Hello,
I have a networking problem. I will try to describe it.
I have a d-link di-604 router (4 ports, NOT wireless), which normally works well, connected to our ADSL modem and to 3 stationary PC's and/or laptops (the other people change their computers from time to time).
It's connected 24/7 to the internet and the connection is always stable.
I also have a laptop, a Dell Latitude c500, with which I have been trying to play poker lately.
When I connect my laptop to the router, using the same cable and port as with my stationary computer, strange things happen. (I did turn off the laptop & router before changing any cables).
I can use the internet and everything seems to work just fine, but then after a while (it usually takes 20-30 minutes) I no longer have internet access. This is true for all the computers and not only the laptop itself, so it must be a problem with the router, caused somehow by the laptop (since everything works well otherwise).
If I reboot the router, by pulling its power cable and reinserting it, everything will once again work fine for a while, then disconnect just like before.
Rebooting the laptop will not help at all in the same situation.
Other interesting things:
The laptop works well when directly connected to another PC (with just a cable, and no router/switch). I've played games with it, and transferred files this way without trouble.
The laptop also works well when connected directly to the ADSL modem (again, without any router in between) and I can use the internet without interruption this way.
My laptop uses winxp professional, whereas my stationary pc (using same port/cable) uses win2k. Could this be a problem? I've had the same problems when connecting the laptop to the 4th port of the router with its own cable.
The other computers use anything from win98 to winxp repectively.
My description ends here. I think I have got it all written down.
Does anyone have a suggestion or idea as to what might cause this problem and how to solve it?
I think an interesting thing especially is the fact that just rebooting the router will reset the connection and make it work for a while. I can do this as many times as I want by pulling the cable and reinserting it and it will keep working for a while. I feel that it cannot be good for the router to do so, however, and it also won't help when disconnected from a poker table even if it takes at most 60 seconds to do on every disconnect.
Oh, yes I might add a few more facts.
I have owned this laptop for about one year and until now I used to never connect it to the internet, so therefor I have no security installed and I have nearly never performed a virus scan or similar thing on it.
It was bought from ebay by my father and came with windows etc installed and I have never cleaned it since. So just about anything could actually be inside my laptop without me knowing it.
I performed a virus scan online at:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/hous...start_corp.asp
which found nothing.
I then performed a scan for spyware at:
http://www.zonelabs.com/
which found the following:
(please look it up if you intend to help me)
Quite a lot. I don't know if these are dangerous but I sure don't want them.