12 replies to this topic

[rayzoredge]

There are just way too many variants on this sort of thing, but I'm stumped.

I have a D-Link DGL-4300. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I set up a wireless network with a WPA2 key and DHCP for IP assignment. The issue here is that I can connect to this wireless network with all of my laptops and devices... but at occasional, random points of the day, I lose the connection to just one of the laptops by way of the evil Limited or No Connectivity error. It's like the router drops the connection with the PC, then the PC is not automatically reassigned an IP address, like the router "forgot" about it. Trying to repair the connection doesn't fix it, but resetting the router with a 15-second power cycle does.

I've done a factory default reset with the router and set everything back up again: the WPA2 encryption, port opening, etc. The router still does this strange behavior. This never happened before, but we did just recently move. SInce then, the problem persists. I've called the cable company to investigate, but since I can't really be there when the guy shows up, I can't really figure out what he does to try fix the problem. My wife said that he did something with the connection outside, but it hasn't rectified the problem.

I've narrowed my troubleshooting down to a few possibilities:

- My router may be going "bad." I don't know why it drops connections and doesn't reassign IP addresses via DHCP correctly, so I'm chalking it up to be "bad." (Honestly, I think that hardware either works or doesn't, so it doesn't make sense to me that it works periodically like this.)

- Windows 7 is doing it. This was a major change, as I remember that I had one occurrence of this at the apartment when I had Windows 7 installed on this laptop, but I never ran into this case with my XP machines. I don't know what Windows 7 would be doing to cause this, and I haven't done anything spiffy with network settings. (It's funny that Windows 7 is touted to have superior network performance... but then again, they say performance... not reliability. )

- The cable modem is crap. Another major change... which I may try to get it replaced. However, I don't understand how a cable modem would be able to influence my router to do this sort of behavior through a WAN, so maybe I'm stretching conclusions here.

I've tried manually assigning static IP addresses to both laptops. This happens on both machines... but both machines are running Windows 7. I have an iPod Touch, but it's hard to tell if this problem is affecting it... and if it isn't, I can clearly point the finger at Windows 7, but I can't. My mother in-law does visit from time to time with her Netbook and to give less flak to Windows 7, her XP machine sometimes can't connect at all to the network for whatever reason, but sometimes it can with no problems, so now the possibility lies moreso with the router. I don't have an old wireless router to test, and the firmware on the router is up to date. The network drivers to all computers are good to go. I've power-cycled the cable modem just in case.

Reading this link doesn't give me much hope and makes me think of router shopping, but I just want to make sure if it's not the router.

I'm thinking about snagging another wireless router from someone to see if indeed the router is "dying..." but does anyone else have any suggestions as to what else I can do? Keep in mind that I don't want what seems to be bad router behavior from happening... not how to fix it. (I already know how to fix it: power-cycle the router.)

[Ash-Bash]

Rayzoredge, Please can you give me a rough idea on how old the modem or router is. I had a router for about a year and your problem sounds exactly the same as mine which I had and was also stumped until we bought a new router. Many thanks.

[rayzoredge]

It's becoming more evident that it's the router at fault, since this thing is at least four years old.

I suppose that although I'm sad that this $100+ router is supposedly dying, it did serve me quite well. Just seems kind of odd that it would decide to die with the move to the new house, which is why I suspected other causes.

I don't want to have to replace a perfectly-working piece of equipment.

Anything else I can try to clear the cable modem and Windows 7 from blame? Would a presumed clean power supply from a UPS help the router?

[Ash-Bash]

rayzoredge, on Jan 5 2010, 06:26 PM, said:

It's becoming more evident that it's the router at fault, since this thing is at least four years old.

Indeed, Lasting 4 years old is amazing mine only lasted two and it was £120.

rayzoredge, on Jan 5 2010, 06:26 PM, said:

I suppose that although I'm sad that this $100+ router is supposedly dying, it did serve me quite well. Just seems kind of odd that it would decide to die with the move to the new house, which is why I suspected other causes.

They do die eventually or start to get problems etc but they do there job 24/7!

rayzoredge, on Jan 5 2010, 06:26 PM, said:

I don't want to have to replace a perfectly-working piece of equipment.
Anything else I can try to clear the cable modem and Windows 7 from blame? Would a presumed clean power supply from a UPS help the router?

Could you not borrow a friends router or something? Or buy a cheap one on ebay just to see...

