# Wireless connection "dropping"?



## Grumbul (Apr 13, 2007)

I have been experiencing some ongoing issues with my wireless connection that has finally pushed me to the limits of my patience through frustration and lack of a solution thus far.

Heres pleading to the knowledgeable folks out there to shed some light on this issue !

I am using a Dell Latitude D810 laptop along with a BT Voyager 2100 wireless router.

The problem is that quite frequently I will be browsing a site and my connection sort of drops. 

I say sort of because :

e.g. I can still view any pages throughout a forum and visit new threads etc BUT if I try and follow a link or a page has a picture posted then it appears as if my connection has dropped  Problem Loading Page.

e.g If I am using google and have loaded several pages from there then all of a sudden any new pages I try to access show Problem Loading Page but anything already accessed shows up fine and can be browsed and in many cases internal links still followed.

Once this has occurred which can happen anywhere from 3-4minutes to 2-3 hours from making a connection to the router then any NEW pages that I try to view are also showing Problem Loading Page, e.g. Google.

The ONLY way I can fix this once this happens is to turn off the router and wait 10-15 seconds and turn it back on.

I have checked the more obvious things such as :

1)	unplugged and removed batteries from my cordless phone
2)	ensured microwave has been turned off during a test period
3)	changed my routers channel (tried 1 and 11)
4)	turned off all the encryption (wireless security)

Nothing changes, I just get this periodic lock down of accessing new web pages. Now I have played online games on this connection and the signal almost never drops even during 6-7 hour sessions (maybe twice in 6 months). However if during one of these sessions I tabbed back to my desktop and accessed a webpage and did some browsing the connection would again drop for new webpage access but the game would still be fine.

The problem can occur several times in an hour or sometimes all will be fine for 2-3 hours before it strikes.

Using the Repair function from my desktop does nothing to fix the problem, I actually have to get up and power down the router before turning it back on and re-establishing a connection.

Problem occurs both in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I have tried two completely separate laptops, both are Dell Latitude D810s :

Pentium M 2.13GHz, 787 MHz, 1.00GB RAM

The laptops were purchased approximately 14months apart. Problem occurs on both.

If hard-wired direct to the modem/phone neither laptop drops a connection.

I honestly am getting so frustrated with this and it absolutely destroys my online browsing experience.

Please anyone with any constructive input/suggestions I would sincerely love to hear from you.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope I have provided sufficient information to start some diagnostic work.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

so the connection drops on webpages - sort of - BUT NOT when gaming
and occurs on two PC's

I wonder if its a domain name issue

try these test - see below

its important to check and ping 
1) the default gateway on the router
2) google by name
3) google by IP number

also in the webpage when its disconnected try using the google IP number instead of the name

some usefull software to check wireless - purple on graph show a disconneciton
Free software to check signal strength of wireless is netstumbler 0.4.0 available for download from http://www.stumbler.net/

ipconfig /all

TWO Methods to do that - some people have problems with ONE----

ONE ---------------------------------
start
run
cmd
ipconfig /all

rightclick in the box
select all
enter
control key + C key - to copy
then reply here and 
control key + V to paste

TWO -----------------------------------------------

Start, Run, CMD to open a DOS window and type:

IPCONFIG /ALL >C:\RESULT.TXT

Open C:\RESULT.TXT with Notepad and copy/paste the entire results here.

NEXT lets see if you can get out onto the internet with both names and IP's - its possible the IP number you get back on the first test is different to the one I post {I'm in UK} so use the number you get instead of mine

------------------------------------------------
try ping the name and then the IP see below

start
run
cmd

C:\Documents and Settings\wayne>*ping {the default gateway ipaddress you got above }*

C:\Documents and Settings\wayne>*ping google.com*


> Pinging google.com [64.233.187.99] with 32 bytes of data:
> 
> Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=120ms TTL=243
> Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=107ms TTL=243
> ...


C:\Documents and Settings\wayne>*ping 64.233.187.99*


> Pinging 64.233.187.99 with 32 bytes of data:
> 
> Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=116ms TTL=243
> Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=243
> ...


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## Grumbul (Apr 13, 2007)

First of all etaf many thanks for your in depth reply to my plea for help sir !

Your suggestion here immediately raised my eyebrows as it would seem to be an almost too perfect indicator of the issues I am having.

I do apologise for my delay in replying to you but I wanted to run your theory through when the problem hit.

Unfortunately as I said in my original post the problem is very intermittent but I finally got it a few minutes ago and ran those pings you suggested and guess what?

Your right.

