Troubleshooting internet timeouts

Sharksfan

Sharksfan

New member
May 28, 2009
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WI
I've got a problem with my home setup that is making me crazy. Quite frequently web pages, etc, won't load. I will get an immediate error saying the connection is bad or has timed out.

Take a look at these pings done in a row from one of my computers:
Code: 
C:\>ping www.xxxxx.com

Pinging www.xxxxx.com [ip goes here] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from [ip goes here]: bytes=32 time=101ms TTL=54
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from [ip goes here]: bytes=32 time=103ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for [ip goes here]:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 101ms, Maximum = 103ms, Average = 102ms

C:\>ping www.yahoo.com

Pinging any-fp.wa1.b.yahoo.com [69.147.125.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=126ms TTL=49
Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=49
Request timed out.
Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=135ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 69.147.125.65:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 126ms, Maximum = 135ms, Average = 130ms

C:\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [74.125.95.147] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.95.147: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=50
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.147: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=50
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 74.125.95.147:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 95ms, Average = 89ms
The first site is one of my autoblogs - I removed the relevant information of course. The other two are obviously Google and Yahoo.

The possible culprits I can look at are:

1.) Individual computers - not likely - I have 5 computers on this connection and it happens to all of them.

2.) Local bandwidth problems - don't think so - I have turned all but one computer off and made sure no auto-updates are running. I still had the problem.

3.) Router - I run a local router with NAT that sits between my DSL modem and my computers. This may be the problem - every once in a while my entire network goes down and I have to restart this thing. After that everything works - BUT - it's relatively new and I'd like more confirmation before scrapping it.

4.) DSL modem - I live in the country and I only have DSL. The router is in bridging mode and rarely goes down. Every time I have actually lost internet service the ISP has confirmed a problem on their end. Like the time a backhoe got carried away...

I do not think I have spyware, etc - I checked a variety of things to make sure the computer are all running free of spyware,etc, that could be sucking bandwidth (including logging on the router).

Any ideas? To be clear the entire home network consists of this:

1 DSL Router in bridging mode, hooked to
1 Netgear Router + Wireless (Secured) hooked to...
1 8 Port switch
3 hard wired computers on the Netgear
2 (or less) computers on wireless
1 Buffalo Terastation hooked to the switch (and consequently to the Netgear)

***EDIT - I have noticed while watching websites that failed to load that the "Looking up site www.google.com" (or whatever) hangs in the bottom of Firefox - but this could be true for a variety of problems. Working now to see if it's a DNS issue...but I doubt that since the pings resolve the DNS before pinging and then the pings are done by IP - and fail.
 


nickycakes said:
try changing your nameservers to:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

If that doesn't fix it, it's most likely your router.

Also, why do you need 2 routers and a switch?
Click to expand...

Thanks - I should have thought of that.

The DSL router is owned by the ISP - they are the only choice in this lame backwater until the finish pulling fiber out here this summer - so I couldn't just by a combo DSL + local multi-port router.

The Netgear router only has 4 ports - and after I bought it I added a few things so I just bought a switch to expand everything. I could switch it up and remove at least one network device.
 
Just some thoughts since this isn't something I know a lot about.

1.) Is your connection secure? Could your neighbor be using the crap out of your bandwidth?

2.) Do you have some kind of bot running through a virus making a lot of connections at once?

My only experience is that our neighbor was infected bad and piggy backing off our connection (with my permission) and was literally making 100's of connections to other sites at once. Kept timing out until I cleaned up their pc.
 
I am secure. I have a strong password for the wireless and I do not broadcast my SSID.
 
I'm betting its the router. Try plugging the DSL directly into one of the computers. If you have a 4 port router and you're running 5 computers off it (plus wireless clients) there's a good chance you're overloading it.

EDIT: I dont know where you're located but a 129ms ping time to Yahoo sucks.
 
Try different browsers. As crazy as that sounds I recently found my Firefox hanging and doing the same thing as what is happening to you, but IE works fine. Haven't found a fix yet but double check it's not that.
 
DBWebDev said:
Try different browsers. As crazy as that sounds I recently found my Firefox hanging and doing the same thing as what is happening to you, but IE works fine. Haven't found a fix yet but double check it's not that.
Click to expand...

Tried IE, Chrome, and I normally use FF- same with all.
 
Okay - after further investigation I am pretty sure it's the router.

The simple test: I kept a DOS window open with a ping to the router's IP ready to go. Once I ran into the problem I tried pinging the router and it timed out.

This was after updating my name servers as recommended above.
 
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