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Always-on internet connection?

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by atrolli3

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I am running Windows XP Professional for my operating system. To access the internet I have DSL with a Speedstream 5260 DSL Modem and a 3Com Home Ethernet Gateway router. I have 2 computers connected to the gateway and have little or no trouble withthe computer/internet connection with the other computer running Windows 98 SE. Not the case with the XP computer. If for any reason I leave my always-on connection idle for maybe 5 minutes then when I attempt to go to another page or site it is as if the browser cannot recognize the connection as still being active and shows page unavailable and acts as if I am working offline. I have attempted to get help from Microsoft with this issue and they have absolutely no clue (really no clue!). Please help! I am so frustrated I feel like throwing the computer and networking hardware out the window, literally!

8 replies

by timthetoolman

Hi,

OK, you need to know where the network is broken.
Assuming you and Microsoft went through the network configurations and you've got it set to be correctly on a LAn rather than any wierd dialup setting...

Start here...

Open up a commandprompt and type ipconfig to see that your machine has a correct IP and default gateway configuration. I'd say your router will be assigning you a non routable address such as 192.168.0.1

Make sure you can ping your router. The address to use willbe the gateway address shown in the ipconfig above.

See if you can ping to say www.google.com

Then if its all working ok, try to see if the network starts having problems if its constantly being used. Do a...

ping -t www.google.com

from a command prompt. That will constantly ping the google site and if there is a timeout issue, then this will temporarily "fix" it.

If its still "breaks" after five mins then you have some other proble, Post back to here with any new info you come up with.

Cheers,
Tim.

by techd00d

It's been my experience in working with the major DSL providers that what they advertise as an "always-on" connection isn't really so. Most providers use some form of PPPoE or PPPoA to deliver their service (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet or ATM). What this means, essentially, is that the network connection is transformed into a dial-up connection. This is done by installing software on the client computer (e.g. WinPoet) that automatically disconnects the client after a certain period ofinactivity (often 5 minutes) and then automatically reconnects when the user tries to request network resources (e.g. when you open your browser). I would suggest that you check with your provider or documentation to see if you are connected to sucha system and if so then check to make sure you have the client software properly installed and have an XP compatible version. I know that in the case of WinPoet, the maker was very slow to provide an XP compatible version.

Good luck!

by ann777

Even though PPoE/A may emulate a dial-up connection, if you have any hardware in your network that "maintains" (some broadband routers can also be set to "Keep connection alive" or "timout" -- look at those settings) the internet connectivity, then your XP computer should stay connected. The fact that your 98 SE computer stays connected, either points to the software or hardware on your WinXP machine.

Does the NIC on your XP machine have any power management enabled? Does your computertake advantage of power down settings of any kind? If so, you might want to disable them and see if you can maintain internet-connectivity then. That is the route I'd explore with the situation you describe.

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