Router problem or isp?

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Ok here we go again lol....

Every now and then my internet connection drops out. When i say drops out, i cannot get connected via Internet explorer to any web pages. However at the same time i have seen my SKype stay connected and the Bittorrent software i use carrys on downloading and the 2 PC's on the LAN connected via the router still talk to each other. SO Its just appears to be a problem with web pages.
I know its not a problem with IE6 as this happens on both machines using the same router. Turning the router off then back on cures it. SO is it the Router thats faulty or is it the ISP blocking my connection?
Last time this kept happening i was told to update the routers BIOS. This cured it (for a year) until now. However there is no further BIOS updates available.
The router is a US robotics 9003. To me it seems that maybe the routers buffer (stack?) is getting full and wont clear until the reset. Or is it something to do with ports 80 and 443 as these deal with HTTP for webpages?

 

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When this happens can you still ping websites?

 

I dont know.. never thought to try it lol. next time it drops out i will try a ping.. tho that might be in the morning....
I have to admit it may be a DNS problem on the router. MSN messenger wont log in when it happens and troubleshooting on that shows a DNS error and Port error that cant be fixed.

 

I believe that the router is configured for static IP.

 

If you can ping places on the 'net by IP then it will likely be a DNS thing. It would be nice to try a web-site by IP - but most pages have 'A' tags which will nullify the test!

If the ping fails I would say that it is the router running out of resources - which means a firmware problem.

Harry.

 

Having said which this IP address has no A tags with domain names in it:
http://195.173.142.129/

(It is the main page for the computer fairs I run a help-desk at)

Harry.

 

next time it drops out i will try the ping address you mentioned Harry. As for disabling the torrents and skype, previous to last time it dropped out skype wasnt running but torrents were. Im sure in the past tho it has dropped when only IE was running.

 

Harry could you expand on this *A tag* thing. It's a new one on me mate.

 

This is a HTML thing. Tags are keywords in a HTML document which instruct the browser how to deal with it. Such as HEAD and BODY (I'm leaving out the angle brackets to avoid confusing the CF display system). The A tag introduces an address or URL.

If this URL is local, as on the site I mentioned then just the filename appears. If it is elsewhere then the domain name will appear as well. In this case this will defeat the purpose of the test!

Look at "page source" for this page and search for "195" and you will see the A tag for that link.

Harry.

 

twizzle,

Several questions:
1) Is your Internet Service some sort of DHCP based ISP service?
2) Is your router's "WAN port" configured to be a DHCP client?
3) Does your ISP assign dynamic IP addresses?
4) Can you open "Command Prompt" and type "ipconfig /all" and post the IP addresses for your DNS servers?
5) Can you ping the IP addresses for your DNS servers?
6) Can you "tracert" to the fully qualified domain name for the DNS servers?
7) Can you ping the fully qualified domain name for the websites you have problems with?

 

Answers:-
1) Dont think so.. but its freedom2surf so u can check lol
2) DHCP is enabled on the Router but not on this pc.
3) I believe its static.. but not sure. How can i tell? all isee is the IP addresses on my network which are static.
4) Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : twizz

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 5:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-A6-15-11-02

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

5) yes i can
6) I dont know the FQDN for the DNS servers where can i find this?
7) When the problem happens its not just a few sites i cant access its all sites. IE6 will not open ANY websites not just a select few.

 

Harry, just as a matter of interest how come your site doesn't have a domain name?

 

twizzle,

On your computer, try manually configuring your DNS server to 206.13.30.12 and 206.13.29.12 . Then see if you continue to have website opening issues. If you do, then change it back to 192.168.1.1 and post back.

 

Cheers mate, I understand what you are saying now

 

It does. It is www.technofair.com However - the whole point of that bit of the thread was to see if web access was available without using DNS. Giving a domain name somewhat defeats the object!

Harry.

 

i thought it would be rather strange but when i used dnsstuff.com it didn't display a domain.... probably me rushing

 

Probably because Demon have stuffed the reverse DNS!

Harry.

 

i don't feel so silly now