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June 23, 2010 7:49 AM   Subscribe

I give up: please help me with my internet problems!

Ever since upgrading to Windows 7 (64-bit), my internet has been really flaky. Intermittant 404/server not found errors. The errors will pop up on any/every site (yes, known working sites such as MSN, Facebook, Youtube, etc.), but if I refresh enough times, clear the cache, open a new tab, or reopen the browser, the site will load. (I'm using the most recent Firefox, but when checking IE, the problem occurred there also.) I'm using a Cisco linksys router, cable connection- same one I used before upgrading Windows.

After this started happening enough to really be annoying, I did some searching here and online and I found references to using Open DNS addresses. However, I have to admit that I don't really know how to do that. What I did initially was go into Internet Properties/connections, and under LAN settings I checked "use automatic configuration script" and entered the address 208.67.222.222. That seemed to work! At first. Right away it was as fast as lightning and I thought the problem was fixed.

But after about a week, the same problem started creeping back in, and after trying to use the computer last night and getting more Server Not found errors than not, I'm at my wits end.

I thought maybe I wasn't resetting the DNS properly so I went into the properties of the Local Area Networking Controller. It is listed as Connect using NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, and under Internet Protocol Ver. 4 properties I entered that 208 address. (It says Ver. 6 is not connected...no idea if that's normal or not.) I also experimented with the Firefox settings- selecting to use system settings, automatic settings, etc. No change.

I've tried unplugging/replugging the network cable. Rebooting, clearing cache, increasing cache size, etc. And running network diagnostics (says it can't detect the problem: because it thinks I'm connected okie dokie).

I've tried entering Firefox as an allowed program under the Windows firewall, and right now I have completely turned the firewall off.

I have set the annoying notifier settings to Never Notify.

I have an antivirus running- says system is clean.

But now it's bad. It says the network connection is operational, but I can't get anything to load. Although with many, many refreshes, I might get a site. However, when it's not loading, pings aren't working either.

I have a Playstation 3 that connects through bluetooth, and that seems to load fine.

Please help me and tell me what to do! I apologize if I've omitted important details- I feel horribly ignorant about internet connectivity issues. So if you have a suggestion, please instruct me with the basics: don't just suggest "change your ICP to 2.0" (I know that's a bogus example), please tell me where to go to find the setting and exactly how to change it.

Thank you very, very much for any and all help.
posted by Eicats to Computers & Internet (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm a bit of a noob too, but I have one of those crappy HP computers which have chronic wireless internet problems (unrelated to your problem, of course) but... you could try reinstalling the driver. There should be information on this (and the drivers themselves) on the website of your computer's manufacturer. Since I'm a noob, I can't really tell you how to do it, but there's a way to uninstall the driver on your system and have to search for the driver again. Maybe someone with more experience can tell you whether this is BS or if this would help.
posted by Lizsterr at 8:03 AM on June 23, 2010


I'm assuming you have a setup simialer to:

Signal from ISP -> Cable Modem -> Router -> Computer

If you eliminate the router, do you still have a problem?
posted by royalsong at 8:05 AM on June 23, 2010


Three things which come to mind:

1. How close are you to the wireless router, and
2. Is the wireless passphrase-protected? Finally,
3. Have you changed the admin password on the router from the default?

Knowing answers to these would help me give an answer.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 8:18 AM on June 23, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far. I apologize that I won't be able to try any of the tips until I get home this evening. I will try eliminating the router and report back, but I had not tried that initially because the PS3 was working fine, so I thought that indicated that the router was not the issue (although odinsdream is correct: I am really not clear on the network settings.)

Also- famous monster- wireless is not the issue. The only thing wireless is the PS3, and internet access on that has not been a problem.

Any suggestions on how to log in to the router? I remember doing it when I initially set it up...but I don't remember how. I vaguely remember entering a password...

