cisco wireless, no problem. If I use my desktop, no problem. But as soon as I use my new IBM (wireless) it freaks out! If I turn OFF wireless on IBM Thinkpad and use built-in wired LAN port, works fine! What the heck is going on?? Thanks for any help!
-Kevin

Member Avatar for lorrie

This might seem really stupid but I had the same problem with one of my computers (and not the other). The first computer is hooked directly to a cable modem, the second uses a Wireless G USB network adaptor. The Wireless USB adaptor kept "losing the signal" and the internet connection. I had to move the USB adaptor away form my printer (I'm not joking here) and up on a shelf! Hope this helps!

Member Avatar for mccartykj

There is a definite incompatibility with Linksys and IBM Thinkpads with built-in Intel Wi-Fi 802.11b cards. I switched to Netgear and have had no problems whatsoever anymore. Threw the Linksys in the garbage!

Member Avatar for )BIG"B"Affleck

Yeah I bet you threw it in the Garbage .
Get real you must work for NetGear.

Member Avatar for hitjock

Have you all checked your power save options ?
make sure that windows is not allowed to turn the wireless devices off to save power when your system is idle..

Member Avatar for crimson04

There is a definite incompatibility with Linksys and IBM Thinkpads with built-in Intel Wi-Fi 802.11b cards. I switched to Netgear and have had no problems whatsoever anymore. Threw the Linksys in the garbage!

in da trash huh, what a waste of nice equipment -
I think himerus or someone hit the nail on the head earlier in the posts about the intermittent connection problems, I think it is the 802.11 authentication that is causing the issues. I would for starters- set static ip's for for all the machines in this network, or use automatic for all the machines in the network- they don't seem to like to mix well in the same network.
then, I would uncheck the 802.11 authentication on all the machines as well, I have had very similar issues on many different wireless configs, and that usually seems to help resolve them.

Member Avatar for captaindse1

I'm a electronics tech try subing your 9 volt power cord for a 12V cord, on the RCA DCM315. The 9 volt may not have enough power to keep a weak signal so the amp overheats!

Member Avatar for tylervollan

i currently have the same problem. i have 3 systems, 1 desktop(xp) connected to the router directly. a laptop(vista) connected thought wireless-G, and an xbox 360 with wireless adapter. and there all going threw cable internet modem and a linksys router. they all worked fine,.. untill one day i let my freind baro the router and he changed the settings to dsl, i reset the settings when i got it back, had tech support help me reconfigure for cable agian and now connection only lasts 10 minutes or so

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