I posted a blog a while ago with a possible fix, which involved changing some registry settings to prevent the internet connection being dropped when Vista goes into sleep/hibernation mode. However, this did not work for me after all. After some more digging (there are tens of thousands of websites discussing the Vista internet problems) I found some new possible solutions. I tackled them in a totally unscientific way, so am not sure what worked – but something certainly worked for me.
To recap:
- Dell Inspiron PC
- Netgear 834 router
- Windows Vista Home Edition
- Firefox 3
- Chrome
On a regular basis I was losing internet connection while browsing. At first I thought that it was a Firefox problem as on losing the connection, Firefox would crash, and End Task did nothing. The only solution was a reboot. However, it then happened in Chrome too, so I stopped blaming Firefox. Some forums said AVG was the problem, as it did not know what the new .sqlite file types are that Firefox uses to store cookies in. So I uninstalled AVG, and installed Avast Home edition instead. But I do not think that this worked as Chrome later crashed. I then found another forum suggesting that Zone Alarm was the problem. So I ditched that too, and fired up the Windows Firewall. I then found another forum talking about Vista having trouble with IPV6, an internet protocol thing that replaces IPV4. First I hacked Firefox to ignore IPV6, but before fully testing, I decided to change the Vista configuration to also not use IPV6. Since then everything is working fine. Must be about 24 hours of relatively intensive use – i.e. Firefox and Chrome open, both with several tabs, plus email and Skype. All OK so far. I was even using PuTTy and FireFTP earlier with no problems.
I still cannot be sure what has fixed the problem, but it looks like disabling IPV6 was the trick. This is what I did, in order:
- Uninstalled AVG Free and installed Avast
- Uninstalled ZoneAlarm firewall and using Windows firewall
- Disabled ipv6 in Firefox, but then after this
- Disabled ipv6 on server – learn how to disable IPv6 here
So far all OK.
I am tempted to reinstall AVG now (or later, give Windows internet connection a chance to crash again) and go from there. Maybe it was ipv6? Whatever that is. But maybe AVG (one forum mentioned something it FF using .sqlite file and AVG getting upset about it. I dunno. But it is working for now.
