Loosing Internet Connectivity

Vista Home Premium keeps dropping my internet connection. It happens every
day and it happens two or three times a day. Before I bought Vista I was
running XP SP2 on this machine and I never had problems with it. I have two
other computers on my network. One runs XP and the other is a Mac. Neither of
them have internet connectivity issues - only my Vista machine, and only
since I started running Vista on it.

I use the sleep button on my keyboard when I'm finished using my computer.
When I wake it back up, the internet usually works for about ten minutes,
then I loose the connection. All applications loose their connection to the
net - browsers, gmail notifier, uTorrent...everything.

I have tried the Diagnose and Repair feature, but I get a message that says
"Cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com(207.46.192.254). Network
diagnostics pinged the remote host but did not receive a response." Then it
gives me the option to "Reset the network adapter "Wireless Network
Connection". I click that, it goes through a "Repairing" process, then it
says "Windows tried to repair but the problem still exists."

I have also tried going to the command line and doing "ipconfig /renew", but
that didn't help either.

It's strange, because if I hover my house over the network icon in my
taskbar, the tray that slides up says "Access: Local and Internet". And when
I go to Network and Sharing Center, at the top it shows graphics of my
computer connecting to my network, connecting to the internet. There are no
red X's anywhere. As far as Vista networking is concerned, I'm still
connected to the net.

Please, please, please. I need suggestions on things I can try to solve
this. The only thing I've found that temporarily resolves it is rebooting my
computer, which is especially annoying since Vista takes so long get up and
running again when you restart.

Thanks,
Dustin

Hi Barb and Dwarf. Thanks for the suggestions.

Barb, I waited until the problem occurred again and, sure enough, when I did
an ipconfig /all the default gateway was missing. I rebooted and went to that
site you gave me and installed the patch, but unfortunately it didn't seem to
solve the problem. I installed the patch last night, yet I lost my connection
to the net when I went to use my workstation this morning. Actually it's
weird, I'm online now (obviously) and I just did the command and the default
gateway is missing now too.

Dwarf, when I installed Vista I did a clean install, not an upgrade. I
formatted my OS partition and started from scratch.

Thanks,
Dustin

Hi Barb,

Thanks for taking the time to write back. I'm connected through a Linksys
wireless G router. I realize how easy it's going to be to go "aha! that's his
problem", but again I never had this problem when I was using XP. Also The
other two machines in my house (XP, and Mac OSX) have zero connectivity
issues. To me, that makes Vista sound like the culprit. Either that or there
might be a driver issue with my NIC. If I look in Device Manager, I have
three network adapters listed:

Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter
Marvell Yukon PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
nVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

I think the Marvell is the built-in NIC on my motherboard, and the
nVIDIA...I don't know what that is. I have an nVIDIA graphics card, it
doesn't have a network interface on it.

Out of the three, I only use is the Linksys, so I guess I could disable the
other two. I'm actually running Windows Update now (which I do often) and
there just so happened to be updates for the Marvell and the nVIDIA NICs. I
don't know how or why that would help me since I'm using the Linksys, but I'm
doing it. I'll see if I can find a newer driver for the Linksys as well.

I have no problem giving you the text output of an ipconfig /all, but I
don't want to post it on a public forum. What is a secure way for me to get
it to you?

Thanks,
Dustin

Hi Barb,

Thanks again. My Router is a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless G. It's listed on
Linksys' website as being a Vista-friendly router:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...s itorWrapper

I updated the firmware on it, so we'll see if that does the trick.

I also disabled those other two NICs. And I rarely use uTorrent (maybe once
or twice a month?), so I seriously doubt if that's the issue.

I'll let you know if the firmware update resolved the issue. As far as me
putting my ipconfig /all readout on here, I just don't feel comfortable
putting that information on a public forum. I have absolutely no idea if
someone could use that information to do something malicious to my computer.
I'm not trying to be difficult, just cautious. Is being cautious such a bad
thing?

Regards,
Dustin

Unfortunately none of the driver updates I've performed have solved the
issue. Vista continues to drop my internet connection after a few minutes,
once I bring my machine out of sleep mode. I fail to understand why this is
happening since my NIC is listed as a Vista-friendly device.

Do you have a Netgear WGR614 router? And, if so, is it WGR614v8? I had
WGR614v7 and WGR614v6 and both of them had this problem. WGR614v8 solved it.

Well, if all of the other things you have done so far don't solve the
problem, consider updating the firmware of the router. Or, depending on the
"age" of the router, consider purchasing something new. I can vouch for
Netgear WGR614v8 which solved the problem you are having after sleep mode,
and also hibernation.

Hi, I am new to this group but I have the identical set of problems. My
XP computer works fine. The new one with Vista Home Premium acts the
same way as yours. I have used it on Wireless, Cable and now DSL. I went
to the Microsoft site and there is a tech note that applies to this
problem which states that you must have a modem that has a Vista
compatible sticker on it. Well I ran down to the closest Staples and
bought a Zoom modem that is supposed to be Vista compatible. I fired it
up and things looked really good. The next day the IPV6 problem reared
its ugly head again. Then I played the reset adapter game, etc with
windows telling me there was nothing wrong with my connection. Looks
like we are going to be Vista Victims. We can either go back to XP or
wait until Microsoft admits there is a problem and gives us a fix for
it. If I find some magic bullet I will certainly post it.