Windows 7 Short Intermittent Network Disconnect causes network applications to crash or abort.
I will try to explain this as best as possible. On multiple computers, running windows 7 home prem 64, windows 7 home prem 32, and windows 7 pro 64, we are all experiencing the same problem. Every few hours, the network will disconnect just enough to cause simply accounting or quickbooks to crash. Both programs are shared across the network. There is no red x, or anything in the event viewer to indicate that the network has disconnected. The desktop folder is also redirected to a network share. When this short intermittent disconnect happens, the desktop icons disappear until the desktop is refreshed. The folder is not set to be available offline. We have tried this on multiple computers. Existing computers, as well has brand new machines. I have done fresh OS installs, and nothing seems to fix this. Some key things we have tried. 1. MS Hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2524478 2. Turning off all power management options on the nic. 3. It doesn't seem to be nic specific, as on the same machine, wireless or wired, we experience the same issue. 4. Turned off receive side scaling as per some other forums 5. Replaced the switch 6. Replaced the router 7. Replaced the cabling 8. Replaced the computer with 3 other computers. 1 dell, 1 HP, and 1 gateway. 9. Isolated the computer and the server on a standalone switch. 10. Have tried running a constant ping from the fileserver to the afflicted workstation. No pings were missed during the disconnect 11. Have tried running a constant ping from the afflicted workstation to the fileserver. No pings were missed during the disconnect 12. Reset the TCP/IP Stack and Winsock Catalog The one thing we have found is that in the event viewer under networkprofile, we get these events back to back all within a second of each other. These events occur every time the connection flakes out. The events don't really point to the culprit. I have created an event viewer filter, with all events, and can't find anything else in the same timeframe that would be relevant to cause this. Here are the events: NetworkProfile Event ID 4001 - Entered State: Identifying Network Interface GUID NetworkProfile Event ID 10001 - Network Disconnected. Category Private NetworkProfile Event ID 10000 - Network Conncted. Category Public NetworkProfile Event ID 4002 - Transitioning to State: Identified Network Interface GUID NetworkProfle Event ID 10000 - Network Connected. Category Private Nothing seems to have any effect. If anyone can shed some more light on this issue it would be much appreciated.
May 6th, 2012 8:04pm

Hello. Does it happen to all workstations at the same time? Are they connecting primarily via wired or wireless? Do they have Dual NIC's? When the error occurs, do the ping roundtrip take a long time? Are those network error messagesrelated to the NIC disconnect on the Server or WS's? What type of server is it? What server O/S? What type of switch and router? When you replaced the switch was it for another identical model? Try the QB diagnostics tool: http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/networking/nettool.aspx Try running a validation on the QB database to make sure it's consistent. Run malwarebytes on the hosts and make sure there's no malware on the PC's. Try manually setting the speed of the NIC's and/or downgrade to 10/100 if using Gb. I have seen this type of behavior with low end home based routers and switches being used in a business environment. Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog
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May 6th, 2012 9:53pm

Kasarov wrote: I will try to explain this as best as possible. On multiple computers, running windows 7 home prem 64, windows 7 home prem 32, and windows 7 pro 64, we are all experiencing the same problem. Every few hours, the network will disconnect just enough to cause simply accounting or quickbooks to crash. Both programs are shared across the network. There is no red x, or anything in the event viewer to indicate that the network has disconnected. The desktop folder is also redirected to a network share. When this short intermittent disconnect happens, the desktop icons disappear until the desktop is refreshed. The folder is not set to be available offline. We have tried this on multiple computers. Existing computers, as well has brand new machines. I have done fresh OS installs, and nothing seems to fix this. Some key things we have tried. 1. MS Hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2524478 2. Turning off all power management options on the nic. 3. It doesn't seem to be nic specific, as on the same machine, wireless or wired, we experience the same issue. 4. Turned off receive side scaling as per some other forums 5. Replaced the switch 6. Replaced the router 7. Replaced the cabling 8. Replaced the computer with 3 other computers. 1 dell, 1 HP, and 1 gateway. 9. Isolated the computer and the server on a standalone switch. 10. Have tried running a constant ping from the fileserver to the afflicted workstation. No pings were missed during the disconnect 11. Have tried running a constant ping from the afflicted workstation to the fileserver. No pings were missed during the disconnect 12. Reset the TCP/IP Stack and Winsock Catalog The one thing we have found is that in the event viewer under networkprofile, we get these events back to back all within a second of each other. These events occur every time the connection flakes out. The events don't really point to the culprit. I have created an event viewer filter, with all events, and can't find anything else in the same timeframe that would be relevant to cause this. Here are the events: NetworkProfile Event ID 4001 - Entered State: Identifying Network Interface GUID NetworkProfile Event ID 10001 - Network Disconnected. Category Private NetworkProfile Event ID 10000 - Network Conncted. Category Public NetworkProfile Event ID 4002 - Transitioning to State: Identified Network Interface GUID NetworkProfle Event ID 10000 - Network Connected. Category Private Nothing seems to have any effect. If anyone can shed some more light on this issue it would be much appreciated. Do you have power problems on your site? Some equipment may produce short connectivity breaks if you have power spikes and other irregularities in your mains power supply. Wolfgang
May 7th, 2012 10:01am

