I have Verizon DSL, and a few years ago (3+) we were able to get a free modem-router from Verizon: the Westell 7500. My computer is the only computer plugged into it and every other device is connected wirelessly.
A few months ago it started having issues. The internet would cut out, but when I would go check on the router, only the internet light would be off. When it started a few months ago, the problem would only happen once or twice a week, sometimes not at all. But it gradually got worse until about a week ago every time I restarted the router not 20 minutes would go by before the internet cut out again.
So we called Verizon and they said that our router was old and was probably the culprit, so we paid $40 for the D-Link DSL-2750B router. Frustratingly, the problem continued. The exact day we installed it the problem was just as severe as with the Westell. Now it seems to be dwindling, but I have run into a second problem.
Every time the internet drops, I restart the router and the internet comes back up. My computer (which is plugged directly into the router) recognizes that the internet is up and running (Skype is working, Steam is working, and the network icon says I have internet), but when I go to use Chrome, zero pages will loud and the only way to access the internet is by restarting my computer.
Now for my questions: Any idea why only the internet cuts out and everything else (seems) to be working (power, wireless, etc)? Any idea why the problem didn't go away after getting the new router? And finally, why do I have to restart my computer every time I restart my router?
I think that is everything, but if not, please ask any questions for further clarification. This is a vary frustrating predicament, so any help is much appreciated!
it sounds like a dns issue, try pinging 8.8.8.8 after power cycling the router but before rebooting your computer, if you get replies back from 8.8.8.8 try pinging www.google.com, if you get could not find host, it sounds like a dns issue, i would try running the netsh winsock reset then reboot and maybe try forcing dns by statically assigning it in the adapter properties, you can also try browsing by ip try to ping www.google.com when it is working and write down the reply from ip and enter that in the browser address bar that should bring up google even without dns working
I wrote this earlier, but my internet dropped while I was writing it:
Odd thing happened: The internet cut out earlier today (as expected), but when I restarted the router chrome worked without my computer needing to restart. That gave me a glimmer of hope, but that glimmer was crushed into a million tiny pieces when my internet failed again. I went through the same routine, chrome didn't work. I did pop open the command prompt and tried 8.8.8.8; I was able to ping that successfully, but I wasn't successful with google.com. I forgot about your suggestion -- wow, internet cut out as I was writing this. This is so frustrating. Okay, I did the netsh winsock reset and it says it was successful, hopefully when I restart to finalize it, it will indeed work.
It didn't seem to work because it dropped again and chrome was still not functioning correctly. I am just going to have to call Verizon again to tell them the new router didn't fix the problem. Hopefully they will send a technician to actually diagnose the problem (Verizon customer service is not a fun thing to have to go through...).
Could the problem originate from the connection to the ISP? All of the wireless devices still have a connection to the router, just no access to the internet. So, that makes me wonder if perhaps the copper connection is shoddy or something. To me, that doesn't seem right since rebooting the router temporarily fixes the issue, but I don't have nearly enough knowledge in networking to make that conclusion. Just a thought.
So, the internet went down again, and I was exploring my network settings and as it was down I had windows run a troubleshoot and it said I the network didn't have a valid IP address. I guess it fixed the IP problem which got my internet back up without having to reboot the router, for now. I will need to make sure that the problem doesn't come back, but that seems promising.
you can try a tcp/ip reset thats just "netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt", or statically assign an ip and see if it is just the modem's shoddy dhcp server that is not assigning the ip, if it is bad enough you could see about just getting a new modem and a new router and having your isp bridge the modem