Windows 7 Fix For Losing Connection to the Internet

Like many PC users and avid gamers, last week I purchased and installed Windows 7. This new operating system from Microsoft was supposed to have fixed many of the stability problems encountered with Vista.

Within minutes of upgrading my Vista 64-bit version of Windows to Windows 7, I started losing my connection to the Internet approximately 30-60 minutes. For no apparent reason, my computer which was attached to the Internet via a D-Link Gamerlounge router would drop it’s connection while the other computer running Windows XP hooked up to the very same router enjoyed uninterrupted Internet service.

I would get the following message when I hovered over the Internet/Network: the default gateway is not available. Each time I would right click on the connection icon and select the “Troubleshoot Options” it would eventually repair the problem and reconnect to the Internet.

Here’s a possible fix I found for this on the Sevenforums.com forums:

Press the Start Button.

Select the Control Panel.

Under Network and Internet select View Network Status and Tasks.

In the View your Connections section, click on Your Local Area Connection which will bring up a new window.

Click on Properties.

Uncheck the box on the same line as Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).

Click Ok, then click Close.

Welcome back to uninterrupted connection to the Internet!

-Wolfshead

Update: A few days after posting this article I started getting disconnections again. I noticed that it was during large file downloads. I had purchased an album on iTunes and during the course of the download my internet connection was getting dropped. I have found an additional fix that has seemingly solved the problem. Go to your Device Manager, then go to your network adapter click on properties, then click on configure. You should see an advanced tab now; scroll down till you see the property receive side scaling. Now on the left side you’ll see a value box, make sure it is set to disabled for this property. Hope this helps!


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