I've fixed the internet connection problem

If you've been experiencing internet dropping, hanging, ect. on Vista, you're
not alone. I was ready to throw the thing in the trash. I finally fixed it by
going to the Network and Sharing center, click the View Status on the
connection, click Properties and then uncheck the QoS Packet Scheduler, the
Internet Protocol Version 6, and both Link Layer Topology choices. Then click
OK, restart and enjoy your surfing! Hope this helps. Let me know.

Thank you for the information.

Thanks Steve. I spent 2 hours looking around but missed your post and just
put up one myself. Then saw yours and have given it a try. Will let you know.
Sure know how you felt.

Sure enough worked like a charm. I've been fighting that for over 2 months
restarting 15-20 times a day to reconnect.
Steve if you are ever in San Antonio, Texas Let me know. I owe you a dinner.
texaspi@texas.net

Well, I'm glad it worked for you too. It so much nicer to just surf along and
not be bothered with the dropped connection every 5-10 minutes, then wait for
it to connect again, which took my machine 1-3 minutes everytime. I dealt
with it for about 2 months also before I found the fix. Darn, I was just in
San Antonio on my way back to Denver from Rockport Texas. I could have used
that dinner! Oh well next time. Take care.
Steve

Hello. I manage the QoS team in core Windows networking and would like to
better understand your scenairo. Specifically, the QoS Packet Scheduler
should have nothing to do with this, as it will only ever be in the data path
when a QoS flow exists. The only way a QoS flow would exist is if you're
using an application which calls specific QoS APIs. Can you please describe
the complete end-to-end scenario? What applications are you using? When you
say "connection reset" what exactly does that mean? How do you realize that
it's been reset (what do you see, or what steps do you take to come to this
conclusion)? I'd love to work with folks who are experiencing this issue to
figure out if there is a bug somewhere in the stack.

Hello Gabe, I unchecked that Qos Packet Scheduler because I didn't know what
it was nor did I think I needed it. The trouble I and I'm sure others have
and have had with Vista is a dropped internet connection every 5 minutes or
so. I believe it's a communication thing between the OS and the ISP. I'm not
sure what is happening. I travel alot, and in some hotels I have no trouble
at all, in some I get (got) the dropped connection every five minutes or so,
with it trying to reconnect and taking 3-4 minutes to identify the ISP and
then the internet, or things like not being able to access HTTPS sites.
There's definitely a bug in Vista concerning this, and I'm disappointed MS
didn't find or work this out beforehand. I wish I wasn't using Vista as it's
a recurring problem, although I've worked around it best I could. Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback Steve. I appreciate your commitment to helping find
the root cause of the problem. We have a number of built-in tracing solutions
which can help isolate the problem. I am willing to work with you to get us
the necessary information to identify whether this issue is known and if a
fix will be ready for a service pack release, or if this is a new issue. I
hear your frustration, especially since I do a lot of traveling myself. If
you're committed to a resolution, let's work together on reproducing the
problem and capturing the necessary logs/tracing.

First, some questions:
1) Is this on a wired or wireless network (or both). If wireless, are you
associating with the BSSID successfully, or is network association
problematic?
2) After connecting to the network (after IP address is received), when
prompted, are you identifying the network as 'Public', 'Home', or 'Work'
3) Being you mentioned a hotel, do you have to open a web browser to gain
connectivity, i.e. is this a "captive portal" type of solution where you must
acknowledge terms and/or pay before Internet access is granted?
4) Is this "captive portal" through the browser what takes a long time?

The more details you can provide me, the better I'll be able to help.
Thanks!

Gabe, I would be happy to add my two cents too if it would help. I think I
covered what I am using in the post "dropping internet connection" 5/3/2007
pst. I used Steve's suggestions and while it has not fixed my problem 100%, I
went from 20+ disconnects a day to 3 or 4, which I can live with. Would love
to go to 0 a day if you can figure it out.

