What causes this??

[Adamdc]

I've got a pc that is directly connected to a Linksys router and my ISP is Comcast cable. I'm noticing that very often I will attempt to access a website and will only get a message in the bottom left corner of the Mozilla page that says 'Waiting for www.whatever.com', like the page is trying to load but it can't. But if I reclick on the link or the bookmark it will instantly go to the site and load quickly. It's as if I have to 'try' a website 2 or sometimes 3 times before I'm able to connect. I'm wondering if this could somehow be related to the router (even though I'm connected directly to it). Another reason I'm suspecting the router is because on occasion (although it hasn't happened in a while) I have to unplug my router and wait a minute because I lose my connection to the internet altogether and powering down the router (not the modem) solves the issue. Just wondering if a router can go 'bad'.

Thanks for any input!!

Adam

[ua549]

It is often caused by packet loss. If you wait, you'll eventually get a timeout error message.

[Adamdc]

Could this be caused by the router?

[ua549]

It can be caused by anything anywhere along the route.
Packets get dropped even on your local lan.

[wh666-666]

I would suspect the router at this point ...

[ua549]

Dropped packets are not an indication of a nic hardware failure unless the counts are substantial.
It is simply an indication that there was an issue with a packet at a particular instant and place in time.
This can be from electrical interference, a marginal cable, a collision (rare), a node that is too busy, etc.
Cables and connectors are the cause of most problems on a running network.

To see stats for your NIC - not other nics along a route or your router - open a CMD window and enter netstat -es

Notice the counts of received packets discarded and discarded out packets.
There are other counters of interest such as timeouts and destination unreachable.
Only if there are lots of discards relative to the total number of packets should you be concerned.

[wh666-666]

No, but he said by rebooting the user it solves the problem at the time.

I have had the same problem with routers before, where they stop/slow http traffic and eventually get so bad you cant connect to them any longer.

[ua549]

No, but he said by rebooting the user it solves the problem at the time.

I have had the same problem with routers before, where they stop/slow http traffic and eventually get so bad you cant connect to them any longer.

The OP also stated that re-clicking the link solves the problem as well. Having a longer delay while attempting to access a site can be an indication of circuit issues along the route especially when the route is lengthy in terms of hops. I've seen a number of message reassembly errors on my servers lately due to what I expect are routing issues.

That said, the problem can be anywhere along the route including the local router.

[Un4given]

It's been awhile since I was in a Linksys router, but maybe your router has some logging options? I know an older one I used to have had logging to see the IP addresses of inbound/outbound traffic, so maybe there is one for seeing data information, such as packet loss the router receives.

[TedBellLover]

How old is the router? IE how long has it been in service? Also, here's an idea from left field: try a good registry cleaner. When I first switched to broadband a few years ago I couldn't get networking to work on my system at all until I cleaned the registry. Here is what I use: RegSupreme Pro at www.macecraft.com/. Until you get to know it use the more conservative cleaning settings. Always make a backup when prompted by the program in case a mistake is made.