Since installing Win 7 I've been having persistent and frequent intermittent network connection problems. Typically, though not always, the problems crop up when accessing a new site. The connection is there, then it isn't.I use the diagnosing tool and I'm told the DNS server is not connected and / or the Gateway can't be reached. It fixes the gateway issue but never the reported DNS issue. When I re-try the connection, it's fine again. Then, anywhere from a few minutes later to a few seconds later, the connection fails again and I need to go through the rigamarole again.I've got an Asus Striker II Formula with two LAN ports and I've got the most current drivers installed. I've tried disabling one of the ports, rebooting the computer, and re-setting the router to no avail. I've also tried connecting directly from my cable modem to the LAN port but that seems to make no difference.Has anyone else run across these intermittent problems?

HiDisable or uninstall IPv6 just in case :)When next time you run network diagnostic check what problem it finds and whatchanges it is made.Also check event viewer for errors and warnings at time of problemAlso try to update lan driver

Okay, I've disabled IPv6 with no change in behaviour. Here's what Win 7 reports before fixing the connectivity lapse:Issues foundWindows can't communicate with DNS server...Detected Make sure that "DNS server" is on and available on the network...Not RunThe default gateway is not available. Reset the "Local Area Connection 2" network adapter...Not Run Reset your router or broadband modem...Not RunHere's what Win 7 reports after fixing the connectivity lapse: Issues found Windows can't communicate with DNS server Windows can't communicate with DNS serverThe remote host is not responding. Detected Make sure that "DNS server" is on and available on the network Not Run The default gateway is not available The default gateway is not availableThe default gateway is a device that connects a local network or computer to the Internet. A broadband modem or router is usually the default gateway. Fixed Reset the "Local Area Connection 2" network adapter Succeeded Reset your router or broadband modem Not RunAs far as I know, I've got the most up-to-date drivers out there.

If this is only win7 problem then you nic driver is not goodTry to disable power management for your nic.If possibleset staticlan settingsProblem can be solved and by some of nic options, so you can play with themYou can try with driver for vista if you know it is working well

I'd already disabledpower management features for the NIC.I've also tried static settings butI'm afraid I'm not an expert atLAN settingsso I made matters worse when I did that.Regarding the Vista driver, I guess I can try that; however, the Win 7 drivers should work.Regarding "playing" with the NIC settings, yes, I can do that but I'm afraid I'd be shooting completely in the dark. If I were to fix the issue, it would be complete luck.

It should work, but do not forget this is beta.I also have some network problems while I browse this forum and I need to refresh to restore connection, but I think this is some IE related issue, because IE crashes very frequently.So just report bugs andprobably they will be fixed in final release :)

Kerry, I have the exact same problem. No solutions found yet. All I can say is that Firefox lasts a lot longer than IE8 before the gateway drops outs.Win 7 64AMD Phenom 9950MSI K9 Platinum8GB Coarsair RAM(2) WD 150 GB RaptorsATI FireGL 7400Robyn

Robyn_Miller said: Kerry, I have the exact same problem. No solutions found yet. All I can say is that Firefox lasts a lot longer than IE8 before the gateway drops outs.Win 7 64AMD Phenom 9950MSI K9 Platinum8GB Coarsair RAM(2) WD 150 GB RaptorsATI FireGL 7400RobynThink again!IE8 beta that comes with windows 7 beta, run each page in separate thread and if some page make it to crash, crash just one tab, but it is imediately auto recovered, and only think that shows me that some IE8 beta tab is crashed is error report windows that appear on task bar. If error report did not appeared I will not know something is crashedAnd how crash firefox?And why exactly firefox, most ugly and useless browser?Did you not heard that there is other browsers like opera that is in times better than firefox and have skins that are in times better than these of firefox?