Thanks for the offer Bob.
How about it folks? Any takers? Can anyone reproduce this problem? I'd love
to work with you to isolate the issue. I would love to have some of the
questions I asked in my previous response answered. As I mentioned, I can't
immagine how the QoS Packet Scheduler (pacer.sys) is actually causing a
problem here. I'm also very surprised to hear that disabling it did something
useful for you.

Gabe, I turned off (unchecked) the four protocols that Steve said would help:
the QoS Packet Scheduler, the Internet Protocol Version 6, and both Link
Layer Topology choices. I could turn one or all back on and see if it makes a
difference. Since I am still experiencing the problem I could tell the
difference I think if the occurrences go from 4-6 times a day back up to 30.
I think that it is significant that I have not solved the problem but just
experience it lots less frequently.

As to the rest of your questions, since I am hardwired to the DSL router and
don't use wireless, I am connected all the time (except when Vista drops the
connection)

I am running Vista Ultra and there are lots of logs. I think I have most
turned on. I don't have the expertise to decipher the info though. I know
when the problem occurs, sometimes to within a couple of minutes. I could
send you dumps or you could connect to my computer and look around.

As far as reproducing the problem. If I could make it stop then I could
probably make it happen but it still seems to happen on its own. I can't
correlate it to any event. It occurs when I pick up mail, when I am using
just about any program and when the computer is just sitting unused.

I usually discover it long before the network icon in the tray shows the
connection has been dropped. In fact, as I said in my post, if I try to
enable the network connection, I really lock up Vista, to the point that
sometimes I have to pull the power to unlock it.

Well, I've followed this thread for nearly a month, and thought I would toss
my findings in the mix.
I tried unchecking all four as Steve suggested. No help. Initially I put
back the 2 LLt selections, because I couldn't see the units on my network.
Then I put back the others. I have seen no improvement at all.
Running Home Premium with a Linksys router and cable modem.
The XP computer on my network has no problems. Also had an older one still
running Me, and it was running okay, although I have it offline now.
Unlike Bob, I have never locked my machine up. But I do discover the
problem before the icon shows it. Simply Diagnose and Repair, and then Reset
the Local Connection. I let it send the report to MS each time; but so far,
nothing has been done that I can tell.

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop for my daughters
Grad
and cannot maintain a connection with my Linksys WRT54G for more than
a few minutes. Network sharing center shows the connection
disappearing and then it retries to connect. Sometimes it's
successful, other times I have to boot.

The best minds at Dell support have been unable to help in any way,
and apparently because the 30 days have elapsed since the purchase
(27
of which the laptop was gift-wrapped and hidden in my closet), Dell
refuses to consider my offer to exchange my Vista Home Premium
license
for a Windows XP license

Please let me know what I can do to help trace this problem. I was
about to install a copy of Windows XP Pro that I have in an attempt
to
fix the laptop, but I would prefer to get the Vista problem solved.

I had this problem that was causing my router and cable modem to lose it's
internet connection on a repeated basis. I made this change as suggested and
it seems to have paid off.

One curious thing - this is the new Belkin N router, so Vista and it's
networking seems to be an issue for hardware manufacturers.

But I'm really glad some folks found the fix!!!! Microsoft I usually like
the products but this kind of crazy.

It would be interesting to find out what everyone is using that may cause the
problem. When I made Steveb's fix it improved my disconnects from 20 a day to
just a few (3 or 4) but the problem has not gone away completely.

I am using Vista Ultimate on a Dell XPS 410 computer, my DSL modem/router is
2wire supplied by AT&T, and the only software on my computer besides the
Windows stuff initially was Norton Antivirus installed by Dell.

Sometimes the computer will sit for hours and stay connected and other times
it drops the connection in just a few minutes. Doesn't seem to matter what
programs are open or what is going on. Most times I am not using it and only
Internet Explorer will be open. When I try to go to an address the connection
is dead.

My thoughts are that there is some process or combination of processes that
is causing the problem. That would be why it occurs right after boot-up
sometimes. Either Norton or Dell or Windows calling home or some Windows
process like the indexing that starts running and zaps the connection.

AT&T did say they were working on a Vista compatable driver that would be
ready sometime in June but have not heard anything more.