Well, I had a tech rep come over to the house today and he did his usual "blah, blah, blah....your computer probably needs software updating.." Yeah, whatever!
He did his standard trouble shooting...."yep modem looks ok, you're hard drive is a little full (I know, too many flight sims), I can't really see a problem. Luckily it locked up on him a few times while he was here, although he couldn't see the problem on my end.
He did let it slip that the company rotates your IP address every 24 hours (used to be every 3 days). On one of the lock up occasions he "refreshed/renewed" and surprise! it worked again. He stated that the company charges an extra 2 or 3 bucks for a static IP/month but I'm thinking the company should eat the extra $$, since my "always-on connection" isn't always on.
I've got a continuous yahoo ping going and when it locks I refresh/renew on winipcfg and it works again. Do I really have to put up with this stuff? Can I tell them to give me a static IP and not have to pay the extra $$? Is the rotating IP addy my problem or is their something more sinister lurking?
Is it my computer's problem that it can't "remember" my Ip address? Or is the company switching addy's faster than advertised. I'll keep a log running of the address to check and see.
Has anyone ever run into the same problem?
BTW: pings from yahoo
55ms
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Question on dealing with Internet Provider
Moderator: RLG MGMT Team
Question on dealing with Internet Provider
Fly Baby Delta
When you do you winipcfg, look at the more info option and see when your i.p. address lease started and when it ends... This will tell you the times your i.p. address lease is good for - it should say when the lease was obtained and when it is over.
Now, the dhcp client (your pc) will attempt to renew its address halfway through the lease period. So it if is a 24 hour lease, the client will attempt to renew the address after 12 hours of having it. Does this seem to coincide with your outages? If so, it seesm the dhcp server from your isp is not listening to renewal requests properly.
In all likelyhood it is a problem on their end with how they are attempting to manage the process of changing i.p. addresses every 24 hours (or even more often). That is not how dhcp normally works (you usually get the same address again), and they are doing something else with it to make it change i.p. addresses of clients.
It may also have to do with your client not updating the rest of the information properly...i.e. your gateway, dns servers, etc. You may well get the new i.p. address (you will know this if you are making a record - compare the i.p. address before you lose connectivity and after, just before you do the manual renewal) but you may not be getting the other information pertinent to internet functionality (gateway, dns servers...). Win98 has a known issue with getting the proper information on automatic renewal attempts - it works fine for manual release/renewal. So if the gateway and dns servers and information other than the i.p. address changes (you should record all of this as well) then that is likely the problem. WinNT and up do not have this issue. I am not sure if it exists on Win95.
The above may help you to get a static i.p. address as well if they insist on changing gateways, etc. every time you get a new i.p. address. There is a M$ knowledge base article on the issue - but you need to know if the information other than the i.p. address changes as well.
Now, the dhcp client (your pc) will attempt to renew its address halfway through the lease period. So it if is a 24 hour lease, the client will attempt to renew the address after 12 hours of having it. Does this seem to coincide with your outages? If so, it seesm the dhcp server from your isp is not listening to renewal requests properly.
In all likelyhood it is a problem on their end with how they are attempting to manage the process of changing i.p. addresses every 24 hours (or even more often). That is not how dhcp normally works (you usually get the same address again), and they are doing something else with it to make it change i.p. addresses of clients.
It may also have to do with your client not updating the rest of the information properly...i.e. your gateway, dns servers, etc. You may well get the new i.p. address (you will know this if you are making a record - compare the i.p. address before you lose connectivity and after, just before you do the manual renewal) but you may not be getting the other information pertinent to internet functionality (gateway, dns servers...). Win98 has a known issue with getting the proper information on automatic renewal attempts - it works fine for manual release/renewal. So if the gateway and dns servers and information other than the i.p. address changes (you should record all of this as well) then that is likely the problem. WinNT and up do not have this issue. I am not sure if it exists on Win95.
The above may help you to get a static i.p. address as well if they insist on changing gateways, etc. every time you get a new i.p. address. There is a M$ knowledge base article on the issue - but you need to know if the information other than the i.p. address changes as well.
Helmut
Routers and DHCP
Hey Chowda,
Here's a thought. How about putting a router in between the Cable modem and the computer? Then you could in effect safely turn off the computer, and the router would keep the IP connection 24/7, right? Unless you turn off the power to the router or you have a power outage. At least that's how my router works at home. I have not had to renew the connection on my router for some time. Unless the router I have (Netgear RT-314) might automatically grab the new IP number using DHCP and I might not even notice the IP change. The IP numbers issued to my computer are all generic NAT IP #s, 192.168.##.##.
Here's a thought. How about putting a router in between the Cable modem and the computer? Then you could in effect safely turn off the computer, and the router would keep the IP connection 24/7, right? Unless you turn off the power to the router or you have a power outage. At least that's how my router works at home. I have not had to renew the connection on my router for some time. Unless the router I have (Netgear RT-314) might automatically grab the new IP number using DHCP and I might not even notice the IP change. The IP numbers issued to my computer are all generic NAT IP #s, 192.168.##.##.
"SILENCE, I KILL YOU!!" - Achmed the Dead Terrorist
AKA: Staark or Staark_RLG
A little Update:
while monitoring it yesterday it went out after 29 minutes, refresh/renew and it came back. It's had the same IP address for about 20 hours now. Percentage of downtime was running about 10 mins on and 1 min off. The lease is saying, "Lease Obtained 11 20 02 7:50:13 AM and Lease expires 11 28 02 7:50:13 AM" Interesting that it's showing 8 days when the tech guy told me 24 hours. I wish it was as predictable as the 24 hour switch the guy was talking about, seems pretty random with outages.
I also have win98 running so there's another probable kick in the nutz.
Good tip softball, unfortunately no router. DOH!
and of course as I was typing this it timed out, refresh/renew and it came back with same IP address. here's what I was doing at the time: several (3) browser windows open and searching for info on different pages at the same time.
a picture for your time:
while monitoring it yesterday it went out after 29 minutes, refresh/renew and it came back. It's had the same IP address for about 20 hours now. Percentage of downtime was running about 10 mins on and 1 min off. The lease is saying, "Lease Obtained 11 20 02 7:50:13 AM and Lease expires 11 28 02 7:50:13 AM" Interesting that it's showing 8 days when the tech guy told me 24 hours. I wish it was as predictable as the 24 hour switch the guy was talking about, seems pretty random with outages.
I also have win98 running so there's another probable kick in the nutz.
Good tip softball, unfortunately no router. DOH!
and of course as I was typing this it timed out, refresh/renew and it came back with same IP address. here's what I was doing at the time: several (3) browser windows open and searching for info on different pages at the same time.
a picture for your time:
Fly Baby Delta
Chowda,
I can not see the problem is with your PC. It is either in their network or in their modem - more likely in their network. I have done a couple of searches on M$ and found nothing about losing addresses or other info.
Do you have another PC, even an old one, that you can hook up to see what happens there?
Have you gone to M$ update and updated your O.S. recently? How about network card drivers?
I can not see the problem is with your PC. It is either in their network or in their modem - more likely in their network. I have done a couple of searches on M$ and found nothing about losing addresses or other info.
Do you have another PC, even an old one, that you can hook up to see what happens there?
Have you gone to M$ update and updated your O.S. recently? How about network card drivers?
Helmut