VentsislavThis really isn't an issue about browsers, it is an issue about the gateway dropping connection intermittently.Robyn

Robyn_MillerOk why then you said that FF works better than IE? This is not true. I know IE8 is beta and is unstable yet, but I see that it auto recovers crashed tabs sucessfully.I need more time for testing to be sure, but since I disabled IPv6 on my system I think it not loses connection.I am currently testing IE8 64bit version and I do not get crashesfor now

Ventsislav Alexandriyski said: Robyn_MillerOk why then you said that FF works better than IE? This is not true. I know IE8 is beta and is unstable yet, but I see that it auto recovers crashed tabs sucessfully.I need more time for testing to be sure, but since I disabled IPv6 on my system I think it not loses connection.I am currently testing IE8 64bit version and I do not get crashesfor nowDisabling IPv6 made absolutely no differnce for me. I've had it disabled since yesterday and have gone through a couple of reboots without any change in behaviour.I'd generally don't use any IE version, except when testing. I've not noticed any difference between FF & IE8 but then I haven't been using IE as frequently.

Robyn_Miller said: Kerry, I have the exact same problem. No solutions found yet. All I can say is that Firefox lasts a lot longer than IE8 before the gateway drops outs.Win 7 64AMD Phenom 9950MSI K9 Platinum8GB Coarsair RAM(2) WD 150 GB RaptorsATI FireGL 7400RobynToo bad. Other aspects of Win7 seem pretty good. I'm looking forward to the RC.My platform is as follows:Win7 64Intel Q 9650Asus Striker II Formula8GB Kingston RAM2 - Seagate 320 GB HDD1 - Western Digital 320 GB HDD1 - Seagate 1,000 GB HDDNvidia 280

Hey Robin:I've done some additional testing with FF & IE and have to say I can't tell if there's a difference between the two. They both seem to exhibit the same behaviour in the same frequency.

Some additional info...While looking through event logs, I found the following: The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{4F7291EE-A3A6-4E8B-8787-846164217D53} because a master browser was stopped.Then the following... The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)] Comment: None

I think this is related to LAN discobery.If you are not connected to LAN you can try how it works by disabling/uncheck all protocols and client except TCP/IPv4 and TCP/IPv6on NIC properties dialog.

Hi all,what happens if you choose the router ip as prefered dns server in the ip4. Sometimes the router isn't quick enough to answer if everything is automatic.

Don't know why this was flagged as an "answer." The problem persists and there has been no resolution. I still have frequent intermittent connectivity problems almost a month down the road.

Did you tried to update NIC driver with newer one?If there is not newer driver you will need to adjust NIC properties.If you give me your current NIC properties I can check if there is something that need to be changed

To resolve the specific error message about the browser forcing an election...Go into Services, and change the status of the 'Browser' service to manual or disabled... This "browser" is not related in any way to an internet browser.This 'browser' is a Windows service used to keep a current list of machines on the network... not of much use on a home "workgroup" network, and, when used on a corporate or AD domain, the 'Master Browser' is typically one of the domain controllers. And, yes, when an election is forced, all sorts of squirrelly things can happen in an involved network connection on one of the involved machines. (I'm sure that the MS folks can explain this MUCH more eloquently than I, but ...)Once you have disabled this service, I'd recommend a cold reboot (full power down.) Might not fully cure the network drops, but it should eliminate any drops associated with the windows browser service.Good luck !Jim

What information do you need? There is a ton of info related to the NIC & connection.BTW, I *did* disable the "Master Browser" service but it didn't help.Also, whatever patch MS issued for Win 7 in the last few days seems to have made the problem even worse. Now, I don't have to browse at all. The connection seems to fail even without any apparent data transfer (browsing, e-mail, et cetera).

Hi, you may have a problem device other than the network, soshut down computer,unplug peripherals, printer scanner cameras etc. make sure network cable is fully inserted, start up computer, see how that goes.

I've tried the Vista driver and it appears to make no difference. I've got the same intermittent problems.

