Question Default Gateway unavailable at every restart ?

[minis_pozdol]

Hey guys,
so I've been having this issue for quite some time now. Basically, if I'm lucky, I would be able to connect to the internet every time I boot up. Most of the time that isn't the case, and I had multiple attempts of going online, researching and testing solutions to fix the probelm with no success. The only temporary solution to this problem was to keep restarting the ethernet adapter till Google chrome was able to load a webpage. Then, everything would be fine till the next boot up/wake from sleep.

Methods I tried to use to solve this issue:
- Uninstalling my ethernet adapter driver, then letting Windows reinstall it in the next startup.
- Updating my router's firmware
- Updating my motherboard's firmware
- Updating from Windows 10 to 11 (updated firmware added support for Windows 11)
- Flushing DNS Cache and resetting my IP (via CMD with ipconfig)
- Disabling IPv6
- Setting default DNS servers (Google DNS and OpenDNS)
- Rolling back and using older versions of my ethernet adapter driver (version 12.18.9.11 and 12.19.0.16)

I took my desktop into my local PC repair shop and couldn't replicate the issue. Internet access was working every restart, and they sent me off telling me it might be an issue with the router configurations. Every other device in my home has no issues with internet access. I took out the same ethernet cable connected to my PC and plugged it into a laptop (ChromeOS flex), it connected to the internet every restart.

Running the Windows troubleshooting, it would show either two outcomes. One was "Your computer appears to be connected but, the DNS server is not responding" or "Default gateway is not available" where it would recommend restarting the ethernet adapter (and this was how I found out the temporary solution).

The issue has been tolerable with the workaround, but the temporary solution isn't guaranteed to work immediately and is annoying when I need to work on something time sensitive. Let me know what you guys think, thanks!

Additional information:
Modem/Router: NF18ACV (Firmware: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B024.EN)
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390M-PLUS
Ethernet Adapter driver: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V

 

[kanewolf]

Hey guys,
so I've been having this issue for quite some time now. Basically, if I'm lucky, I would be able to connect to the internet every time I boot up. Most of the time that isn't the case, and I had multiple attempts of going online, researching and testing solutions to fix the probelm with no success. The only temporary solution to this problem was to keep restarting the ethernet adapter till Google chrome was able to load a webpage then, everything would be fine till the next boot up/wake from sleep.

Methods I tried to use to solve this issue:
- Uninstalling my ethernet adapter driver, then letting Windows reinstall it in the next startup.
- Updating my router's firmware
- Updating my motherboard's firmware
- Updating from Windows 10 to 11 (updated firmware added support for Windows 11)
- Flushing DNS Cache and resetting my IP (via CMD with ipconfig)
- Disabling IPv6
- Setting default DNS servers (Google DNS and OpenDNS)
- Rolling back and using older versions of my ethernet adapter driver (version 12.18.9.11 and 12.19.0.16)

I took my desktop into my local PC repair shop and couldn't replicate the issue. Internet access was working every restart, and they sent me off telling me it might be an issue with the router configurations. Every other device in my home has no issues with internet access. I took out the same ethernet cable connected to my PC and plugged it into a laptop (ChromeOS flex), it connected to the internet every restart.

Running the Windows troubleshooting, it would show either two outcomes. One was "Your computer appears to be connected but, the DNS server is not responding" or "Default gateway is not available" where it would recommend restarting the ethernet adapter (and this was how I found out the temporary solution).

The issue has been tolerable with the workaround, but the temporary solution isn't guaranteed to work immediately and is annoying when I need to work on something time sensitive. Let me know what you guys think, thanks!

Additional information:
Modem/Router: NF18ACV (Firmware: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B024.EN)
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390M-PLUS
Ethernet Adapter driver: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V

One thing I don't see is swapping to a new cable, directly to the primary router.
This sounds like a slow DHCP. It could be slowed by a bad cable with autonegotiation taking a long time.

 

[minis_pozdol]

One thing I don't see is swapping to a new cable, directly to the primary router.
This sounds like a slow DHCP. It could be slowed by a bad cable with autonegotiation taking a long time.

So, it already connected to the primary router. the thing is that my house has a inbuilt lan cabling throughout, it appears to be a cat6 cable 2050mhz. The cable connecting to my PC from the wall socket is a Dynamix Model: PLE-C6A-1. I don't really know too much about lan cables could the problem lay somewhere here?

 

[kanewolf]

So, it already connected to the primary router. the thing is that my house has a inbuilt lan cabling throughout, it appears to be a cat6 cable 2050mhz. The cable connecting to my PC from the wall socket is a Dynamix Model: PLE-C6A-1. I don't really know too much about lan cables could the problem lay somewhere here?

Sure. The problem could be anywhere in the cable connection. I would recommend temporarily running a commercially made, cat5e or cat6a, 100% copper, round cable across the floor directly to the primary router to exclude the in-wall cabling. OR move the PC close to the router and use a short cable direct to the router.

 

[minis_pozdol]

So, I used a different cable, a cat5e cable (I don't know whether or not it's pure copper, but I doubt that's the issue) and ran it through directly into the main router for my home, bypassing the in-wall cable. Unfortunately, it is still the same issue. It might be a configuration issue with the router, but my ISP has not been very helpful. The in-wall cable works just fine with my laptop when I connect it to the same wall; any other suggestions?

 

[bill001g]

So maybe a way to hide the problem if you can't find the true cause would be to set static IP and gateway in the ipv4 setting on the ethernet.

Technically you should set the IP outside the DHCP scope, you would have to look in the router to see. Since DHCP allocates from the bottom you can just pick a high number and it will never overlap in home installs. So if your router uses 192.168.0.1 you could use 192.168.0.250

Where did you set the fixed DNS, that should be set in this same config screen.

If you still have issue doing it this way I would look into a pcie ethernet card if you have a extra slot. They are fairly inexpensive.

If this hides the problem then it is likely some issue with DHCP. For example in a commerical install they run spanning tree to prevent loops. This electrically activates the port but prevent data transmission for a couple seconds. PC will sometimes get impatient and decide there is no dhcp server.
This does not apply in your case but it would be something similar.

 

[minis_pozdol]

I tried setting a static IP and gateway, but still encountered the same issue. I'll look into buying a PCIe ethernet card since I do have an extra slot. I'll update you guys if it manages to fix the issue. Thanks for your help!

 

[minis_pozdol]

So maybe a way to hide the problem if you can't find the true cause would be to set static IP and gateway in the ipv4 setting on the ethernet.

Technically you should set the IP outside the DHCP scope, you would have to look in the router to see. Since DHCP allocates from the bottom you can just pick a high number and it will never overlap in home installs. So if your router uses 192.168.0.1 you could use 192.168.0.250

Where did you set the fixed DNS, that should be set in this same config screen.

If you still have issue doing it this way I would look into a pcie ethernet card if you have a extra slot. They are fairly inexpensive.

If this hides the problem then it is likely some issue with DHCP. For example in a commerical install they run spanning tree to prevent loops. This electrically activates the port but prevent data transmission for a couple seconds. PC will sometimes get impatient and decide there is no dhcp server.
This does not apply in your case but it would be something similar.

Alright, so the PCIe ethernet card hid the issue. Restarted a couple of times and successfully connected to the internet constantly. Tonnes of thanks!