When I get home, first I will follow Odinsdream instructions and reset everything back to Automatic (I didn't touch IPv6- just noted it was not connected and didn't know what that meant); I'll see if that works before I then try to log in to the router and change to an open DNS. I will also try eliminating the router to see if that works. If anyone has further suggestions before then- hit me with them! Otherwise, I'll post back later tonight if it works, and tomorrow if it doesn't.
posted by Eicats at 8:36 AM on June 23, 2010


Best answer: I ask about the wireless because I ran into a similar situation to yours: the Internet kept dying at my house; it was intermittent, it was really a lot like what you're describing. Oddly enough, the ps3 was fine, and I can't really explain that.

The issue turned out to be unsecured wireless - everyone within range of it (we had downstairs neighbors) was using it, and doing God only knows what on it, which slowed the thing down to a crawl, and generally made it unusable. Connection would appear to drop, etc, etc. Once it was secured, the problem was fixed. I mean, it could be a lot of things and I would not be surprised at all to be wrong about this, but it couldn't hurt to rule it out.

To get to the router, you go to the IP of it - usually this will be 192.168.1.1, but may be different; go to a command prompt and enter ipconfig and it will give you the gateway address. This is your router. Go to that in the browser. If it's a Linksys, the username is user and the password is admin, unless you've changed it; if you did but don't remember what it is, try a factory reset and then use the above username/pass.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 8:54 AM on June 23, 2010


Namebench is a really excellent product that will help you figure out what the absolute fastest DNS server for your connection is, and will also inform you about DNS hijacking and similar stuff. Switching to whatever the fastest nameserver it recommends is likely to speed up your experience and might help get rid of some timeout issues.

By the way, OpenDNS has some fairly infamous privacy issues.
posted by kdar at 9:22 AM on June 23, 2010


Response by poster: You guys are a great help so far (even if I'm still waiting to implement the suggestions). Actually, famous monster, I had suspected my wireless being used as part of the problem. Simply because I'm in an apartment building and because the problem seems so intermittant.

But that leads to another question: how the hell do I secure my wireless?

Sheesh I hate being clueless about this!

Namebench looks cool, but aside from the bottom line suggestions, I don't know what all those graphs and text really mean.
posted by Eicats at 11:42 AM on June 23, 2010


Response by poster: Lizsterr, I didn't mean to overlook your comment: you refer to crappy HP computers with known internet problems? My computer is an HP pavillion. And (I feel like an ass for not mentioning this)...I've had to put in a new hard drive. So reinstalling the driver might not be too far off. BUT, after the new hard drive and with the new Windows software, the internet was working fine for awhile.

But I will keep that in mind as a solution, also.
posted by Eicats at 11:48 AM on June 23, 2010


When you get in there I'd also suggest updating the router firmware if that's an option. That was the culprit in my own recent weird intermittent internet problems.

Oh and here's the cisco linksys support page. If your router is on there, you should be able to find most of the info you need.
posted by grapesaresour at 12:26 PM on June 23, 2010


Response by poster: Thank you everyone for the help! Of course, the internet was up and working when I got home, so I'm not definite (yet) if I've enacted a cure, but here's what I did--and it certainly should help no matter what:

1. Reset all my clumsy settings adjustments back to automatic detection.

2. Unchecked IPv6

3. Checked ipconfig for my router and logged into it. Discovered that in spite of the new hard drive and operating system, it still recognized that I had changed the password. Even more surprising, I found my driver disc and documentation where I wrote down my custom password. Hooray!

so if I understand correctly, since I had changed to a personal password, that should prevent unauthorized access, right? well that along with the following confirmed settings...

4. I entered three open dns site options in the router settings. I thought if one is good, three is awesome and hopefully one of them will load my damn sites!

5. Changed the timezone settings in the router. Don't think that was causing the problem, but by god I'm not in the pacific time zone!

6. Under the wireless settings, I verified that it was already set to wi-fi protected.

7. Verified router firewall was already activated.


I already experienced the annoying rerouting to a search page since I forgot the little dot behind "ask" in ask.metafilter.com, so I know the open source dns is being used. And...we'll see if I keep with that. But for now it seems to be loading very fast and all is very good. With the password and settings, I'm hoping that unauthorized users are not an issue. I'll leave this post open for a little while, but cross your fingers for me: I hope it's fixed!

Thanks for the help. :)
posted by Eicats at 5:59 PM on June 23, 2010


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