Firefox failure when re-activating after standby

[Big D]

Here's the problem:
I leave my laptop (Dell Latitude D600) on standby, then turn it back on later. After it's back on, Firefox won't work properly - I just get an 'unable to load page' message of some kind. This persists until I restart the computer.

It doesn't always happen, but it's often enough to be a nuisance.

Then when I restart, my mouse sometimes won't work until I unplug and then reinsert it.

Can anyone provide advice for solving these problems, or at least explaining why they happen? I'm using Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2, if that's any help.

Thanks in advance

[Yamaneko]

Are you connecting through a wireless hub? Windows might not be turning your wireless radio on after it comes out of standby.

Right click on My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > under Network Adapters right click on the one that says "Wireless something or other" and go into Properties > check for a Power Management tab and see if you can untick something to the effect of, "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power". If you can't find that particular setting check under the Advanced tab. Most newer Intel drivers have all their wireless network settings listed under Advanced.

It could also be a problem with your router's DHCP protocol not assigning your machine an internal IP after standby. If the above doesn't work you can try setting a static IP for your machine.

Does the problem you described happen when you are connected to another wireless hub elsewhere?

[Big D]

I'm not using wireless - it's one of them oldfangled cat-5 network cables.
I'm not certain, but I think my machine has a static IP address within the network.

Thanks for the advice, though - I reckon there's some progress being made here...

[Yamaneko]

Go to Network Connections in the Control Panel and double click on your Local Area Connection (or whatever it called). What does it say in the Support tab? It should say either Assigned by DHCP or Manually Configured.

You can use the same steps I described above to make sure Windows doesn't turn off your ethernet controller. I know for sure there's a Power Management tab for the ethernet controller.

[Big D]

It says, "Address Type: Assigned by DHCP".

Below that, it lists my IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway.
Any ideas on what, if anything, might need fixing?

Incidentally, it worked just fine when I powered it up just now.

[o_O]

If your laptop's lease for the static IP expires or is taken by another device while it's in standby, it would have trouble picking up the connection immediately upon waking up.

Do you have any other devices on the network that could possibly take your laptop's static IP? If there is, and you don't specifically require a static IP, you might be able to fix the problem by setting it to use DHCP.

Start > run > ncpa.cpl > Local area connection properties > General > Internet Protocol TCP/IP > Obtain IP address automatically

[Big D]

There are five computers on the network, so I guess that one of them might purloin my IP address for some reason, but I don't really know the science of it well enough to say for sure. Nearly all the others are running Windows XP, and they're all using cable rather than wireless.

[o_O]

Do you actually need the static IP? If you do, you can set it to anything in the range of your router (usually either 192.168.1.64 up to 192.168.255.255 or 10.1.1.3 up to 10.255.255.255 (something like that anyway for DLinks )). Usually what I do if I need a static IP is to set it well out of the range of the max number of simultaneous clients, for example:

I use a Linksys which has the IP range 192.168.1.64 up to 192.168.255.255. If 6 clients connect with DHCP, the IP addresses 192.168.1.64-69 will be taken, leaving 192.168.1.70 as the next free address.
I want to make sure that I never have an address collision, so I set my static device to have an IP of 192.168.1.90. That way, I'll need 26 DHCP devices connected to my router before there can possibly be a collision.

If you don't need the static IP, I'd recommend using DHCP, since it'll make your laptop far more portable between routers and network hardware. It lets the router decide upon the next free address rather than demanding a specific address. For example, if you have a static IP of 192.168.1.65 on a Linksys at home, and try to connect to a DLink at work, you'll have no luck since the IP is out of the DLink's range.

[Big D]

Do you actually need the static IP?

I have no idea.

I appreciate that you're trying to help, but this is all going over my head. I know *what* a static IP address is, but not whether our router requires me to have one.

[o_O]

Hmm, I just noticed this x):

It says, "Address Type: Assigned by DHCP".

That means you're already using DHCP, unfortunately so everything I've been saying is irrelevant now anyway, sorry!

Ok, so next time it happens, do these things:

1.
- Start > Run > cmd
- ipconfig /all
- Find the IP address of Local area connection
- ping <ip address>
- Post results of ipconfig /all and ping <ip address>

2. Start > Run > ncpa.cpl and check the status of your Local area connection.

[Jessweeee♪]

Whenever my laptop wakes up the scroll bars go missing D:

I just get along without them until I get annoyed and just restart my session.