[Alex F]

My original post was "tl;dr"-classed, so I'll cut straight to the point. My D-Link DI-624 wireless router sucks. It's been nothing but trouble for most of the 3 years it's been installed in my house. Its latest problem, which is running me up a wall, is that it will say "DHCP Client Disconnected" in the setup and we get no internet. Every time this happens, which right now is every few hours, I have to resync it. When this started happening, I've tried resets and reflashes of the firmware, but nothing works.

Before I go and blow $50 on a new router tomorrow, is there anything else I can try with this before giving it the boot out the door?

Some extra info:
-Vista Business machine w/ Edimax EW-7128g (RaLink RT2561), Dell Inspiron 1525 w/ Vista HP and Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, and iPod Touch hooked up wirelessly
-Xbox 360 and Windows XP Home machine w/ Realtek RTL-8139 have wired connections
-Started after a networking issue with Windows 7 on the Vista Business desktop.
-If it says anything about quality, the first one that was brought to our house (by one of my dad's friends) had a damaged enclosure and had to be returned

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Hey Alex,

When you lose your Internet connection, can you please try the following:

• Goto Start
• In the Vista search field, type cmd
• Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and then press the ENTER - this should launch the command prompt with admin privileges.
• In the new command prompt window, type ipconfig /release -- wait for your connection to release then type ipconfig /renew

Can you please post the results of these two commands.

Also, goto Start and in the search field, type eventvwr and then press the ENTER key. In the left hand panel, expand Windows Logs and then select System. It should now show you a list of System events -- please look for any warnings (denoted by a yellow !) or errors (a red x) in the list of events that occur around the time that you lose your Internet connection. If you find any, can you please post the error codes and messages of these?

To be honest, it's sounding like a faulty router -- but it would be nice to try a few things before you go and buy a new one.

- Dan

[Dan]

Hey Alex,

When you lose your Internet connection, can you please try the following:

• Goto Start
• In the Vista search field, type cmd
• Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and then press the ENTER - this should launch the command prompt with admin privileges.
• In the new command prompt window, type ipconfig /release -- wait for your connection to release then type ipconfig /renew

Can you please post the results of these two commands.

Also, goto Start and in the search field, type eventvwr and then press the ENTER key. In the left hand panel, expand Windows Logs and then select System. It should now show you a list of System events -- please look for any warnings (denoted by a yellow !) or errors (a red x) in the list of events that occur around the time that you lose your Internet connection. If you find any, can you please post the error codes and messages of these?

To be honest, it's sounding like a faulty router -- but it would be nice to try a few things before you go and buy a new one.

- Dan

[Alex F]

That's what I'm thinking too.

I probably should have mentioned this before, but the weird thing about this is that when I'm running XP on my computer (which has Vista Business installed), it occasionally disconnects. I'd say one every week, maybe even less than that. Once I'm back in Vista, however, I can't even go a full 6 hours without being disconnected. It's the same deal with Windows 7 too. Any insight on that?

EDIT: It's starting to disconnect more often than when I'm usually in XP :S Now I have no idea why it's been acting this way, other than it's finally starting to go out.

My last resort before having to buy a router right now is to use the AP mode on my Edimax and put the card in this computer downstairs (the HP with XP Home) and connect the modem straight to it. That'll at least provide wireless, until i can figure out how to connect the XBox.

EDIT 2: oh, and forgot to mention that i did reinstall XP on my computer this morning. Should I still do those commands?

Edited by Alex F, 16 January 2009 - 09:49 PM.

[Dan]

Sorry about not getting back to you yesterday, Alex.

I probably should have mentioned this before, but the weird thing about this is that when I'm running XP on my computer (which has Vista Business installed), it occasionally disconnects. I'd say one every week, maybe even less than that. Once I'm back in Vista, however, I can't even go a full 6 hours without being disconnected. It's the same deal with Windows 7 too. Any insight on that?

I may have jumped the gun a bit in blaming your router; I assumed that when you lose the Internet, all of your devices lost it at the same time? Or is it only your computer? If it's only your computer, then it's not overly likely that it's your router's fault.

If you could still run those commands, it would be great; I'd like to know how severely you're losing your Internet connection. It may just be a poor signal, or a stagnant connection, etc. If possible, can you try connecting the computer directly to the modem via an Ethernet cable, and then see if you still lose your Internet connection? I know it will be hard, since it seems pretty random, but it could help to determine whether this is due to your router, or something else.

The best thing would be to try to find some warnings/errors in your Event Log/Viewer, since these errors may help provide some insight as to why you're losing your connection.

One final thing to try would be to run the computer in Safe Mode with Networking to rule out software interference.

- Dan

[Alex F]

Oh, you were right the first time, no doubt about that. When it loses connection with the modem, everything is affected.

Both commands timed out in ipconfig and I haven't found any warnings in Event Viewer besides ASP.NET and WinMgmt.

I did end up having to replace one thing on the router (the power cable). After I replaced it I managed to get a constant connection for 12 hours straight when using AP mode with the Edimax card to provide wireless. I have noticed, however, that when using the router's wifi broadcasting and not downloading torrents in the background, the router behaves like it usually does (resets out of nowhere and reconnects in one piece). This almost makes me believe that it was a power failure causing all this.

[Alex F]

sry, double post. dunno what happened

Edited by Alex F, 22 January 2009 - 06:02 PM.

[Dan]

It's definitely possible that it was a power issue; is your connection more consistent now? If you still lose your Internet connection when using torrents it might be due to the computer reaching it's TCP/IP Limit. But if this is the case, you should be seeing some warnings in your event viewer.

[Alex F]

I'm sorry for not answering these past few days. Almost slipped my mind.

Yeah, what I said before was all after I replaced the power adapter. The router continued to do what it normally did before this big mishap and as long as I'm getting internet from the Edimax, it's been pretty consistent. I've also been told that I could be topping the TCP/IP limit too but that never seems to be the case once I'm in Ubuntu or any other form of Linux. It's baffled me from the start.

Anyways, looks like everything is back to normal. Thank you for helping.