Why is my computer losing internet connection in layman's terms?

[tallyho8]

Do any of your energy saving settings trigger at 8 hours?

I had it set to go to sleep after 5 hours and have changed it to "never" to see if that makes a difference.

 

[tallyho8]

Click the windows task bar. In the Search field enter command.
That will open a command line window.
enter ping -t facebook.com and hit enter. Let it run. Everyone will know you are doing important stuff.

I'm not computer literate enough to know if this is for real or if you are just pulling my leg.

 

[tallyho8]

How old is your cable modem? Are you using a home router, or does the network cable go straight from the cable modem to the back of your computer?

Cable providers have stopped "supporting" the older cable modems. The short version of what that means is that the old modems now "lose" their connection to the cable network quite frequently.

Mine got so bad about a year or two ago (it was 15 years old) that I had to reset it every day.

New one very seldom loses sync. But I attribute that to my cable provider being the issue now.

My modem/router is supplied by my cable company, Cox, and is about a year old.

 

[tallyho8]

It's the 8 hour timing that I wonder about.

Something else to try the next time this problem appears is to leave the computer on, but turn the modem/router off then back on. Wait a few minutes and see if the problem resolves. If it does, you have a modem/router issue, not a computer issue.

For your computer to use the internet, it needs an internet address. It's called your "IP address." Your computer automatically gets this IP address from your modem/router. But the modem/router doesn't assign that number to your computer for eternity-- far from it. Most internet providers have more users than they have available IP addresses. So these IP addresses get shuffled around as you need to use their internet service, but also quietly reclaimed during periods of non-use.

There is likely a setting in your modem/router that controls how long the "lease" is for regarding your use of that number. I'm curious if your IP address lease time is set for 8 hours in your modem/router. And curious of the problem is being caused by that lease expiring. If this is the issue, try editing that number in your modem/router. If its set for 8 hours, try setting it for something like 30 days instead.

Finally, before changing any settings, make sure it is definitely is a modem/router issue. As described above by cycling power on the modem/router to see if the problem goes away.

I have tried rebooting the modem/router without success. Only after I reboot the computer will it work.

 

[tallyho8]

Or.. click on the wifi icon on the bottom right of the task bar, and it will tell you if you have a connection available. If so just click on it and it should start the re-connect process without having to restart your computer everytime.

I will try this.

 

[old and tired]

I have to deal with this and Turning WiFi off... then back on, works for me after I click on my router. (much faster than reboot).

I was hoping there is a better solution than a couple of clicks. I might just turn "sleep" mode off...

I just turned sleep off but kept the screen off <after 5 minutes> see if that helps.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Tallyho8, not a joke. On my old DSL account I had to keep ping running to keep the ISP from dropping my connection.

 

[MossRoad]

When I get up in the morning and go to my computer it says it has no internet connection. When I restart my computer it works fine. If I go off for 8 hours and come back home, same problem. Every time I leave my computer for about 8 or more hours it loses the internet connection and it takes me about 5 minutes to restart it.

I Google this problem and get such a highly technical answer that I am not able to follow with my limited computer skills. I have Cox cable high speed internet, Windows 10 and usually use Firefox or Edge on my Dell computer. This problem started about a month or two ago. Anyone have a not too highly technical answer to the problem?

Are you using a wired or wireless connection from your Dell computer to your cable modem?

 

[Oaktree]

I had it set to go to sleep after 5 hours and have changed it to "never" to see if that makes a difference.

Why not just turn off the computer when you're done using it for the day?

 

[ponytug]

Why not just turn off the computer when you're done using it for the day?

It is the best strategy that I know of for maintaining Windows computers in relatively good shape as there are some housekeeping items that only get done at power down/up.

The one caveat that I would add is that it is important to leave a Windows machine on overnight on a regular basis, not asleep, but on. Lots of minor but important system tasks don't run unless the machine has been idle for awhile, and some take hours to complete.

D--d if you do, and d--d if you don't...

All the best,

Peter