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I just found these forums and it seems like you guys know your stuff.

I work in a small office, and several of our computers have recently updated to Windows 7 Home Premium (formerly Windows Vista -- not sure exactly which version).

Ever since the upgrade, network connection has been flakey after boot up. Sometimes it will say I'm not connected to any network.

The weird part is, it only happens sometimes. Other times after boot up it works just fine.

Another interesting quirk is that physically disconnecting the ethernet cable from the box, waiting a few seconds, then reconnecting it will instantly fix the problem -- but again only sometimes. This morning I had to disconnect and reconnect it 3 times before it found the network.

Once it finds the network, there's no problem. Everything works perfectly until the next shutdown.

My first thought was that there was something wrong with the physical cable, but since this symptom has appeared on multiple machines in our office (at least 2), and so soon after an OS upgrade, I just have to believe they're connected somehow.

What should I check first? Could this be a problem with the drivers or network settings?

I don't know much about my computer's specs, as Win7 is pretty new to me and I'm not entirely sure where I can go to look up hardware details, but system properties give me the below info:

Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit Intel Core2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz 4.00 GB RAM (I don't see any info regarding my ethernet device)

The router I'm connecting to (on the other end of the ethernet cable) is a Qwest / Motorola 3347.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to provide more info if needed.

Thanks.

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How often is sometimes? (X out of Y reboots) Are the machines all LAN connected, or a mix of WiFi also? How many total connected computers? And are there any other devices connected to the network? - servers, WiFi access points, etc. – scuzzy-delta Jan 26 '11 at 8:42
I haven't kept track of exactly how often, but it seems to happen most of the time. I would estimate maybe 70%. It seems to be happening more and more, too, although I might be imagining that. All machines are LAN connected. 8 computers total in the office. We do have WiFi, but we don't use it regularly. – Disch Jan 26 '11 at 17:14
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As a troubleshooting procedure, can you buy or borrow a switch/router, then connect some of the problem machines to that, instead of the existing network gear. Set static/DHCP IPs as needed. If the problem goes away, it's related to network, if the problem persists it might be client machine related, or cable related.

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Sorry I haven't had much time to reply. I'm intestigating this as a side-project during my downtime at work. – Disch Jan 28 '11 at 0:32
Sorry I haven't had much time to reply. I'm investigating this as a side-project during my downtime at work. I can't switch out the router, but I find a router problem to be very unlikely as problems only occur on two computers. Running new wires to test would be nontrivial since the router is far away and wires are going through the walls/floor. I'm all but certain it's a problem with the OS/network configuration on the problem machines. There were no problems until the OS upgrade. – Disch Jan 28 '11 at 0:40
Another computer in the office is scheduled to be upgraded in a few days. If that one has the same problems afterwards I'll be 100% convinced. Thanks for the ideas but I'm limited on what I can do with the overall network. Really I can only focus on the problem machines. Messing with the whole network would be ill advised in my situation. PS: Not being able to add line breaks in replies really sucks -- as does the ridiculously small post size limit. Is there a way to change that? – Disch Jan 28 '11 at 0:41
No need to mess with the cable drops. Just bring the test switch to the network cabinet and swap the plugs around. I can't think of any OS-related cause, although I'm sure someone else will jump in if any come to mind. – scuzzy-delta Jan 28 '11 at 4:59
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