First Let me tell a little about myself My A retired Microsoft Certified Netowrk Engineer for Window 2000 , xp and Vista I've work on domestic and internation Lans and Wans. Ive seen all kind of network problems but in my 35 years of doing this job I've never seen one as elusive to track down the cause and find a fix. Having said all that I'll address my problem. I have 8 pc's in my office here at home and 4 laptops , 3 of which family members use . My newest PC is 3 monthes old came with Vista and the internet (wired) worked fine. I upgraded to Windows 7 as I was led to believe it ran alot faster than vista. For the first two months after the windows 7 installation it ran fine, no problems at all. Then After a Patch maybe, or and act of the computer gods my internet would go out showing a caution sign inco on the network icon in the lower lefthand section of the task bar. I have released , renewed, Flushed and put in staic ips and Dns servers new drivers , new filmware in the router, conected the windows 7 machine directly to the cable modem, nothing works. My Cable modem is connected to a Cisco/linksys WRT160n router, Updated with the latest DD-WRT filmware. Here the kicker the 4 laptops all vista connect wirlessly or wired just fine Lan and WAn work perfectly, My 3 windows xp machines LAN/WAN work just fine , my one windows 2000 server just fine to LAN/WAN ( server is in a home network as a flie server for storage its not set up as a donmain server or a Backup domain server ) The router is the server providing DHCP to the LAN. And finally The 3 Vista Pcs work just fine on nthe LAN and WAN. All my pcs and laptops work great and are contected and stay connected to the LAN/WAN, But the windows 7 machine will drop the WAN ( NO internet ) but remain connceted to the LAN I can see the other machines trade files ect. I've tried every thing I know to do and then some I've reseached and see that thousands of other people are having the same problem I have ever purchased several new nic card and the problem comes and go's internet will work for 10 mntues to 48 hours then will go out for 5 minutes to 5 days there is no rhyme or reson to this problem its not my router , its not my hardware that leaves one thing windows 7. There was a problem with Vista getting DNS errors but it was found that by chaging a registry key you cound get it working reliably heres the work around to fix it in vista. To resolve this issue yourself, disable the DHCP BROADCAST flag in Windows Vista. To do this, follow these steps: Click Start Collapse this imageExpand this image Collapse this imageExpand this image , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter that is connected to the network. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then press ENTER. Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then click Modify. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK. Close Registry Editor. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. By setting this registry key to 1, Windows Vista will first try to obtain an IP address by using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets. If that fails, it will try to obtain an IP address without using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets. I believe that there is a simalar problem in Windows 7 causeing the DNS server not responding error if all my other machines work just fine it got to be windows 7. I at this point have been trying to fix this problem In a clean install I have added zero programs its just windows 7 all by its self so I have zero chance of any other program interfering with the machines ablity to get on the internet. I am so fustrated I could pull what hair I have reamining out. I would Like anyone who has found a fix for this or if someone from Microsoft could help I would be very greatfull. Thank you in Advance Lam

Hi Lam, Thanks for the post! Here’s a technet blog about this change, please refer to: DHCP Broadcast flag handling in Windows 7 Regards, MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.