Last Saturday I shifted to a new flat, and since then the connection has been a little dodgy. Here's the rundown of what's going on. Connection is a DSL line, shared with two other people. The router is a D-Link DSL-G604T. I was on a DSL line before, a 3com router, don't remember the model. I can always connect to Skype, ICQ, AIM, Ventrilo, Teamspeak2 and Guild Wars. I can sometimes, but not always, connect to normal websites, and haven't found any reason why this is; it fails for several minutes at a time. I can never connect to MSN, secure websites (e-mail and banking), e-mail servers, IRC, FTP, bittorrent or automatic update services. The problem is not browser specific. It will read "Waiting for (site address)..." and locate it fine, but it stalls at "Connecting to (site address)..." Neither of the other two guys using the router have any problems.
DSL uses phone lines, so if your new place has shitty phone lines, you're going to get shitty internet. Could also be an incorrectly configured router. Or if it's a new ISP, it's blocking certain ports.
If you are absolutely sure that the other people don't have any problems with the exact websites that you are having trouble with then it probably isn't the phone lines or the ISP. It can still be the router config. I have different settings for different computers so check the config page out(192.168.1.1). I assume someone changed the default login so put the new one in etc. If you need more specific instruction just go to portforward.com and find your router. That's probably the problem. If not, then it must be your own computer settings. The last time I changed my ISP, I had to change some settings to get things working properly. The fact that it fails for several minutes on normal websites makes me think computer settings though. Does it just work for a site then suddenly stop? If you keep trying to connect to that site will it eventually work? Some of the other issues point to a router issue so it could really be both.
Yeah, I can be browsing a site then suddenly I can't connect to that site or any other for 10-30 minutes. Hitting refresh doesn't change anything. I'm wondering if there are some ports that are blocked. Doesn't really make sense though given that the guy who maintains the router would know that if there were.
Are the other two guys on DHCP, just out of interest? That shouldn't really cause issues but it might be worth checking out.
I know it seems kinda silly, but I'd start with the physical layers first (ie: CAT-5e cables, RJ-45 connectors, phone lines). Then I'd start looking at Windows settings. It could be your router, but the liklihood that your other two roommates would have been dicks enough to specifically block your MAC or IP address at random intervals just seems unlikely to me. Check the physical stuff, then check Windows Networking stuff. Edit: Also I don't remember seeing if you wrote this or not, but are you on a wired or wireless connection with this router?
Just to be sure, check if dhcp is turned on for your computer(in services). This can stop you from being able to browse for a short period then suddenly it seems to fix itself. I've never seen it go for 30 minutes though, it's usually 30sec-1min. It's probably not an issue with wired/wireless unless you are using 10 year old bent cables or your room has 1 meter thick concrete walls. As far as the router config, it doesn't have to be blocked. It might just be "not allowed" by default so you'll have to get your computer set to be allowed to use the right ports on the router.
Switching DHCP off stopped anything from working at all. So, my guess is I should leave that on. It's a wired connection, there are network cables through the walls and I'm plugged into a port there. I wondered if the port might be dodgy but if it was, I'd expect the whole connection to be offline. One of the two in this room is broken, though - I tried switching ports, and yep, it couldn't connect to anything. I don't have dedicated anti-virus software installed, mainly because I don't run dodgy .exe files and I've never had anything get through the firewall. The chance that something could have jumped across the network that isn't affecting the other guys' computers when I've locked all my drives from outside access seems negligible. I'm not sure what to look for in the network settings. It's telling me it doesn't detect any problems with the connection, unless I run the diagnostic in MSN Messenger, which tells me there's a problem but doesn't tell me what it is.
If the other two are on static IPs it'd probably be a good idea to ask what you can set your own computer to, but if not it's unlikely to be the problem. (Normally DHCP should work fine anyway, you just can't forward ports if you're on it - but in most circumstances you don't need to.) I'd suggest trying different sockets for the ethernet cable e.g. in other rooms, but I don't know how easy that sort of thing would be to do. It is possible you just got a bad outlet I guess.
You can have dhcp off, you just have to configure everything manually to get the connection working. If dhcp tries to lease you a different ip address then you will lose your connection until the router gives you a new one. Manual config is usually just setting your own internal ip address in the lan settings. portforward.com will give you a step by step to allowing any program for your specific router. Basically you want to go to the virtual server tab. exe files aren't the only things that can infect your computer. Get something to scan your computer anyways but don't have it running all the time. > You CAN forward ports with dhcp. You just don't want your ip to change, and it usually won't in a home network.