Guild Wars 2

Hey there,
Im having a weird problem, it started a few months ago with my new PC (with windows 8.1). While playing GW2, at least once a day i lose my internet connection with no apparent reason. PC gives no notifications whatsoever. Using an Ethernet connection.

I tried the following with no succes:
Update networkcard driver
Update router firmware
New ethernet cable
Google DNS

I contacted Dell tech support (where my PC is from), maybe there is something wrong with my PC. They said is was a DNS problem.
So I contacted my ISP, no problems on their end, tried other DNS servers, the problem still persists.

Then I noticed that the problem occurs when I’m playing Guild wars 2. Can this game cause internet problems? Is there a setting somewhere that I need to adjust to prevent this from happening?

I don’t know what to do anymore, I hope you guys maybe have some insight to this problem.

Note: My PC does not give any notifications that my connection is lost. In fact, it says I am still connected. Only GW2, websites and the like, have no connection.

There are 2 other PC’s in the house (they have windows 7 if that makes a difference), also connected by ethernet cable to the same router. they do not have connectivity issues.

I hope someone can help me, since both Dell and my ISP have no solutions.

Thank you for your time

(PS I am from Europe, playing on an EU server)

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also tried disabling my antivirus (McAfee), and to flush dns using commandprompt.

I’m assuming the other computers can access the internet while you can’t. If not, the router is being overloaded and needs to be reset. I used to have a router that did this after having 500 active connections.
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For starters, you can reset Winsock and the TCP/IP stack back to their original states. Open a command prompt as an administrator (search for cmd under the start menu, right click cmd.exe > run as admin) and enter the following commands:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

Next, uninstall your network adapter, but first obtain the latest drivers from the manufacturer.

Open the Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center and select Change adapter settings from the sidebar. Select your primary adapter, right click it and select properties. Take a note of the adapter’s name. Click the configure button, select the Driver tab and Uninstall. Reboot the computer.

On startup, Windows will detect the network card and attempt to install it. If asked for drivers, choose the ones you downloaded. If you are not prompted to select the drivers, open the Control Panel > System and select Device Manager from the sidebar. Expand Network adapter and select the one you noted earlier. Right click it and update the driver.
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The next time it happens, open a command prompt and enter

ping 8.8.8.8

If you do not receive a response, it’s not just a DNS problem, you’re failing to send/receive. Next, try pinging your router’s IP. That will determine if you’re still actually connected or not.

Assuming you’re using DHCP, try renewing your lease.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

This will just determine if your router is dropping you as a client.

Under the control panel, search for adapters and select View network connections under Network and Sharing Center. This will display your available network adapters.

Disable and enable (or repair) your primary network adapter. This will basically turn it off and on. It’s possible to overload a network interface which will cause it to simply stop transmitting. This is generally either caused by a hardware limitation or bad drivers.

If you had more than 1 network adapter enabled, you may also want to disable the others to prevent them from becoming the default connection even though they’re not connected.

If you have more than 1 physical network adapter, you may also want to swap which one your cable is connected to, in case the other is faulty.
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McAffee has had a problem in the past which would cause the computer to lose internet access. This shouldn’t apply now however, unless you’re running an outdated version.

Hi Healix,

Thank you for your very detailed post.
I’ll try this all out when I get home from work.

I’ll keep you posted.

Hi,
My results from doing the things you discribed:
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If I lose my connection, the other PC’s have no problems, are still connected and my phone is still connected to the router via Wi-Fi.

Used “netsh winsock reset” and “netsh int ip reset” then rebooted my PC
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Uninstalled my network adapter (Realtek PCIe GBE FAmily Controller)
After rebooting my PC, I was not prompted to select drivers.
It automatically installed version 8.18.621.2013
I manually installed version 8.34.617.2014

After that, I could play GW2 for 30 minutes before it said it lost connection the the server (can’t remember the error code). At that time my entire internetconnection dropped.

Ping results:

C:\Windows\system32>ping 8.8.8.8
Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=49
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=49
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=49
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 14ms

C:\Windows\system32>ping 192.168.0.1
Pinging 192.168.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

I do not use DHCP, because i have to use a static IP adress. This because if I use the Dynamic ones, I get connection problems because my network is “identifying”. I have to set this in my ethernet properties. If I set it to static in the router settings, I still have this problem. Using DHCP and set the lease time to max (2880 minutes) doesn’t solve this.

