I am running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and I’ve been experiencing a problem for a couple months now since I installed it. During periods of computer inactivity, mainly from overnight, I’ll open up my web browser, and cannot access any web page. I am using Firefox 3.6.8. For testing purposes, I try and use IE8 to see if the same problem occurs, and it does. Sometimes when the problem occurs, IE8 will retrieve part of the homepage (www.msn.com ). During this time, all of the normal lights are blinking on the cable modem, the network icon says that I have Internet access, and running ipconfig /all confirms that I have my IP address, DNS addresses, etc. The only way I can restore access to the Internet is by unplugging the cable modem and reseting. Restarting the computer helps sometimes, but not always I have a custom built system with MSI H55-G43 Motherboard and all power cables are plugged into an APC UPS. .Event Viewer sometimes shows the following entries during the time of the problem: ***Name resolution for the name 6to4.ipv6.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded. ***Name resolution for the name teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded. Running Windows Diagnostics provides the following entry: The Network Diagnostics Framework has completed the diagnosis phase of operation. The following repair option was offered: Helper Class Name: IpPath Root Cause: Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding Root Cause Guid: {902390d9-0cd9-4f91-9e6c-8fa5e6dad657} Repair option: Contact your network administrator or Internet service provider (ISP) Windows can't communicate with the device or resource (DNS server). The computer or service you are trying to reach might be temporarily unavailable. RepairGuid: {7cfabead-3131-4cfc-b191-c973b7391e09} Seconds required for repair: 70 Security context required for repair: 0 Interface: ({00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}) *I did in fact contact my ISP (Roadrunner). They sent a “refresh” signal to the modem, but that did not help alleviate the situation. I replaced the entire cable modem after this, same problem. *******Things I’ve tried (not necessarily in this order) *Cleared all checkboxes except the last on the “Power Management” tab of the NIC properties. *Adjusted the advanced power options for the Balanced plan so that the Link State Power Management for PCI Express is set to “off” *Replaced the entire cable modem *Updated the NIC drivers Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller *Tried to disable, then uninstall “Microsoft 6to4 adapter,” Microsoft ISATAP Adapter,” Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface,” Each time I tried to disable or uninstall, I would reboot my computer and they would re-appear again (completely irritating) *Changed the network location to “public” (windows recommends this for computers that are directly connected to the internet with a cable modem) *Turned off the DNS client service, *Manually entered in DNS addresses, also used OpenDNS servers I’m starting to think the problem is more power related then ISP/network connectivity related… Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

So is this after going into standby or sleep and then waking? This is the built in wireless? Does this happen if you try connecting by cable overnight as an experiment? Do you know how to go into device manager and check the properties of the wireless adapter? It may have a setting to go to sleep after non-use. Or that may be in the advanced detail level of your power settings. What happens if you set it for full power while plugged in and let it stay awake overnight?

The system does not enter into sleep mode or standby mode. The computer does not have a wireless card in it; I have a hard wire connection. I could try using the High Performance setting under the Power Options to see if that helps. So is this after going into standby or sleep and then waking? This is the built in wireless? Does this happen if you try connecting by cable overnight as an experiment? Do you know how to go into device manager and check the properties of the wireless adapter? It may have a setting to go to sleep after non-use. Or that may be in the advanced detail level of your power settings. What happens if you set it for full power while plugged in and let it stay awake overnight?

I have seen this problem since Windows Vista and in Windows 7. (all Beta, RTM, RC and final versions) I don't think it is solely related to inactivity, but I would agree that many times, returning to the keyboard after some time away will trigger the problem. Once, one Microsoft person did offer to look at network traces related to this; I did not hear back anything. Other than that, Microsoft does not acknowledge any issue. They just point the finger at your ISP. In my case the system recovers on its own without reboot; otherwise I would certainly have had to downgrade back to Windows XP.

So, what I did was change the Power Options to "High Performance" and see if that works out. I checked the event viewer and the first event that was written when I tried starting the web browser was "The WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service service entered the running state." The third entry says "The WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service service entered the stopped state." It probably has something to do with that as well.

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro 32-bit and did not make ANY changes to the network settings to see if the same problem reoccurs; It in fact does, but not to the extent that it did before. Web access is still VERY slow coming back to the computer. I still think it might have something to do with WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service. I disabled that and see if that fixes it. I noticed in Windows XP Pro ( I still have my old computer set up) that "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" in the NIC properties is checked off but the other two options are not (The wording of the second two options is different in XP than W7). I also think the problem may be there as well. Could installing a router in between the cable modem and computer help?

You're definitely on to something here. Start an Internet radio stream on iTunes. Go away and have lunch or do some chores. You can listen while you work. Come back in thirty minutes and move the mouse. Frequently, the stream will stop and you will get the DNS server timeout error. Can you blame the ISP for this? I don't think so.