Intermittent loss of internet connection Vista Ultimate

OK here goes, been troubleshooting this for weeks now and still no
closer to root cause other than i know its something linked to Vista

I have Vista ultimate running on my pc, the network its on comprises
machines with a range of Os'es on including Linux, SBS, Windows XP and a
laptop running Vista ultimate and on network via WLAN, remainder are
standard wired lan connections

This PC used to have windows XP Pro on and worked 100%, i wiped it and
installed Vista and that's where the problems started.

I get intermittent complete loss of internet connectivity and the only
way to restore it quickly is to reboot the pc which is frustrating as it
can happen a couple of times a day and i use this PC for business use
and it will have around 15-20 windows open at any one time browsing,
email etc etc

The symptoms are as follows:

using internet normally and then suddenly refresh browser / go to new
page / open a fresh browser and get the standard IE browser error
message as follows:
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

What you can try:
Diagnose Connection Problems

More information

I cannot even access anything running on port 80 on my own internal
network either. Its like something has just suddenly killed port 80

Try enabling upnp on your router, and it seems odd to me that the IP
addresses for gateway, DNS and DHCP servers are not consistent. If your
router serves all three functions shouldn't each IP address be 192.168.1.1?

I'm experiencing this same issue. Here's an oddity. I'm using
microsoft VPC and my virtual machines can access the network even after
the host computer (VISTA ULTIMATE x32). looses connectivity. But only
if they were booted before the host computer lost connectivity. This is
a very annoying problem and I've been fighting it for about 3 weeks now.
It's very hard to troubleshoot because of the intermitant behavior. I
will definatly post any insite I gain to this thread, I'll also be
keeping an eye here incase you make progress. Good Luck!

Really? A Vista isuse? I've been following your "crisis" as I have a
similar problem.
I will be online and will get intermittent connection failure.
The odd thing is that my computer shows it is connected, but nothing
opens from the browser.
I have a Toshiba with XP. My ISP has been no help. Sometimes
rebooting helps and sometimes it doesn't.
Then sometimes this lasts for 2 days straight where I can't access the
internet.
I'm going crazy, I also use my notebook for work...any other insights?

Any one help please im loasingmy hair now with this issue,,
im running Vista Ultimate 32bit and keep lossing Net connection on IE
and Firefox, & outlook, MSN and skype and other internet accessing
programme still work when this loss happens, can be ok for days then off
to or 3 time in one session..
only way to fix is a reboot.

ive tried the regedit fix on DHCP flag,
ive tried power save off on NIC
ive tried a different NIC and still dose it intermitantly
Ive now tried the fix here disabling the BFE service but this stop the
Sharing option on the Net and my vista system share the net via a access
point to the rest of the pc ..
anyone else found a fully working fix round this can find anythink on
MS support to help it must be a know bugg in Vista..

Not only when running Remote Desktop, right?

Could it be a router weakness? Is it an option to temporarily try the
wireless network without security, i.e.. reduce the router workload a bit to
see what happens?

Sorry if these are just red herrings.

Proxy server?
Firewall(s)?
Virus?

Heya guys had the same prob myself ... fixed it now tho.

Just restart the "base filter engine" or disable it and its
dependancies.
Its located in services.
Access is either control panel -> admin tools -> services or
ctrl-shift-esc and services tab, then services button.

Yes I know most know where to find it, but it saves on others asking if
they dont know.

I have had intermittent problems too with lost ethernet connection.
Onboard NIC is RTL8168B/811B and driver is 6.195.625.2007. Motherboard
is a Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DSH3. Device manager says the hardware is
functioning properly but I cannot connect to the internet or to other
machines on the home network. The connection never dropped when I was
actively using the connection but the problem would show up when the
computer was idle overnight or during the day when I was at work. It has
happened about four or five times in the last few weeks.

Turning off (even turning off the PS switch to kill the background
trickle power) and restarting the computer did not help. I noticed that
the led light around the back plate I/0 port wold come on as the
computer restarted but would turn off at some point as Vista was
loading. This suggested a bug in the NIC driver or in Vista itself. This
was confirmed as when I booted into the Linux partition the NIC was
alive and well. In fact, the only way I could get it to work again in
Vista was to first boot into Ubuntu and then reboot into Vista.

Will try PHYRE's solution next time it happens.

has anyone found a working solution.
I have vista ultimate.
Belkin wireless adsl2 router.

Connection keeps dropping sometimes every 15 minutes.

Sometimes msn, skype or utorrent are still working but all browsers are offline.
Restart usually helps or restarting router helps.

Can anyone help me please !!!

This problem has been driving me mad for ages. It first occured a year
ago on a Samsung laptop that I bought for a friend - in that case
removing Kaspersky Internet Security Suite seemed to at least mitigate
it, although it seems to randomly re-appear.