So my ethernet properties (TCP /IPv4) looks like this:
IP adress: 192.168.0.110
Subnetmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
DNS 1 8.8.8.8
DNS 2 8.8.4.4

I tried disabling and enabling my network, and made sure the bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections are turned of. PC said i was connected to my network, but I still coudn’t use the web or start GW2.

After rebooting my PC my connection was back. (It always does that).

Now I have to wait, to see it it happends again.

Did you see anything wrong with the things I posted? That could explain why I lose my connection?

Thank you for reading and thanks for your help

If your computer is failing to obtain a dynamic IP, that’s another problem and using a static IP is only a workaround. Do the other computers use DHCP?

If yes, check if the router is setup to support enough DHCP clients or is set to filter clients based on their MAC address. The number of clients is usually displayed directly along with the IP (192.168.0.X + Y clients) or as a range (192.168.0.X to 192.168.0.Y).

If no, I’m guessing they all had the same problem obtaining an IP?

Under services (WindowsKey + R > services.msc), ensure that the DHCP client service is not stopped. Reset your adapter to obtain an IP automatically and in a command prompt, enter the command:

ipconfig /renew

This will show you a result compared to having Windows do it automatically. If it still fails, disable all security (firewalls, anti-virus, network/application monitors, etc) software and try again. If it’s an option, you may also want to limit your network down to just your computer and the router, shutting the router down for ~30 seconds before doing so.
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If you still must use a static IP, ensure that your router and static IP are both using the same subnet mask (255.255.255.0). Since you are using 192.168.0.110, you should also ensure that your router’s DHCP is only set to use up to that IP.

Under Control Panel > Network and Sharing > Network Adapters/Connections, right click your adapter, select properties and under the list of what the adapter uses, uncheck IPv6.
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I’m assuming your internet was down (couldn’t browse) when you used the ping command.

By pinging 8.8.8.8 (Google’s DNS), that showed that the problem involves looking up the domain name. To further confirm it, you can next time try the command:

nslookup google.com

For completion, also try pinging google.com. In your browser, attempt to visit http://google.com then http://74.125.224.72. At least one of them should work.

Under services (WindowsKey + R > services.msc), you can also try stopping the DNS client service and trying again. Turn it back on after. This services keeps a cache of DNS records. You may also try the following command which clears this cache:

ipconfig /flushdns

Did you also try disabling/enabling your network adapter after it stopped working, or was a full restart the only fix? You can also use the Diagnose option (right click the adapter) to quickly run through several options.
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Under Control Panel > Network and Sharing > Network Adapters/Connections, right click your adapter, select properties, click Configure and select the Power Management tab. Uncheck the option to turn the device off. (just in case)

Under the control panel, open Internet Options, select the Connections tab and click the LAN settings button near the bottom. Assuming you don’t actually use a proxy server, all of the checkboxes should be unchecked. Automatically detect settings is usually checked by default, but it is not needed unless your ISP is defining a proxy. Check this again when your internet stops working.

If it stops working again, uninstall McAfee and any other firewall/security software, excluding the default Window’s Firewall. Disabling them isn’t always enough because they are still usually hooked into the system. I wouldn’t expect something like McAfee to be the cause (if it’s up to date), but it’s still a possibility.

Before moving on to bigger problems, I’m assuming this is your personal computer that you setup yourself. If not, look for any limiting or unrecognized software that may have been installed. In your case, software that disables “the internet” after X minutes or Y bandwidth.

Moving on to bigger problems, you could be infected by a virus that is quietly hijacking your DNS or adding a proxy server to your system.

The simplest solution is to do a clean install of Windows without being connected to the internet (for security reasons). Install only drivers and nothing else. This will rule out all software related problems, meaning the cause will either be the router or your computer’s hardware.

Hi there,

First I want to say I really appreciate your effort to help me with this issue. Thank you

To answer all your questions:

Yes the other computers use DHCP. The DHCP range is 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.150.
So I changed my static IP to match 192.168.0.150. The other computers do not have problems obtaining an IP, and have no internet connectivity problems. (The router is a TP-Link TL-WR841N v8)

When I tried to use DHCP again it instantly began “identifying network”. Under services, both the DHCP client and the DNS client were active. Reactivating and stopping and activating did not solved this. Using the ipconfig/renew did not solve this. So I set it to my Static Ip again (192.168.0.150, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.0.1, DNS 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). Doing this connected me to my network, but i still could not acces the web or GW2.

I made sure that TCP/IPv6 was turned off.
In the power management tab, the option to turn the device off was already unchecked.
In the LAN settings, automatically detect settings (for the proxy) was still checked.

