Connection problems every 5 mins

[Londoner]

Hi, sorry this is probably a simple one but it's got me and my brother scratching our heads.

My brother's computer is a nice new Dell XPS Gen4 all singing and dancing gaming pc, and he's got a BT highspeed broadband connection - BUT every five minutes any application that is accessing the internet hangs and the connection speed just goes flat.

It is especially noticeable when playing an online game and I timed it last night for over an hour and the ping went up like a sky rocket literally EVERY 5 mins, for anything from 30 seconds to a minute and a half, then all is well again.

We've checked the Task Manager but cannot see any culprits, so far as we can tell the Norton Antivirus 2004 is set up to allow the applications to do what is necessary and we're not sure where else to find the problem - we reckon it may be Outlook, but cannot see anything to tweek there.

Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts, appreciated - the spec below is not the one I am enquiring about, btw.

[glc]

USB modem? Typical.

[Londoner]

Hi, thank you for your response although I'm not sure how to interpret it - my own computer at home has a low speed broadband connection with a usb modem and I have never had any problems.

BUT The computer I am asking after now, though, uses an ADSL modem connected via a Netgear Wireless Router MR814 version 2. The computer itself is a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4.

[glc]

Update the firmware on the Netgear and do a hard reset - then reconfigure it.

[Londoner]

Hello, thank you for your reply.

After reading through various pcmech threads and others we concluded more or less what you have suggested and did exactly that. Problem is it won't now connect atall! And we cannot now get in to the router/modem to set up new settings, eg, on typing in the router address the page doesn't open.

Any further suggestions, thoughts, etc would be gladly received.
Best regards.

__________________________________

Hi, I just read an answer to my thread in the security froum and apologise if you consider it a 'crosspost' - in my mind I saw it as a separate issue but I accept your judgement. Also, I had read the sticky, as I have read most here at pcmech since they are all very informative; perhaps my technical shortcomings are well illustrated since I followed what I understood to be the advice yet the mod clearly thinks I didn't.

My apologies in each case; any misunderstanding is due to my lack of expertise rather than anything else. I value pcmech very highly and do try to follow the forum rules as well as possible.

Thank you for all responses, including those which correct my forum etiquette in this regard.

[Panama Red]

Try connecting your brother's computer directly to the modem without the Netgear router and see if he can get on ok. If so, the problem is most likely with the router. I had a Netgear modem (not router) fail the same way a couple years ago. Followed their tech support advice and did a hard reset and killed the modem. If you do get on with your direct connection to the modem, I'd suggest contacting Netgear for a RMA.

[glc]

The reliability rate on consumer grade routers isn't that great, regardless of brand. There's a very good chance yours just died, given these symptoms.

I apologize if I came across strong in your other thread, but all forums have guidelines for posting a HJT log. A connection issue with no background doesn't suffice - you have to use antivirus and antispyware tools before posting one here and tell us what each found, etc. The use of HJT is a final step to a computer cleanup.

[Londoner]

I have connected the computer directly to the modem via a new ethernet cable and every 5 min it drops out. I have contacted BT and the connection is not dropped to the house

[dataDude]

The same thing happened with a chat friend of mine from London. She used BT and ended up switching her service entirely. She's since much happier. Note, she didn't tell me which service she switched to.

[theENiGMA]

I've had the same type of problem before, on a couple of occasions. In both cases, upgrading drivers was the fix. Try getting new drivers from the maker of the LAN card. Also, are you running XP SP2? If not go to Windows Update, and change over to SP2. This made the problem go away in the second instance. They revamped the way wireless works in SP2, and it fixed my problem. Just some thoughts...
-KEiTH