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

@rayzoredge

When Windows displays the limited or no connectivity error, try restarting windows instead of using the repair/diagnose option. If the network link is back up and works normally, you know Windows is to blame. I've had the issue with Windows a couple of times when it doesn't realize that it is supposed to get an IP address when the wireless network interface comes up. You might want to try using software that your PC manufacturer provided for managing the network interface. If I use the utilities provided by Lenovo/IBM instead of having Windows manage the wireless network, I don't seem to have the same problems.

I doubt the problem with not getting IP addresses on your network would have anything to do with cabling outdoors.

[-Sky-]

OR, an alternative, is to use command prompt and use "ipconfig/release" then "ipconfig/flushdns" (flush the DNS cache) "ipconfig/registerdns" (Re-REGISTER the DNS cache) then do "ipconfig/renew". It all seems to work for my Wireless Connectivity issues.

[shadowx]

Personally i would just buy a new router. You could get one for $50-$100 so personally it seems well worth it. But if you are adamant about fixing it here are some ideas....

Firstly instead of restarting the whole computer (which is a perfectly good idea but...) go to your start menu and type "cmd" in the run/search box and click on the CMD option.

I apologise if this seems patronising but i dont know how experienced you are with computers, if you know what to do then just use command prompt to release and renew the DHCP lease, if you are unsure then read on

type in "ipconfig /release" in the black box (without quotes)
Wait a few seconds and a new line will come up something like C:\>
Now type "ipconfig /renew" without quotes

In a few seconds your pc should in theory get a new DHCP assigned IP address. If this fails then it is likely the fault of the router, however you can try restarting the computer and see if that helps. If it does help then it may not be the router, but if you still have issues then it *is* the router.

Next step would be to check that DHCP is running. You can try using telnet to get into your router's terminal.

To do this on win7 you first need to enable telnet (or download something like "putty") Follow These Instructions to enable telnet.

Using telnet or putty connect to your router. Open cmd again and type "telnet 192.168.1.1" (192.168..... is your routers IP)

Type in your username and password, probably the same one used to access the web control page.

Now try typing "netstat -tupl" it may or may not work, depending on what commands are enabled on your router. If it does work then it should in theory show you what internet services are running, i would imagine this should include DHCP. If it does work and it shows DHCP as down or having issues then there is your problem. Personally i think this may be due to one of two things: The router's software is just playing up due to high demands of newer technology, or the router is playing up due to "different" requests from Win7 than the software it was designed for.

If im right then really there are only a few options. The best IMHO is to replace the router with a higher speed one. You could possibly get a combined router/modem to eliminate points of failure too. The second is to somehow update the router or change the way windows works with it.

The third is to find a way to restart the DHCP service, or simply deal with having to restart the router. In telnet its easy once you are connected and logged in to just type "restart" and you'll get a quicker reboot.

Personally i would advise getting a new router. IF it is your ISP that supplied it originally then phone them up and request a replacement. Cite a competitor offering a similar service and also offering a free router/modem and "persuade" them that you want a new one.

[rayzoredge]

Now THAT's what I'm talking about! Quality replies! Thanks guys!

@shadowx and Sky: Don't those commands basically do the same thing as resetting the router, which basically reboots everything and restarts the IP address assignments by DHCP? I've never changed the mode on the router itself... it's always been working with DHCP, which makes me wonder about the strange behavior of dropping connections and not reassigning the IPs. Like I said, I always thought that hardware either worked or didn't... not this in-between, dying crap, so I looked to other possibilities. The only things I've tweaked with the router were in the past were opening ports, enabling the MAC address filter, and WPA2 encryption and that was a set-it-and-forget-it deal that I set up long before I had these problems.

@k_nitin_r: Restarting the client machine may or may not solve the problem in this case, which is strange. I'm assuming that this is the same as a repair, since the machine disconnects, attempts to reconnect and "talks" to the router, receives an IP address by DHCP from the router, and establishes the connection. Then again, I don't know what else Windows does behind the scenes with networks...

For those recommending replacement, what do you guys recommend? I'm looking at this new N crap and I know that my computers can take advantage of the better speeds, but I don't think it will matter to us so much since we don't deal with much with network tasking. However, I took a look at CNet (my favorite tech review site) and looked at the Belkin N+, which seems like a pretty sweet deal... and I think that being able to plug a USB HD for central access would be awesome. However, looking at reviews by way of Froogle shows great professional reviews, but some bad user reviews. I know that most of these can be taken with a grain of salt thanks to angry consumers who have no idea why their routers won't work and whatnot, but the issue of dropped connections that kept popping up concerned me, since this is what I'm trying to get away from. (A lot of the good reviews came from people who literally just plugged it in and went with it... something I'm mostly not likely to do. )