McAfee is up to date, and the other PC’s also use McAfee.
There are no suspicious programs on my PC.
I am unable to reinstall windows, since it came pre-instlled on my PC and I do not have e disc. (Windows 8.1 64bit) Besides, my PC is only 3 months old, does it really need a fresh install?? I do not want to loose everything

I want to test something tomorrow, to see if this connection problem also happends when I am on Wi-Fi (so ethernet turned off).

You don’t need a fresh install, it’s just the easiest starting part point when debugging. You basically want to strip away everything that’s not required and work from there. The problem with pre-installs is that they generally come packed with a lot of garbage software, and rather than allowing you to install it yourself, they hide a backup partition that can basically be used to restore your computer to how it arrived. The easy way to do a fresh install without actually doing it is by disconnecting your hard drives (for safety reasons) and installing Windows 8.1 (trial) to a flash drive. (you don’t need to do this)

Looking back, yes, it matters that the other computers are Windows 7 and yours is 8.1 (I just noticed you’re 8.1×64). Looking around the net, your problem is rather common and appears to be a compatibility issue introduced in the 8.1 upgrade. There is still no definite fix, but what has worked for some others (besides what you’ve already done) is completely uninstalling any 3rd party anti-virus/firewall software and using downgraded drivers – including drivers intended for Windows 7/Vista.

Swapping network cards should fix it, unless the problem is a software conflict or the new card uses the same chips as the old one and it’s a hardware/driver compatibility issue.

As for the DHCP issue, others have reported the same problem with 8.1 and that router, although it works with 7 and 8.

Hi there

Sorry for the late response, was busy the last few day.

Anyway, I did some testing using the WiFi connection instead of ethernet. Good news! Not once did my connection drop or anything! And I tried it for a few days. Funny detail: WiFi is using DHCP and gets both IP adres and DNS server automatically, unlike my ethernet.

So we can assume that it is an ethernet issue, not related to router or ISP?? (since wifi uses the same router and isp and has no issues)

Should I try updating my ethernet adapter with a windows 7 driver like you mentioned above?

Thanks again for the help. Cheers

PS: Only downside to the WiFi connection: GW2 is more laggy

Trying other drivers is the only remaining option, besides downgrading Windows. Try Windows 7, Vista, 8.0 and also the drivers recommended by Dell.

There were also new Windows 8/8.1 drivers released just a few days ago:

www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Others with the same problem reported that it started happening after upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1. You likely won’t see an actual fix outside of a Windows Update or new drivers.

The DHCP problem was always a sign of a compatibility issue between Windows 8 and either the router or the network card. Since you’ve ruled out the router, you’ve also confirmed a compatibility issue with your network card, which usually means bad drivers.

Check your Event Logs right after a failure happens.

Set you Ethernet card TCP/IP settings up for DHCP and retest (I’m unsure why you would have a static IP address anyway).

@Healix Thank for your reply, I’ll try that link you posted, and see what happends

@Brother Grimm Where can I find those Event Logs?
And I am using a static IP because if I dont, I frequently lose my connection because my network is “identifying”. using ipconfig/renew does not solve this issue.
Now that I have set a Static IP, I don’t have that problem anymore. But the loss of connection I have now, still persist.

Thank you for your replies, cheers

meentje.8467:

Where can I find those Event Logs?

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

Under the Event Viewer you’ll find different logs. You would basically want to go through each log looking for some resemblance of an error that occurred at the specific time your internet stopped working. Since DHCP is likely failing for the same reason, it should also generate a log when attempting to obtain a lease. It is also possible that the problem isn’t generating any meaningful logs.

Another update, a good one this time

After looking in event viewer mentioned above, I have found the culprit:
“Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller is disconnected from network.”

Using google, I found a website that mentioned this error and how to fix it.
I don’t know if I may link it, but this is what it said:

“open Network and Sharing Center, click on Manage adapter settings, right click Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Local Area Connection) and select properties. Click on configure, switch to advanced tab and change the following properties:

Auto Disable Gigabit > Relink Battery or AC
Green Ethernet > Disable
Energy Efficient Ethernet > Disable"

After making these changes, my ethernet has been stable, I haven’t lost connection once! (Knocks on wood)

I want to thank you again for the help. I am glad that this issue was fixable and that GW2 was not the cause of it.

(Edited the topic title to make it shorter (was too long) and to include [solved].

Glad to hear it got resolved.