I've had a strange problem for a few months. It wasn't a big deal until my secondary laptop began having problems and I resorted to using this slower laptop which hasn't been used much the last 2-3 years.
Basically, if I boot up my laptop, connect wirelessly or hard-wired, my internet connection is working fine and Firefox works well. My connection doesn't drop and my downloads aren't interrupted or broken or slowed. But, the moment I restart Firefox (with an add-on), the connection is dropped and I cannot reconnect unless I reboot my laptop. If I close FF then open it, it's the same result. Due to this odd issue, I've resorted to leaving Firefox open for many hours, sometimes more than a day or I reboot my laptop.
If I leave Firefox open, disconnect from the internet then put my laptop to sleep then wake it up 8+ hours later, so long as Firefox is open from the previous day, I can connect wirelessly or wired and it works fine. This has become my workaround. It is an annoyance to be sure but it also forces me to leave only one tab or two open, both of which I set to google so I can just use the back button. Otherwise, the ram hog aka Firefox, will take up too many resources. I download heavily, primarily from youtube and normally, when I don't need the browser to be open to initiate downloading, it's closed. Now, I have to be careful with my 1GB ram laptop because I can't run more than 2-3 heavier applications.
It also affects Chrome, a browser I don't care to use. I haven't tried IE. I'm assuming it's my system. Initially, I thought it was Firefox so I reset it but no dice. I tried modifying my DNS settings including flushing my dns and deleting my browser cache. Nothing. I googled the issue for many hours. I thought it might be my laptop's battery saving function to interrupt the connection to save power. But, I disabled that function. Nothing changed. I did a hard reset of the router. I disconnected the router and modem and reconnected.
How can there be something very wrong with the wireless capability or my ethernet port if I can connect easily and use the internet without issues for hours upon hours? Sometimes, I will download a youtube playlist with 60+ videos which takes several hours. I'm busy doing something else and I return and it's still working fine. That is, unless and until I try to restart or close my browser and open it again.
If it's my firewall, something I haven't looked into ,then wouldn't it block any attempt to connect? Wouldn't the same apply to my antivirus?
As I type, I have the laptop in question open. In the Network and Sharing Center, it says my wireless signal strength is excellent and that I'm connected. I cannot browse with Firefox because I restarted it. But, it's not showing any problems when I attempt to diagnose using the "diagnose and repair" function. Previously, upon trying to diagnose and repair, it was suggested to reset the network adapter. It has never worked. Other times, it finds no problem. Most of the time, I observe the connection break and then it reconnects only to break again minutes later. It can go back-and-forth for a long time.
ETA: the specs for the laptop in question are Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Service Pack 2.
Also, I ran malware/virus scan. It's clean. I do windows updates regularly and my antivirus, firewall are updated.
Basically, if I boot up my laptop, connect wirelessly or hard-wired, my internet connection is working fine and Firefox works well. My connection doesn't drop and my downloads aren't interrupted or broken or slowed. But, the moment I restart Firefox (with an add-on), the connection is dropped and I cannot reconnect unless I reboot my laptop. If I close FF then open it, it's the same result. Due to this odd issue, I've resorted to leaving Firefox open for many hours, sometimes more than a day or I reboot my laptop.
If I leave Firefox open, disconnect from the internet then put my laptop to sleep then wake it up 8+ hours later, so long as Firefox is open from the previous day, I can connect wirelessly or wired and it works fine. This has become my workaround. It is an annoyance to be sure but it also forces me to leave only one tab or two open, both of which I set to google so I can just use the back button. Otherwise, the ram hog aka Firefox, will take up too many resources. I download heavily, primarily from youtube and normally, when I don't need the browser to be open to initiate downloading, it's closed. Now, I have to be careful with my 1GB ram laptop because I can't run more than 2-3 heavier applications.
It also affects Chrome, a browser I don't care to use. I haven't tried IE. I'm assuming it's my system. Initially, I thought it was Firefox so I reset it but no dice. I tried modifying my DNS settings including flushing my dns and deleting my browser cache. Nothing. I googled the issue for many hours. I thought it might be my laptop's battery saving function to interrupt the connection to save power. But, I disabled that function. Nothing changed. I did a hard reset of the router. I disconnected the router and modem and reconnected.
How can there be something very wrong with the wireless capability or my ethernet port if I can connect easily and use the internet without issues for hours upon hours? Sometimes, I will download a youtube playlist with 60+ videos which takes several hours. I'm busy doing something else and I return and it's still working fine. That is, unless and until I try to restart or close my browser and open it again.
If it's my firewall, something I haven't looked into ,then wouldn't it block any attempt to connect? Wouldn't the same apply to my antivirus?
As I type, I have the laptop in question open. In the Network and Sharing Center, it says my wireless signal strength is excellent and that I'm connected. I cannot browse with Firefox because I restarted it. But, it's not showing any problems when I attempt to diagnose using the "diagnose and repair" function. Previously, upon trying to diagnose and repair, it was suggested to reset the network adapter. It has never worked. Other times, it finds no problem. Most of the time, I observe the connection break and then it reconnects only to break again minutes later. It can go back-and-forth for a long time.
ETA: the specs for the laptop in question are Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Service Pack 2.
Also, I ran malware/virus scan. It's clean. I do windows updates regularly and my antivirus, firewall are updated.
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