# Intermittent internet connection problems



## nctemre (Apr 26, 2006)

I have recently signed up for Verizon DSL in my new apartment. I have an Actiontec GT704WG modem/wireless router.

I can connect to the internet via ethernet and via wireless, however the connection drops every few minutes (although the network connection icons show 'connected' all the time, and the lights on the modem do not change when the connection is lost). To re-connect, I right-click on the connection icon and click the 'repair', and the connection comes back again, but only for another few minutes, and I have to 'repair' again to reconnect. (even to post this message, I had to 'repair' 3 times!!)

I have spent so much time on the phone with Verizon support, but they seem not to know what is going on, as the problem persists.

Please help me with this, it is so frustrating!

Tolga


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Does this happen with the wired connection, or only with the wireless connection? What version/patch level of Windows? What make/model of computer, as well as the wireless adapter? If it's wireless, are you using the Windows wireless client, or the wireless adapter's client?


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## nctemre (Apr 26, 2006)

This happens both wired and wireless.

I have Dell latitude D600 running on WinXP-pro SP2.

Wireless adapter is Intel pro/wireless lan 2100 3A PCI adapter, and Windows is managing the wireless connection.

Also, it looks like most of the time the connection last longer when I keep with the same application/window (eg.surfing in the same browser window) but connection drops whenever I switch to another window to access the internet (eg., when I open up a new browser window, or start up an email client).

Thanks,

Tolga



johnwill said:


> Does this happen with the wired connection, or only with the wireless connection? What version/patch level of Windows? What make/model of computer, as well as the wireless adapter? If it's wireless, are you using the Windows wireless client, or the wireless adapter's client?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

First update the drivers for your Intel wireless adapter, they're infamous for misbehaving with older drivers. If that doesn't do it, you need to see if this is a problem with your machine or the Verizon network. Do you have another machine, or a friend with a machine to come and test?


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## nctemre (Apr 26, 2006)

*Still having problems*

Hi, 

I have up-to-date drivers, and still having connection drops. (unfortunately, I did not have a chance to try out another person's computer on my network yet)

I discovered something though, which might provide a clue to pinpoint what is going on: when I'm connected (wired or wireless), I remain connected as long as I browse within the same domain (different links within a website, say, different topics in Google News), but I lose the connection when I want to switch to another domain (say, CNN's website). I have to disable/enable my network adapter(s) in order to connect to the new website. Does this behavior tell anything about the problem I'm having???

Thanks a lot,

Tolga


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

That's beyond strange! However, if it's tied to external sites like that, I'm thinking that it's indeed an ISP issue, not a local machine issue. I final test would be to obtain another machine to test...


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## nctemre (Apr 26, 2006)

*Problem solved*

I finally got someone at Verizon Help Center who knew what was going on. Apparently, the Actiontech modem that I got has this issue of not being able to 'resolve the DNS server' (or something like that). One can apparently bypass this by manually defining DNS servers, such as 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 in the TCP/IP settings. I thought this might be helpful if someone else is also suffering from the same problem.

Thank you for your time and efforts.

Tolga


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Interesting, thanks for the feedback.


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