Kerry Lange said: What information do you need? There is a ton of info related to the NIC & connection.BTW, I *did* disable the "Master Browser" service but it didn't help.Also, whatever patch MS issued for Win 7 in the last few days seems to have made the problem even worse. Now, I don't have to browse at all. The connection seems to fail even without any apparent data transfer (browsing, e-mail, et cetera). Just as a point of clarification... disabling the local-box browser service... are you still seeing the entries in the event logs pertaining to the forced elections ? or, just that it had no bearing on fixing the underlying issue... And, if you would be so kind, do an IPCONFIG/ALL, and let us know some or all of the following: DHCP Enabled (yes or no) Is default gateway your router ? Is DHCP server your local router or your ISP ? Is DNS server your local router, or your ISP ? And lastly, timestamps for lease obtained and lease expires... And, did you try the Vista-32 or Vista-64 drivers for the NIC ? The Win7 NIC drivers might have some unknown 'quirks' ... just ran into a situation where "new" drviers for an XP box-nic decimated the connection - completely disappeared from 'Network Connections' - new isn't always better. Rolled back the drivers and rebooted, and the connection reappeared. Strange, though, that the NIC card was still reported as 'Working Properly' in device mgr with the new drivers. Jim

Ventsislav Alexandriyski said: HiDisable or uninstall IPv6 just in case :)When next time you run network diagnostic check what problem it finds and whatchanges it is made.Also check event viewer for errors and warnings at time of problemAlso try to update lan driverDisabling IPv6 is hardly ever a solution that works. If you are going to recommend this you should also show how to do it. It can't be uninstalled. It can be disabled by a registry change. Unchecking it in the NIC properties as many people recommend is likely to cause even more problems.Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Just as a point of clarification... disabling the local-box browser service... are you still seeing the entries in the event logs pertaining to the forced elections ? or, just that it had no bearing on fixing the underlying issue... And, if you would be so kind, do an IPCONFIG/ALL, and let us know some or all of the following: DHCP Enabled (yes or no) Is default gateway your router ? Is DHCP server your local router or your ISP ? Is DNS server your local router, or your ISP ? And lastly, timestamps for lease obtained and lease expires... And, did you ever try the Vista-64 drivers for the NIC ? The Win7 NIC drivers might have some unknown 'quirks' ... just ran into a situation where "new" drviers for an XP box-nic decimated the connection - completely disappeared from 'Network Connections' - new isn't always better. Rolled back the drivers and rebooted, and the connection reappeared. Strange, though, that the NIC card was still reported as 'Working Properly' in device mgr with the new drivers. I don't seem to be getting any notifications about forced elections. C:\Users\Somebody>ipconfig/all Here is the connection info: Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Somebody-PC Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : ROUTER(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, February 28, 2009 10:07:45 AM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, March 01, 2009 10:07:45 AM Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :ROUTER DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . :ROUTER DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : ROUTER NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter isatap.{ }: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Reusable ISATAP Interface { }: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : (Preferred) Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : (Preferred) Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : :: NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled Yes, I tried the Vista drivers to no avail. Same problem persists.

Thanks for the screen capture - that makes things much easier...The one parameter that catches my attention is that you list the DNS server as your router... In my experience, DNS is more typically advertised by the network provider (both in a corporate setting, and a consumer ISP.)If you have any value defined in your setup for DNS, try to remove it, especially if that value is your router.OR, if you have another working computer on the same network, do an IPCONFIG on that PC, and manually enter the DNS entries from that PC to the Win7 machine. I recommend a complete power-down reboot anytime when making networking parameter changes. The role of a DNS server ( in conjunction with other things in the TCP/IP protocol) is to resolve a website's alphabetic addess to an IP address, functionality which is fairly important for internet browsing.Typical home-use routers aren't equipped with DNS functionality. Now that the problem is known, a solution isn't too far away... Jim

The one parameter that catches my attention is that you list the DNS server as your router... In my experience, DNS is more typically advertised by the network provider (both in a corporate setting, and a consumer ISP.)If you have any value defined in your setup for DNS, try to remove it, especially if that value is your router.OR, if you have another working computer on the same network, do an IPCONFIG on that PC, and manually enter the DNS entries from that PC to the Win7 machine. I recommend a complete power-down reboot anytime when making networking parameter changes. The role of a DNS server ( in conjunction with other things in the TCP/IP protocol) is to resolve a website's alphabetic addess to an IP address, functionality which is fairly important for internet browsing.Typical home-use routers aren't equipped with DNS functionality. I've got a router that does handle DNS though.The router isset to get an IP from the ISP as well as get DNS information from the ISP.Win 7 is also setup similarly. So, it appears Win 7isautomatically picking up the router address, which in turn is getting DNS info from the ISP.

