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[Sappho]

My shiny new computer is having yet another new problem (I will never buy another Dell). I have a DSL internet connection (fastest thing available here) and because the wifi hardware in this lovely Dell model (XPS 15z) has numerous issues, I have to connect with an ethernet cable, sitting right next to the modem because my only cable is 1 meter long. This was working fine for a while, but over the past week or two I've started to have strange connectivity issues.

Now and then, my browsers (Chrome and Firefox) will suddenly say they can't connect to the network. I check the modem: green lights all the way. And my other internet-dependent software (BitTorrent mostly) still works fine - I'm definitely still connected to the internet. But I can't use a web browser at all. I have tried restarting the browsers, disconnecting then reconnecting the cable, and even restarting the modem itself, all to no effect. The only thing that works is to completely restart the computer - which is incredibly frustrating, since I generally hibernate my computer (keeping various programs and browsers open so I don't lose what I'm working on) and it's a huge pain in the ass to have to save and close everything then start again from scratch, especially since I'm always in the middle of doing something when this happens.

I can't find any common trigger that causes this to happen. I don't know if it's some sort of virus, a software problem, or what, but it affects both Chrome and Firefox and happens at least a few times per day. Does anyone know what this could be, or what I can do about it?

Thanks guys.

[DarkWolfXV]

Try Internet Explorer.
Call me mad but its only browser i use, cant get used to interfaces of other browsers and it looks natural to me and i like it, i dont have problems and stuff with IE.

[Sappho]

The problem does not lie with the browsers. All of them do the same thing. I did a diagnostic check and Windows tells me the DNS server is not responding when this happens. A restart always solves the problem, but nothing else works, even if I completely disconnect and restart the modem from scratch.

Does anyone have any ideas at all? This is really causing some serious problems for me. Thanks.

[crazysheep]

Have you tried updating the driver(s) for the ethernet adapters? (Device Manager - Network Adapters - Update device drivers)

[Fenrir]

Three options I can conceive include clearing your DNS cache when the failure happens (ipconfig /flushdns), using an alternate DNS server (OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220, Google: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), or running tracert on your DNS server’s IP address when it stops working to see where the failure is occuring.