Give some more info, we might be able to help.  I have not had a crash
since it came out.  I think Vista is quite good.

I was also having this problem... I have just Shut off the Power
management on my NIC.  I'll let you know if it does not work.... but
I've got my money on it that this is gonna fix the problem.  Thanks for
the help... Google brought me here.  :o)

DOH... should'a thought of that!  ;o)

I have the same problem in Vista Ultimate. Power Mgt has always been off
for the NIC.   I have a Linksys WRT54G coming off the cable modem. The
Vista computer having the problem is wired into the hub with CAT5.
Another computer sharing the WRT54G wirelessly never has a problem (it
is running Fedora Linux 6, BTW :wink:).

Typically, I'm listening to internet radio or watching a Youtube video
when I lose the internet. Rebooting does fix it, but I've learned that
rebooting the router fixes it too - and quicker. It's not a router
problem, since the Linux system never loses the Internet. Just
unplugging / replugging the CAT5 cable from the router doesn't fix it.

I don't know if this is the same or different problem as the original
post, but it seems that we could pick up a commonality here somehow.

I've applied all MS patches to Vista, to no avail.

Any ideas?

Jim

Hello. I'm having the same problem.

At random times, normally after being connected to the internet for
about five or six hours, my connection suddenly drops. None of the
programs that connect to the internet (uTorrent, AIM, mIRC, etc.) stay
online and nothing besides restarting the whole computer fixes that.
Needless to say, I'm tired of it.

At first I thought it could be a problem with my internet connection.
But then I tried going online with another computer (running XP) on
this network and it wasn't having any problems, which leads me to
believe the problem is Vista. I tried turning off IPv6 and that really
didn't fix anything, I still experienced connection drops.

Is there anything else I can do? I see some people talking about NIC
and going into properties. Can someone tell me how to access that to
give it a shot?

Thank you.

Unchecked everything. Let's pray this works.

I'm still being disconnected. This is great.

Last night I was disconnected but was able to fix it with a refresh.
However, this morning I had to restart the computer again. And I
noticed that mIRC and AIM still continue to work and send and receive
messages, but my web browser and other programs that require internet
do not.

Sounds like HTTP Keepalive... are you running any kind of server?  Or
some ports are going to sleep namely Port 80.  Are you running any kind
of file sharing program such as a P2P type server?

Would uTorrent count as a p2p server?

This particular problem has been plagueing me since purchasing a new
computer with VISTA about 2 months ago.

I've spent hours trying to find a fix.

Today, I learned something that may have been causing it...but first to
backtrack.

When I first lost internet access about a month or so ago, I tried
everything and searched everywhere on the net.  I knew it wasn't a
hardware/router/ISP issue as I could plug my windows xp laptop into the
very same patch cable and immediately get access; it must be some sort
of switch, so to speak, within windows Vista.

I recall when I finally got the access back, it was right after windows
performed an automatic update.  I thought it so strange - how could
windows perform an update if it couldn't access the internet in the
first place?

Well, I went along fat dumb and happy until I lost access again
today....ready to blame the family for something they did on the
computer, I decided instead to go into computer doctor mode.

I think I got lucky.  After going through trying different modes of
connectivity, futzing around with various network settings, I was ready
to throw in the towel; this time, while shutting down (rather than a
reboot), I happened to notice that as I brought the cursor over the
"turn off" computer icon in the start bar, or whatever it's called,
that it was a different color.  I held it over that icon (the one that
looks like a circle with a line pointing towards 12 oclock), and saw
that it had a message to "install updates and shutdown".

I selected that.

I wasn't confident that installation would take place, but it went
through 8 updates, and then shutdown.

I restarted the computer, and internet access was back.

I checked my "install automatic updates" setting, and saw that it was
set to install them at 3:00 am EST....a time the computer is usually
off.

Could MS have programmed a setting in internet connectivity that
prevents internet access without the latest updates?  I suppose so - it
may be their good intentions to make sure the computer user doesn't lose
control of their computer for whatever the latest hack can do, until
they install such updates.

Fine.

But, wouldn't it be nice if they made the users aware of this?

Anyway, I'm not 100% certain that this was the cause, but I've resent
the automatic update option for a mid-day time; and will pay more
attention in the future.  Still, a 2 for 2 cause suggests that this was
driving this particular problem.

I fixed my problem by using a different network card. I went from the on
board wired network card to a Linksys WIFI card.