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I've been having this problem for some months now, and I have been unable to figure out a solution, or even the cause.

At random points throughout the day, my internet connectivity "freezes". I don't get disconnected from my local wireless network. My router doesn't get disconnected from the world. However, for some reason, my computer stops receiving packets. If I'm playing an MMO ( World of Warcraft, in this case, but it has happened with Eve Online as well ) all activity just freezes. If I try to browse, Opera, Firefox and IE all stall at "Waiting for google.com..." or whatever the hostname may be. Inspection with a packet sniffer seems to reveal that there are no incoming packets.

Here's the interesting part.

Disconnecting from my wireless network and reconnecting fixes the issue.

Obviously this led me to conclude that it was a problem with my router or wireless card. However, I have tweaked all the settings on my router that I could think of, including things like QoS, AP Isolation, etc. with no change. My wireless card doesn't really have that many options, and I have uninstalled and reinstalled drivers a few times without any change. Windows Firewall on/off doesn't make a difference.

Anyone have any suggestions for debugging this? It's becoming an annoyance.

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  • What router make, model and firmware release. Also what ISP and are you running anything that might create lots of connections (like Bittorrent? Anything of note in the Windows Event logs?
    – Helvick
    Commented Jan 17, 2010 at 14:08

2 Answers 2

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Have you tried a cable connection to the router, see if it is the router, or just the router's wi-fi connection. You'll probably need to upgrade the router's firmware regardless, but if the problem persists, you'll need to replace it.

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A wireless network card is not always perfect. I have seen cases of cards which would behave strangely, for example after some time, because of the heat for example (a wireless card is generating a non negligible amount of heat), sometimes because of nothing.

You should give a try with a temporary wifi card (like for example a usb one), to see if the problem is linked the the card in particular, or not.

I was thinking also about external disturbances, like starting a microwave, but your problem seems to be lasting until your reboot connection, so I doubt it would be something like that.

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  • I have switched to a USB card ): The problem persists.
    – Rohit Nair
    Commented Jan 17, 2010 at 11:21

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