Wireless internet access intermittent!

[Nibbo]

Hi all,

I have recently gone wireless with virgin broadband. Everything seems to be OK and I get an excellent signal strength from the wireless LAN.
I do seem to have a problem accessing the internet and occasionally I get the following:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

I know that none of the 'likely causes' are applicable because I already have another page open.
One time I could not access e-bay via my favourites but could get there from a link from this forum so I must be connected to the internet, the website is not encountering problems and I have used the link many times so not a typing error in the address.

I did read that it could be mobiles or wireless phones but I turned all of them off and still had the problem.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ibrar]

Not to worry, this is a major fault with Internet Explorer 7 or is it 8. It happens to most of us, but more regulary on a wireless connection. Also there could be a problem with your security settings.

 

[HughJarse]

Like all things Internet it could be a multitude of things.
It maybe that youre losing wireless connectivity and your able to access certain pages from your browser history.
However if it were me, from what you have described I would change my DNS settings to OpenDNS.

If youre unaware and this is a basic explanantion, DNS is a translator, it translates names to numbers. For example www.mbclub.co.uk is really a 12 digit number and your DNS server wherever it may be knows what corresponds to what. It may be this thats "overworked".

So go here http://www.opendns.com/ and follow the instructions.

Even if this is not the problem it will do you no harm.

 

[BTB 500]

Simple test. Set your router console up as a favourite (normally enter "192.168.2.1" in your browser). When you get a problem, see if you can access the router from the IE session. If not then it's a problem with the wireless LAN. If you can access the router then the problem is (obviously) from the router outwards ... could be an issue with your ISP or phone line (or cable connection?).

 

[Nibbo]

Thanks for all of the rapid replies.
I will try the openDNS thing first as this sounds pretty good.
I will let you know how I get on.

 

[Sp!ke]

From experience of being a Virgin user, its unlikely to be a PC issue.

Most of the time its a Virgin issue. More often than not, your lease has expired and you cant get a new IP on your router.

Or, occasionally, certain routers get in a pickle and do strange things requiring a reboot.... especially when running wireless.

Another thing to consider is that you shouldnt have a DECT telephone near your wireless router or PC as the two can interfere causing dropouts.

Personally, I've stopped using WIFI in my home. I found the routers unreliable, data rates slow and security not as secure as I'd like. I now have Cat5 throughout the house.

 

[Merc-C180K]

Are you running vista by any chance...?

Wireless CLient is Vista is woeful...

 

[grober]

If you are running XP try the following when the fault occurs:-

Control panel---Network connections---left mouse click on your active connection (will read LAN or high speed internet or similar)---select the Support Tab on the LOCAL AREA NETWORK STATUS PAGE and click the "REPAIR" Button This should reset your link from the computer to the router. Then run BTB500's "192.168.2.1" test again in your browser. (test will probably not work with the Firefox Browser)

 

[agatward]

You can also try opening your cable modem's status page and make sure it's still locked on to the cable network - http://192.168.100.1/ and log in with the username and password shown on the page (don't worry, only you can access this).

You may find that if your drop lead from the Virgin Media point on the wall to your cable modem has a problem with its shielding, you will get disconnected when using the wireless heavily.

 

[Dieselman]

It's a Virgin server issue, mine drops off particularly to this and sometimes another forum, whilst other web sites are fine.

Opening up another IE session doesn't usually fix it and the delay before being up can be 20 mins, but a trip to the same site via a proxy server confirms the site to be operational then reverting back to Virgin seems to fix the issue immediately.

Try a proxy server visit to any site that you are experiencing problems with.

You can also try a tracert from a DOS prompt. This will check the routing of the connection. You will probably find the route to be a particular route to a site giving issues.

For some reason MBClub has lots of timeouts. Could be why people find they get drop-offs.

Typical example for Admin, if interested. IP addy ammended.

I run on Cat5.

 

[Sp!ke]

Looking at your traceroutes Dieselman, your problems start on hop 1.

Your problems are likely to be local not anywhere else.

 

[Dieselman]

Hop 1 is pc to router and never shows a time.
Look at the times onto MBClub, they drop out regularly,notice thre have been three attempts to connect three time in succession.

I've added a trace to another forum for comparison.

 

[Sp!ke]

I get the same on my traceroute 3 hits on the last run....

Without knowing the infrastructure, I'd take a stab at the cause being multiple virtual hosts on the same physical box (multiple IP's and multiple domains) and the routing table isnt quite what it should be, hence the looping.

I'll flag it with Maff, hopefully he can establish the cause.

 

[Nibbo]

As always this forum has solved my issues.
I have gone the openDNS route recommended by Hughjarse and have not had a problem since.
Many thanks to all that have replied.

 

[stevesey]

Also a virgin customer and had been convinced that it looked like DNS issues when things went down (never noticed any DHCP lease issues on the modem status page, but mines very old, neighbours have had problems with the newer ones).

Time to try open DNS, see if that helps.

 

[ibrar]

To be honest, Vista is utter pants. Personally I wouldn't buy it, due to the amount of bugs and software clashes that come across it. Im probably going to wait another year until I get another new laptop, or mac (highly recommended)