Greetings, Unfortunately I am not writing with a solution to your issue. I am, however, tossing my name in the hat as someone who is affected by the exact same problem. I have taken similar troubleshooting steps as you. Am currently testing the hotfix you linked to as a possible solution. In addition to the events you listed, I am also seeing the following event at the time of disconnection: Event ID 7042: The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)] Comment: None Event ID 7036: The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service entered the stopped state. Event ID 7036: The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service entered the running state. I will be following this thread closely. There are also many other posts online regarding the same issue. I have not yet seen a definitive fix, though.
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May 7th, 2012 5:31pm

I'm not sure if you're still checking this thread, but I wanted to provide you with an update of my efforts to fix this issue. I also tried all of the fixes you listed. None of them worked. This week, I noticed that the disconnections were occurring at the exact same time that the DHCP lease on the IP address expired. There was a direct correlation, which enabled me to reproduce and monitor what initially appeared to be a random occurrence. Lease and expiration date/times can be obtained by opening a command prompt and entering "ipconfig /all" (I'm sure you already knew that). Discovering the relationship between DHCP and the disconnects took my research in another direction. As a result, I uncovered the following resources: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/60087-win-7-dhcp-netlogon-firewall-microsoft-confirm-bug-2.html http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/windows-7-x64-not-aquiring-dhcp-lease/ad357c20-e885-48cb-9b21-24161324a24e The second link recommends disabling the Windows firewall altogether to assess if that is causing the issue. Windows firewall can be disabled by launching a command prompt as administrator and entering "net stop bfe". I tried this and then waited for my IP lease to expire. For the first time, the expiration time passed without causing a disconnect. I repeated this test a second time and received the same results. Since this is a domain environment, we are now in the process of testing the GPO setting suggested in the second link to determine if the unicast response, which is currently set to be blocked by the Windows firewall, is the culprit to this issue. On page 4 of the first link, there is a link to a KB article and hotfix that Microsoft has released for this issue (if in fact your issue is resultant of the DHCP bug). I have not yet tried the hotfix, as we have just recently pinpointed what is causing the connection drops in our environment and are still testing. I will update this thread with additional information as it becomes available.
May 16th, 2012 11:57am

did this just start happening a few days ago? because our network at the work i manage is starting to experience this symptoms and was curious, i know microsoft would never agree, but if microsoft updates fouled up our networks.
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May 16th, 2012 3:50pm

This problem has been happening for us for a couple months. We have just now been able to do identify the cause. I would recommend loading the command prompt as an admin and typing the "net stop bfe" command to temporarily disable your Windows firewall. Do an ipconfig /all to determine when your DHCP lease expires, then check your connection at that time with the firewall disabled. If you're having the same problem we are, your connection will drop at the exact moment the lease expires, to the second. Good luck!
May 19th, 2012 9:38am

I'm not sure if you're still checking this thread, but I wanted to provide you with an update of my efforts to fix this issue. I also tried all of the fixes you listed. None of them worked. This week, I noticed that the disconnections were occurring at the exact same time that the DHCP lease on the IP address expired. There was a direct correlation, which enabled me to reproduce and monitor what initially appeared to be a random occurrence. Lease and expiration date/times can be obtained by opening a command prompt and entering "ipconfig /all" (I'm sure you already knew that). Discovering the relationship between DHCP and the disconnects took my research in another direction. As a result, I uncovered the following resources: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/60087-win-7-dhcp-netlogon-firewall-microsoft-confirm-bug-2.html http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/windows-7-x64-not-aquiring-dhcp-lease/ad357c20-e885-48cb-9b21-24161324a24e The second link recommends disabling the Windows firewall altogether to assess if that is causing the issue. Windows firewall can be disabled by launching a command prompt as administrator and entering "net stop bfe". I tried this and then waited for my IP lease to expire. For the first time, the expiration time passed without causing a disconnect. I repeated this test a second time and received the same results. Since this is a domain environment, we are now in the process of testing the GPO setting suggested in the second link to determine if the unicast response, which is currently set to be blocked by the Windows firewall, is the culprit to this issue. On page 4 of the first link, there is a link to a KB article and hotfix that Microsoft has released for this issue (if in fact your issue is resultant of the DHCP bug). I have not yet tried the hotfix, as we have just recently pinpointed what is causing the connection drops in our environment and are still testing. I will update this thread with additional information as it becomes available. Just to follow up on this post, the hot fix did NOT fix our issue, nor did any suggested registry changes. What did work for us was applying the GPO: "Prohibit unicast response to multicast or broadcast requests" Enabled. This is noted as a fix at the second URL I provided: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/windows-7-x64-not-aquiring-dhcp-lease/ad357c20-e885-48cb-9b21-24161324a24e If you are not on a domain in which group policy settings are being enforced, try changing your local firewall settings to allow unicast response to broadcast message. Good luck!
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May 19th, 2012 9:55am

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