The ping to the Default Gateway seems fine.
The ping to Google's ip is fine.
The ping to Google's DNS is NOT ok.

(please excuse my awful terminology here but I do see what your getting at)

Below are the results, and I hope it does not matter that I have edited some of the info, I am unsure on just how much ip information is really needed for my own piece of mind on a public forum - just let me know if something I have "x'd" out is needed for more diagnostics !

----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

FIRST PING TO GOOGLE.COM RESULTS :
C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx>ping google.com
Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again
.
----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
SECOND PING TO GOOGLE.COM IP RESULTS :
C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx>ping 64.233.187.99

Pinging 64.233.187.99 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=127ms TTL=243
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=136ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=127ms TTL=243
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=115ms TTL=242

Ping statistics for 64.233.187.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 115ms, Maximum = 136ms, Average = 126ms
----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD PING TO DEFAULT GATEWAY RESULTS :
C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx>ping xxx.xxx.x.x

Pinging xxx.xxx.x.x with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from xxx.xxx.x.x: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255
Reply from xxx.xxx.x.x: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255
Reply from xxx.xxx.x.x: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255
Reply from xxx.xxx.x.x: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for xxx.xxx.x.x:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms
----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
FOURTH PING TO GOOGLE.COM TO "CHECK AGAIN" RESULTS :
C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx>ping google.com
Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again
.
----------------------------------------------------------------

So, I guess your right in your theory of what is happening and I also went into IE and Firefox and placed the IP numbers in on the address bar for Google and Google comes up! But if I type in "google.com" then I get that rather persistent and annoyingly frustrating "Problem Loading Page" message.

So far etaf you've managed to shed some light on this issue and I am hoping to heaven that you can also figure out a fix now that we seem to have at least sourced a problem.

Many, many thanks for your help so far !


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

so all we need to do is enter some DNS server IP address into the router - so it does not have to obtain them dynamically - thats the problem I had on my router 4 years ago and as soon as i entred the DNS IP it went solid

so we just need to work out the best DNS IP to use

i suspect on your ipconfig /all the dns are set to the same number as the default gateway 
is this the same on all PC's which ever way they are connected ???

if not you may have two numbers

whos your ISP perhaps we can get the DNS server IP from them
there are public DNS ip address 
heres a list I know of - not sure how current that list is

199.166.24.253 (PS0.NS1.VRX.NET) - Toronto, ON, Canada
199.166.27.253 (PS0.NS3.VRX.NET) - Richmond Hill, ON, Canada 
199.166.28.10 (PS0.NS2.VRX.NET) - Apopka, Fl
199.166.29.3 (NL.PUBLIC.BASESERVERS.NET) - Nederlands
199.166.31.3 (NS1.QUASAR.NET) - Orlando, FL, USA
195.117.6.25 (ZOLIBORZ.ELEKTRON.PL) - Poland
38.113.2.100 (NS1.JERKY.NET) - Boston, MA, USA 
213.196.2.97 (PAN.BIJT.NET) - The Netherlands
199.166.28.10 (PS0.NS2.VRX.NET) - Atlanta, Ga 
199.5.157.128 (ASLAN.OPEN-RSC.ORG) - Detroit, MI, USA

4.2.2.2 (and it goes up to 6 BTW)

*TO RECAP *
1) look at all your connected PC's ipconfig and see if you get any numbers for this entry


> DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :


which should have two number - primary and seconday 
and not the same as the default gateway

2) whos the ISP - perhaps we can find out the DNS server address

3) enter them in router
or enter them on every PC


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## Grumbul (Apr 13, 2007)

etaf sir I have to say that I wish I had come here sooner because no matter what the outcome of this endeavour will be, you my friend, have been a source of absolute and totally informative suggestions and ideas!

What has been bothering me for over a year might not have been resolved in the last 24 hours but one can only hope.

Although I certainly do not have the background to know the correct terminology I have understood everything you have been saying at a basic level.

I have just contacted my ISP and asked for the Primary and Secondary DNS server addresses (an amusing conversation by the way, I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about after reading your posts and a little Googling) and have now added them to my router.

All is going well and I am hopeful that this will now be an issue I will not remember for its annoyance but rather for the prompt and professional help received here.

Fingers crossed all stays stable and if not Ill be back here with all the info I can gather for more diagnostics.

Sir, it has been quite simply.

A Pleasure!


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

thank you for your kind words - you are very welcome

:up: fingers crossed 

any idea howlong before you are happy its resolved ??

you can then mark this thread solved

which you have the power to do from your first post.
goto 
Thread tools>
Tick - Mark Solved

Thanks :up:


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