HiI was having the same problem.From pings and traceroute info it would seem that this does not have anything to do with DNS (ping uses IP not URL). I use PingPlotter. that send a tracert at set intervals and draw the results on a graph. On the graph I saw that I lose connection between my NIC and router every 3 mins for about 20 sec.My router (D-Link DSL-G604T) has a DNS and DHCP ability. I was using both of those previously. After reading this thread I changed my IP4 settings to use a fixed IP and it seems to be fixed now. (I am still using the router for DNS.)Jannes

JannesH said: HiI was having the same problem.From pings and traceroute info it would seem that this does not have anything to do with DNS (ping uses IP not URL). I use PingPlotter. that send a tracert at set intervals and draw the results on a graph. On the graph I saw that I lose connection between my NIC and router every 3 mins for about 20 sec.My router (D-Link DSL-G604T) has a DNS and DHCP ability. I was using both of those previously. After reading this thread I changed my IP4 settings to use a fixed IP and it seems to be fixed now. (I am still using the router for DNS.)JannesJannesH - unless the url is in local dnscache, a ping will still make a DNS query to resolve the url to an IP. If the url isn't in dnscache, ANDdns queries aren't working, then a ping or tracert will return any of a variety of failure messages (unable to resolve hostname; can't connect to domain; etc.) That being said, pings or tracert request on numeric IPs will almost always succeed, since there is no DNS or dnscache lookup involved, unless there is a major network routing issue in between the user and the target. This is all bundled up into the TCP/IP protocol, and typically works seamlessly, in the background, transparent to users.Getting back to the original problem : Kerry - it seems that for "some" reason, your router isn't performing DNS queries in a manner that makes Win7 consistently happy. Since the router config seems to work properly for other machines, I'm leaning back toward a driver, or overall NIC compatibility issue on the Win7 machine. I'm out of concrete ideas... about the only additional WAG I can give is to verify that your router, and your NIC card setup are using the same MTU... but since I'm not familiar with your router, or the specific NIC, I can't offer any steps on how to check. Hopefully, there are some others reading this post who can chime in and be more successful that I have been.Sorry that I wasn't able to solve your problem.Jim

Well, after much time and trouble, I tried another router. Sadly, I'm getting the same result--intermittent (and frequent) network connection losses. Does ANYONE know what might be going on?

Hi Kerry & All,I too have been having the same problem just random drops in internet web browsing. My Network connection shows that it has local but no internet access when this happens and again when I diagnose it can't solve the problem but just starts working again. I also still have a version of xp on my pc and have IE8 on this as well and it works fine. I'm thinking along the lines it is either vista/W7 driver related or just W7 related. I don't think i've been having it just as bad as you untill tonight which has prompted me to look for a solution. I've enclosed my IP settings to see if it shows any similar problems. Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : AEMW7 Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-4D-49-7C-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d10c:ec48:7d56:c98c%12(Preferred) IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 16 April 2009 23:43:28 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 17 April 2009 23:43:27 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 251664973 DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-11-4B-55-FB-00-1A-4D-49-7C-E0 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter isatap.{6D5143E9-6560-4D3E-BB2E-96097BFBB176}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:d5c7:a2d6:3c00:1b3:ae63:1447(Preferred) Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3c00:1b3:ae63:1447%14(Preferred) Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : :: NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : DisabledPC:Windows 7 Build 7000Netgear Router dg834gHope this helps shine the light on the problems! CheersAndy

Both my local and Internet connections go down. When I have the diagnosis dialogue box open when the connection goes down, I see the Internet connection go first, then the local connection.I'm afraid the information you've outlined in your response makes me think your issue is unrelated to mine. The behaviour is slightly different and you've got different hardware / drivers.