I need to find a router that's decent in price (but don't let that factor keep you from suggesting a good router), supports WEP/WPA2 encryption, MAC address filtering, and port forwarding. Those were really the only things I messed with on my current router. I did play around with D-Link's GameFuel, but never really got it to work the way I wanted to, but a similar feature would be cool if I could figure out how to do it correctly. Since I was willing to drop $80 for the router, I'd like to ask for sub-$100 ones, but I won't mind dropping $140 or so if the router is going to last me as long as the DGL-4300 did. I like the idea of MIMO and N, and according to Device Manager, both of the laptops that we have include Intel 5100 AGN wireless cards, but I don't know if this is a "generic" driver or if it's that ubiquitous. (If it matters, I have an Asus G50VT-X5 and the wife has a Dell Studio 1737. I know it will be hard with the Dell since building it gives you two choices of cards... and I don't know what's physically in her machine.) Intel says that the 5100 AGN supports MIMO, but then again... see above.

[rayzoredge]

So of course, I did some research on my own for routers, which is good since I didn't exactly get much timely feedback here...

It seems like people either love or hate every router they buy. I was going to go with the Belkin N+ but apparently it drops connections... or works perfectly. The Belkin F5D8233 looks good and is cheap, but some complaints and no professional reviews.The Netgear WNR2000 sounds promising but has no antennas... and most routers without external antennas received complaints of poor range (which, to me, seems relative to the absence of an external antenna) . I've been reading some unanimous positive reviews with the Linksys WRT54G combined with DD-WRT firmware... would this be the way to go?

[shadowx]

Personally im not too picky with routers. your internet connection is capped at something like 10-20mbits which translates to about 1-2 megabytes per second. your ISP uses megaBITS per second and 8mBITS = 1mBYTE so your true maximum speed is your ISP's offer divided by 8. with that in mind your Internet connection will always be much slower than the wireless speed, perhaps by a factor of 5 or more. My point is that the speed of the wireless connection is *too* important if you just wish to browse the net, however if you want to stream movies, music or share pics between your computers (eg shared folders) it does become an issue at which point you will want something that definitely has Wireless N but if you just want to use the net then wireless G will suffice for a few years. Personally id try to aim for N just to make sure i am future safe but its your choice.

If you only have a moderate sized home (lets say 3-4 bedrooms) then most standard routers will cover your area easily. You could expect full signal when in the same room as the router and perhaps half strength upstairs etc... anything bigger than that and i would consider spending $20 extra just to be sure. Wireless is fairly good with range but it is of course limited.

Out of the ones you mentioned i would go with the Belkin F5D8233. It looks good, has the antenna, wireless B/G/N and looks reasonably good

D-Link are good people, and netgear are probably better. They are our choice at work for our wireless coverage and their range is good (though these are professional edition routers with dual antenna and specially designed for larger areas and multiple users) Hp are also good, i think they do some routers. I would stick to netgear though. You cant go wrong with them IMHO.

Ive never heard of the USB port for shared storage but it sounds genius! you can do it yourself easily by sharing a folder on a pc and giving it a static address but of course you only get access when its turned on and logged on.

[iGuest]

I had the same problemWireless Problems With Limited Or No Connectivity

I had the same problem with my D-Link DGL-4300 until I lost connection altogether and the router stopped working.

I figured it can be the router as it's pretty unlikely it gradually dies so I got my multimeter out and tested the power adapter and it was DEAD. That was the good news as power adapters are pretty cheap, the bad news was that it was an uncommon amperage and I could not find the right adapter anywhere so had to resort to buying a new router anyway :p

-reply by Sack

 

[iGuest]

Router that support windows 7, mac os x and ipod touchWireless Problems With Limited Or No Connectivity

Dear rayzoredge and shawdowx, 

I just recently acquired a netbook with Windows 7 and have had the same issue with the wireless dropping out.  I have a DI-624 router that is about 4-5 years old.  The only fix I've found is to change my wireless setting to no security and then back again.  I also suspected the router but this issue only started with we switched to Comcast Cable.  We had ATT Uverse before.  Then I bought my daughter an ipod touch but could not get the touch to use the wireless until I switched my wireless settings to WEP 64 bit- open key using 802.11g (?) only, but then my windows 7 wouldn't connect.  I've read that ipod touch had issues using WPA.  So then what router could I buy if the settings are my issue?  So frustrating!  Any advice would so be appreciated.  Thanks.

-reply by aarrrggg

[iGuest]

No connectivityWireless Problems With Limited Or No Connectivity

I also get this problem with a Belkin wireless router and I just go and pull the plug out of the back of the wireless router and then it works. 

-reply by Goldi