In November I bought myself a Dell Vostro laptop which came with Vista
Business. No problems until January, when the port 80 problem started to
appear when the machine came out of sleep or hibernate. Then a month or
so ago it started to just appear randomly while the machine was in use.

In the end I removed Zone Alarm and the problem seemed to go away.
Re-installed ZA and it occured again within hours, so I removed it again
and (fingers crossed) things seem to be stable again.

Vista is such a pile of donkey droppings! I would seriously consider
replacing it with XP but a) it would cost and b) Dell tell me it would
void my warranty.

If the problem reappears then I will try phyre's fix.

Are you using a third-party firewall such as Zone Alarm or Kaspersky?
I've had trouble with Vista and both of these.

The problem is discussed here in the Zone Alarm forum:

'Web access stops after a short period of time - Access Issues -
ZoneAlarm User Forum'

The latest recommendation seems to be that you need to completely
disable the Windows Firewall service (using the relevant administration
tool via the Control Panel). Even though the third-party firewall
switches off the Windows Firewall, the service still actually runs and
can interfere with the other firewall.

I too am having this same problem (and its driving me nuts too). I have a new Vista machine with a Realtek GBit onboard Network interface connected to an unmanaged DLink GBit router using cat 6 cable, which in turn is connected (using CAT6 15 m cable) to a Billion ADSL/VOIP/Router with a 4 port Fast ethernet switch. The Billion is supplying a printer and PC (Fast ethernet only) directly and the DLink switch. The switch in turn is servicing a laptop (Fast ethernet only), PC and Brother multifunction device. I am getting intermittent internet browser service on the GBit PC and also the laptop. I have tested and tried the following, with no result:

1. replacing the Dlink switch with another identical switch - no change
2. Pinged using both resolved name addresses (e.g. www.google.com) and number address (203.5.45.21) and found no degradation in speed even during the browser failure periods. Also used a ping route speed testing program which showed good speeds to the ISP even during the "outages".
3. tried server-provided, open dns , ISP dns and Billion as dns on both individual PC connections and in Billion: no change
4. replaced the 15m cable - no change
5. Tried Wireshark - wow, not sure how to use it!
6. Tried Opera, Chrome, Firefox as well as IE - all same problem
7. Tried FTP - it has no problems or brownouts
8. Tried updating the Realtek network interface drivers - no change
9. Tried setting the network connection setting to only use Fast ethernet - no change
10. Tried connecting the new GBit PC direct to the Billion - no change
11. Got rid of DHCP and set everything up as Static IPs - no change
12. Tried to get rid of WINS but the network printers don't seem to allow a no-WINS setting
13. Did thorough deep scans with AVG, A2Free and Windows Defender on all PCs: no problems identified

As found by others above, if something is streaming from an already connected website, it continues no problem. Ping and FTP have no problem. The XP machine connected directly to the Billion has no problems. Only the laptop and New PC with Vista are having problems. Works great for a few minutes and then "bam", "Server is not available": only on browsers, only on Vista.

What the f@#$?

Should I downgrade to windows XP on both the laptop and new desktop?

New machine running Win7 home premium, Buffalo router and trendnet adapter in wireless mode. I had same intermittent internet problem, but I also have a wireless desktop 6000 by Microsoft and was having brief spells of both the mouse freezing or keystrokes not registering. This setup had worked fine with Win XP. I was veryery frustrated as is everyone else. I thought that Win7 had solved the multitude of Vista problems I had paid extra to avoid. I read all of these threads, the one making the most sense having to do with the DCHP client. The fix required changing something in the registry, which I do not know how to do and was leery of trying, given horror stories I have heard about registry changes.

I bought a Buffalo adapter. No change. Then I thought to remove the wireless desktop and just use a wired keyboard and mouse - not as convenient and ergonomically nice and $80 of useless Microsoft equipment!!!, BUT it solve the desktop problem AND eliminated the intermittent. Problem solved except for my profound frustration with Microsoft.

I hope this helps someone or gives someone else a new idea for approaching this PIA.

Just wanted to say that phyre's fix has worked for me so far. I have been continuously connected to the internet for about 40 minutes, and before the fix would have been disc around 5 times by now. All I did for the time being was restart the base filtering engine, but if the problem comes back I will stop it. I just dont want to disable my firewall or anything if I dont have to.

I have had this problem for a month, and as everyone else said the isp, at&t, was useless. Can anyone tell me why this happened all of a sudden? I never even knew this area of my pc existed, so I didnt change it. I dont believe anything has been installed around that time. All that I can recall is that our power went out due to a storm around that time, and unfortunately the pc was on, and it was shut down.

I have an emachine, vista home 32 bit, been with the same isp for a year and a half, ran all of the modem tests, router tests, cmd prompts. I was at a loss, so thanks soooo much phyre for this idea, its working at the moment, and I will keep my fingers crossed that it continues to :D