I've a problem similar to this one but is (and I'm pretty sure about this) a bug in Windows 7.Info for the case:- PC with Gigabit LAN- Switch/Router (netgear DG834N) LAN 10/100 Mb- HP Media Vault server (with 1'5 Tb of space)I have uTorrent with the download folder defined to the Media Vault (HP-MV from now on) with no problems so far but if (and only if) I try to copy some of the downloaded files to my computer (let's say a movie just downloaded) to avoid "interruptions" while watching the movie my connection to the HP-MV seems to fall. Once I got the errorif i cancel the copy, go back to uTorrent and press "play" (to continue the download) it works like a charm but it seems likei can't copy big files (600 Mb+) through the network using windows explorer.The only way to go through this i've found is to map the folder (let's say "net use \\<ip>\<folder> z:") and copy it through a command-line windows, yes... DOS FtW.I know the network it's been a pain in the ____ to windows for decades now but i expected to work ok on Windows 7, what a surprise! It doesn't ><Hope it'll be fixed before launch date :D

dns server should be that of you internet company.

dns server should be that of you internet company. No, as this is the way it was setup for Win XP and it worked flawlessly for years. The change to Win 7 is the only variable that I'm aware of that made my connection virtually useless.BTW, I'm now using a newer build with better success. Connection interruptions are two to three per day, rather than two to three every five minutes or so.

Hi Kerry, Please see this article if it helps: Microsoft DHCP bugs make Windows lose networking .Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org Contributing Author for: (Sybex) MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-643

It was the Win 7 microsoft network adapter driver in my case. running an Asus Striker II extreme 790i ultra in win 7 x64. The second i manually forced the vista 64 driver from nvidia on, all the problems went away. was doing this risky? ____ yeah, but it is beta.MS might want to re-verify their network drivers as i have walked several friends thru this and it all worked for them, whether on wireless or wired connections.

Hi Kerry,Please see this article if it helps: Microsoft DHCP bugs make Windows lose networking . Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org Contributing Author for: (Sybex) MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-643 I don't think this is it, as while I had Vista installed, there were no problems at all. Networking worked as flawlessly as it did in XP. As mentioned earlier, the only variable I'm aware of is the installation of Win 7.BTW, I now have the RC installed and it's running about the same as the slightly earlier build I had installed before. I get a fairly consistent connection that goes down maybe two or three times a day.I may try the Vista driver to see if that cures the issue.

I've had the exact same problem as Kerry from r7000 to RC. I have an intel pro/1000 possessing one 1000 PL and one 1000 PM connection (I'm using the PM because it's alphabetically greater ... :P ). I got on Intel's website and after getting sent in circles a few times, I found anddownloaded their biggest driver collection, about 94MB. In it was a folder for winx64 that cointained a plethora of unidentified drivers.Here's the easy part : I went to device manager to update the driver for the connection I was using.... Browse my computer for driver software > Let me pick from a list > (select device) > Have Disk ... navigated to the big folder of intel drivers and picked the last one listed in winx64The dang thing installed with no problems or error messages at all! uTorrent wasn't working (probably because Ihad had net max half-opens set to 0 and other goofy settings), so I turned everything on like normal, re-enabled ipv6, etc. Everything's been working for over 15 minutes now (a bit of a record). If this driver drops the gateway again I'll come back and let everyone know it.Summary : force your manufacturer's most advanced corresponding x64 or x32 NIC driver into windows 7!n.b. : This may only apply to the RC, as Kerry tried this for previous releases to no avail. I can't remember if I tried it with 7000 or not, apologies to Kerry if his problem is even bigger than this.

Well, I tried something someone recommended in another thread and it worked. I'd tried it on an earlier build (pre-RC) and it didn't work so I was skeptical at first.I uninstalled both NICs using the Device Manager. Windows re-installed the cards on me right away so I deleted them again. They stayed deleted the second time and I re-booted. After re-booting, Windows installed the NICs again. After more than 24 hours, I've not had my network connection dropped again. That's a record since this issue cropped up. So, I think the issue is resolved--at least for me.

