Windows 7 Internet Cutting Out... But Not?

Chamenas

New Member
I've been having an odd issue recently where I will be browsing or doing other online activities and then, without warning, my internet will cut out. Strictly speaking, it's difficult to even recognize the issue because my network connection box doesn't gain a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point. Instead, my browser will time out on sites, my games will d/c (after their timeout exceeds its limit), etc...

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit Home edition on a computer I built myself. It doesn't seem to be a network card issue, though it could be. Whenever this happens I go downstairs and unplug, re-plug in the router and everything works fine.

The problem is that this isn't just some old router. I used an older router previously and it would d/c quite frequently, but would always let me know it had dropped. I'd reset it, then things would be fine. I eventually switched over to a somewhat newer router (a little over a year old now) and things were great: no d/cs, no drops.

At some point, I don't remember when, I did get a couple odd "drops" where I would get a "connected, but not connected to the internet" warning, with the yellow triangle and the exclamation mark. But these happened very infrequently.

Now the problem is happening, my computer doesn't even recognize there's a problem and it happens on a daily, if not multiple times on a daily base. The router is a Netgear one, though I don't know the specific model, I can grab that tomorrow if it's needed (I'm figuring someone will likely ask).

I don't remember doing anything odd to my computer recently. Installed a webcam, Premiere Elements 8, a program named Debut and its associated programs. Pretty normal stuff. The only oddball is HotSpot Shield which is a proxy IP service. None of these "masked" disconnects happened until after that was installed, but I'm unsure if they're related. As mentioned, restarting the router seems to fix it.

Thanks for the advice in advance.
 
You could always try system restore to a point before the app you mention was installed. If there's no difference then the process can be reversed at least.
 
Hmm, I've never done a system restore before so I wasn't sure I could "go back" (from going back) if things weren't fixed by restoring the first time.
 
Another idea would be to check with your ISP and just make sure everything is ok.
 
First going to try uninstalling HotSpot Shield and see what happens. If it turns out to be the issue I might research other proxy VPN options and see if they cause problems.
 
i am having exactly same started about 3 days ago win 7 ultimate avg 2011 and nothing new added ip is bt always been good as gold.
i get cannot detect dns server mrs net book on xp does it aswell both reconect themselves when they feel like it!
very weird!
 
Welcome to the forum Jace.

I don't know if this will help or not. I had similar problems and found by disconnecting and restarting the computer and then reconnecting helped. If you have a cd you might try reinstalling that way. At one time that is what I had to do. It seems that my modem had been corrupted. If you haven't tried this give it a shot. If that doesn't work I am sure someone here will be able to give you advice or help that may make a difference.
 
An update to this...

I came home last night to find that my internet connection was out, but, this time I got to see the little yellow triangle caution symbol. It seems removing the VPN proxy at least helped in that regard, but, there's still strong suspicions that the router is having issues since it requires a reset to fix. Will get more info on the router when I can (such as age, model and company).
 
left mine to whir away for about 4hrs whilst i got on with other stuff and its been ok since then! famous last words!
 
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