Disconnect every 5 minutes, firewall DHCP?

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
33 posts Page 1 of 4
by lien1 » Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:51 pm
Hey y'all! So i got this issue for that started to recur for the past couple of days. Every time i use my netflix or play an online game, the internet would stop connecting for 5 seconds every 5 minutes resting my movie or exiting my game session. I know this is an internet issue and not a netflix issue since not only does my skype account logs out, but the internet network prompt in my tabs list has this yellow exclamation mark signalling the lost connection.

So i called the sonic.net support team and after they run through some tests, they told me this is a firewall setting problem and that i had to enable the DHCP connection. Thing is... either i don't know how to do this or everything seems to say it's green and ready for DHCP connections. Am i doing something wrong?

For those interested, i am using windows 7 with administrator rights and my only other protection is Avast with automatic updates turn on. I got this new computer bout 4-5 months back but the issue didn't pop till a week ago but became apparent for the past 2 days. Everything was working fine before then.

I followed the instruction from this site: http://windows7themes.net/how-to-enable ... ows-7.html
and on this site: http://answers.vt.edu/kb/entry/3345/
And i look throughout the pages in this forum but i can't fix this problem, even with my default gateway ip address in hand. I tried to configure some settings on the CMD command prompt but i'm sure as you notice here, i am huh... new to configuring firewall settings. Can anyone run me through?

And if people are interested, here is my network.txt file that i got from the CMD command prompt. Notice the DHCP listed as disabled down there that peeked my attention.



Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : TheBeast
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82579V Gigabit Network Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-4D-4F-E9-B9
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::56:cb71:11d3:fa5e%13(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 50.0.205.162(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, September 08, 2013 4:47:18 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, September 08, 2013 4:52:18 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 50.0.205.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 50.0.205.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 285221453
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-71-13-07-00-22-4D-4F-E9-B9
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.201.224.11
208.201.224.33
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 6C-62-6D-24-1D-79
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{907B7F03-6808-4D7B-9814-7244A4755646}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{F4C39CD4-5030-4DD5-AD7C-D97A610C3D95}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter 6TO4 Adapter:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2002:3200:cda2::3200:cda2(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 2002:c058:6301::1
2002:c058:6301::c058:6301
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.201.224.11
208.201.224.33
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e76:3ccd:b8f:cdff:325d(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3ccd:b8f:cdff:325d%17(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled


Thank you for any response.
by Guest » Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:17 pm
Almost certainly this is a problem with your router configuration, not your Win7 configuration. By any chance, are you using a router running DD-WRT?

If "yes" then see

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=827
by lien1 » Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:45 pm
All right, Thanks for the quick response. So huh, how can i configure my router? i know what to type according to that post

iptables -I INPUT 2 -p udp --sport 67 --dport 68 -j ACCEPT

And they also suggest i put in a command to Startup:

ifconfig `nvram get wan_ifname`:0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0


That's good and all but now i need to figure out where and how to type this in. And to answer your question... What the fel is a DD-WRT and how do i check that? Typing 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in my browser doesn't work in both firefox and internet explorer... so... How can i "navigating within your router’s interface" like it says in that post?


And i guess i should specify, i am using the ZET router ZXDSL 831 series given by sonic.net after my previous router failed to work 2-3 years back.

Remember, Computer talk is all greek to me!
by digitalbitstream » Mon Sep 09, 2013 1:08 pm
If '192.168.1.1' does not work in your browser, navigate to your computer's network properties, and find the address of the computer. If it's 192.168.50.50 for example, then enter 192.168.50.1 into your firefox or IE. Or, call sonic.net customer support, that's what they're there for, and they are good at it. They'll push you to start renting a modem however.
by polpo » Mon Sep 09, 2013 2:30 pm
The original poster isn't using a router. The ZTE modem he's using is in bridge mode and connected directly to the computer. So the computer's firewall is what's blocking the DHCP request.
by lien1 » Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:55 pm
Aye the disconnect continues. I spend two days with no interruptions but then it's two days of constant disconnect every 5 minutes like i said.


I tried to turn off the windows default firewall but it doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe i need to look somewhere else. Is it a modem problem?
by thoth » Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:49 am
I have the same issue. Called tech support and the guy was really really good. We isolated that the drops were happening when the DHCP was renewing. I thought it was a line issue.

He also recommended I uninstall my Comodo firewall and Avast to see if still happens and that fixed it.

So I tried switching to just BitDefender which is supposed to be super low impact on your system, but the problem came back. So I reinstalled Avast just because I think it's better than most at catching viruses.

I have Windows 7. No router. Connected directly to modem in bridged mode.

And same thing for me...will have a few days with no drops and then a few days where it returns. Seems to happen late at night too.

The Sonic tech suggested switching to static IP, but that has downsides in general.

Seems excessive to me that Sonic should renew DHCP every 5 minutes. The tech said it was like that to avoid people doing something malicious but I forget what.

This would normally be a minor inconvenience, but it isn't when I have to reconnect every 5 minutes to my VPN and RDP if I am working. OR just clicked Purchase on some web site and the connection decides to drop right at that moment.

I frickin' love Sonic. I would really like it if they put a little more weight into solving this issue for us. This could potentially turn off a new customer when in reality Sonic is the best in every other way.
by kgc » Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:22 am
Changing the max lease time on our end would not fix the problem, just reduce how often your connection would drop. If this is actually the problem it is because something on your end is preventing unicast dhcp replies from being received - generally due to a broken firewall. Is this a legacy AT&T DSL service?
Kelsey Cummings
System Architect, Sonic.net, Inc.
by thoth » Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:01 pm
I have never had AT&T. Just Sonic.
by kgc » Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:26 pm
Right, but Fusion or legacy DSL?
Kelsey Cummings
System Architect, Sonic.net, Inc.
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