Excellent news! It sounds like we had different problems with the same symptom, both able to be fixed in the RC. At the risk of sounding like a promoter, this is pretty darn encouraging.. I look forward to the final release and quick adoption of Windows 7!

Having similar problem with internet connection stability! And getting worse since update to RC 7100. Damn I decided to reinstall OS to XP !

Having similar problem with internet connection stability! And getting worse since update to RC 7100. Damn I decided to reinstall OS to XP ! I installed RC 7100 clean, onto a new motherboard, new drives, the whole nine yards. The motherboard is Gigabyte UP45-UD3R, which has dual Realtek RTL8168B NICs. The default driver chosen during the OS install is from June 2007. However there is a newer, Win7-specific driver available from RealTek, dated June 1 2009. I downloaded that driver but W7 insisted that it is not newer than the one bundled with the OS, so I had to force the install. (using Have Disk? option)Having fixed both NICs with this newer driver, my intermittent network problems (symptoms very similar to many others on this thread) went away entirely. This was especially helpful because I was attempting to copy more than 1TB of data files back from my Windows Home Server, which kept failing about 10 minutes into each restore attempt. Very frustrating. Also, the speed of the network connection is markedly faster with the better driver.Note I did not have to muck with any DNS settings or do anything other than change the driver. I disabled/enabled the NICs just to be sure they would re-acquire connection state.

rc 7100 been running it since release on a dual boot basis same machine. been running great except 2 days ago 7100 dropped the internet connection. can swap back to vista and get a connection through the same modem and router tried a new windows 7 lan card driver no good, tried removing static ip addys to auto but i even loose the local connection then and get even see the router. treid going back a week with restore to a working point, still the same not working. tried endless reboots and various settings, beats me.... is the only fix to now run an upgrade, although that may not work either, and if i then restore a backup will i get the error back? like W7 i'd forgotten how slow Vista is to boot and shutdown since using W7, had to go back to get the internet now.slowwwwwvista seems to be no fix yet for dropping the internet DNS server is not responding.. suddenly W7 seems to be common in searches on the net...

rc 7100 been running it since release on a dual boot basis same machine. been running great except 2 days ago 7100 dropped the internet connection. can swap back to vista and get a connection through the same modem and router tried a new windows 7 lan card driver no good, tried removing static ip addys to auto but i even loose the local connection then and get even see the router. treid going back a week with restore to a working point, still the same not working. tried endless reboots and various settings, beats me.... is the only fix to now run an upgrade, although that may not work either, and if i then restore a backup will i get the error back? like W7 i'd forgotten how slow Vista is to boot and shutdown since using W7, had to go back to get the internet now.slowwwwwvista seems to be no fix yet for dropping the internet DNS server is not responding.. suddenly W7 seems to be common in searches on the net... fixed my own problem: tried everything, frigged with every setting i could, reboots, new driver, found a W7 driver even without luck. just came back and disabled all firewalls and it worked i tried windows only earlier and it didn't. turned windows firewall back on still working... rebooted again and not working, Esset smart security firewall was back on again, turned it off again, must auto turn back on at reboot. so frigged with the settings in the firewall trusted zones. noticed an ipv6 setting with an option to add ipv4 so i did. rebooted left firewall on and it still works.. who knows, maybe a antivirus update did something... maybe i need a newer version, but nets working again for now...

I've had the very same issue with WIN 7 dropping Network and Internet connection. The only thing consistant had to do with some form of video streaming or Flashintense site. Have all self built PC's (6 counting laptops, HTPC, etc) so I know them and my networkfairly well. Half of'm are running XP the other half Vista until the WIN 7 Upgrade. Tried the IPV6 disable, even as going as far as to do a REGEDIT to fully disable to no avail. I use exclusively Gigabyte MB'sthat vary in the built-in Network chip they use. The WIN 7 machine had the Nvidia chip so I did a roll back to the earlier driver mentioned in other threads. WIN 7 didn't baulk at all and it fixed the network/internet drops completely. Haven't turned IPV6 back on yet as I don't see the need. Just wanted everyone to know that in my case it was definitely the Nvidia driver that came with WIN 7 that was the culprit.

I tend to agree with Ventsislav's earlier comment that it is a NIC driver issue. I've been seeing this problem since Vista.I have recently loaded the latest Nvidia driver (73.06 and 73.14) and I see that the frequency ofoccurrenceis considerably reduced, but not yet 100%.

Freelance4-Which version of Nvidia driver do you have that "fixed the network/internet drops completely" ?

I have the same exact problem as described above. About 50% of the time when I have at least one process moving data (to the internet or to / from my home NAS device), things just stop working. This has led to several corrupt files hosted on my NAS device (which is kind of a huge PITA, but I back up everything). When this occurs Windows 7 says 'not connected', and Windows 7 cannot renew an IP address via DHCP; when I attempt an ipconfig /renew Windows 7 spits back "Windows cannot find the specified file", or something to that effect. Furthermore it does not appear to be limited to DNS; I cannot send ICMP echo requests (ping) to any host on my lan, or otherwise move any bits over the wire in any form or fashion. A reboot immediately resolves the issue, but after having just performed a clean install after purchasing Windows 7, this is beginning to get to an 'extremely frustrating' point. Other clients on my lan which do not (ever) exhibit the same or similar behavior: Windows XP Laptop Apple Macbook Pro (OSX 10.6.1) HP Mini (Ubuntu Netbook Remix) Debian XenServer Linux Desktop (Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope) What I have done so far to troubleshoot: Disabled the Windows Firewall "Uninstalled" 'Remote Differential Compression" from Windows Features Disabled 'Auto-Tuning' (netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled) So far my troubleshooting steps have done nothing to increase the stability or integrity of my LAN connection, but has increased speed when moving data to/from my NAS device by 1000% (from 3MByte/sec, to closer to 30MByte/sec). This was not a problem on the same exact hardware running Vista SP2. The only other thing I'd like to point out is that my motherboard is an Nvidia 680i, (NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet): Driver Provider: NVIDIA Driver Date: 7/30/2009 Driver Version: 73.1.4.0 The driver was the most recently released driver from NVIDIA's website, circa 10/25 Thanks in advance for any input...

If you have an NVIDIA MB Network Chip try-nForce Driver Version 15.35 WHQL Release Highlights: Ethernet Driver (v73.06) WHQL Network Management Tools (v73.05) "Sedona" SATAIDE Driver (v11.1.0.23) WHQL SATARAID Driver (v11.1.0.23) WHQL RAIDTOOL Application (v11.1.0.23) SMU Driver (v1.67) WHQL Installer (v7.01) http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_64bit_15.35.htmlhttp://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_32bit_15.35.htmlGotta give credit to ErnestoD on this thread though http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/60ec6b74-6cc3-4e02-bb2c-d0d26149d64f

After using Google Public DNS for a couple of weeks, I find that the incidence of connectivity timeouts is significantly reduced, that is, by at least an order of magnitude. For more, see http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/intro.html

i had the same problem. frist thing to do with an unknown problem is trust nothing. disassemble everything. i know it seams like overkill but you'll find RJ-45 that that is mangled, knock dust out of routers and modems and UPS devices that are at end of life. sometimes reseating a cable can solve the weirdest problems, other times trying different cables does the trick. Once i proved that my network was stable from PC1 through the modem, i added the router into the mix and it was still stable. What finally broke the stability was adding PC2 where the intermittent connectiviy revealed itself. inspecting PC2 revealed 2 network interfaces. one was the NIC and one was a PPPoE interface. I deleted the PPPoE interface and my problems went away. it ended up being a game of "which one of these computers is not like the other" shame on MS for making it so easy to make it harder than it needed to be, shame on me spending 400 dollars on 2 licenses. i'll ride the value of my windows 7 licenses to the end of life, and keep the next dollar I spend on an OS since linux is free.