Windows 7: The Default Gateway is not Available
I encountered a problem affecting a Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) system, where the Internet connection was randomly disconnected, often while downloading a large file or streaming media across the network. The Windows network troubleshooting wizard was able to correct the issue temporarily by performing a reset of the Network Adapter (Manually doing the same also restored connectivity). Oddly enough, the Local Area Network connection remained active, but the Internet link was show as disconnected. The network troubleshooting wizard identified the problem as being that the “Default Gateway was not available” even though the Broadband router was online and working fine for other computers.
After running some searches on the issue, I discovered that there were a large number of Windows 7 users who had been experiencing a similar problem. The common factor was often the use of an NVidia NForce onboard network adapter, however in this case the computer in question was using an Atheros 10/100/1000base-t controller (Onboard an ASUS motherboard).
The initial recommendation provided was that affected users should acquire updated NIC drivers from the manufacturer of their network card, however there were no update drivers available for the Atheros card.
Luckily I came across information posted by a user suffering from the same problem on a similar system using the same onboard NIC (Atheros). The recommendation that corrected the problem permanently was to:
Open Device Manager
Locate the Network Adapter
Right click, Properties
Go to Advanced tab
Locate the Task Offload (aka TCP offload) property on the list and set it to Disabled
After setting this property and applying the changes, the Internet connection remained stable and no longer dropped out when transferring large amounts of data.
For more information see:
http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/5787-problems-atheros-l1-ethernet-adapter-win7-x64.html
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/59bcb7f5-fcca-44a4-b1db-787b1d269825
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Your RSS feed doesn’t work in my browser (google chrome) how can I fix it?
March 7th, 2010 at 1:44 am
Hi!
First of all, I’ve had this problems for months now and been searching for a solution since then, found none until yours.
I did what you said and hope it’ll work, thanks buddy:)
March 7th, 2010 at 2:47 am
Great, this fixed my problem… after reading a lot of stuff about nvidia drivers and I ahve Intel chipset.
Thank you.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Thank you so much, hopefully this will work! Been driving me nuts when I tried to upload stuff…
March 31st, 2010 at 3:21 am
Great! Shock and awe! It really works and helps! Thanks a lot (my configuration: Windows 7×64 Professional) No more troubles with torrents and Internet connection (Asus router)… Good work, buddy! and Good luck to everybody!
April 26th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Thanks chap, this worked a treat. I have the same controller as you, and was tearing my hair out
June 9th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Yep, worked on my Win 7 Ultimate x64 too! My board is an Asus M4A79T Deluxe, with network on board only.
June 14th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Slows down internet speed considerately? Intel adapter has two options which are similar to what is discussed “TCP/IP offloading options”(With other details e.g IPv4 checksum offload) and “Large send offload v2″ as another option in the advance list. Which should be disabled? First option seems the most viable.. but large performance lost occurs when disabling its features.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Thanks! This finally worked after trying darn near everything else in all the forums. Simple solution, worked great. Much appreciated.
August 23rd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
This worked for me! Thanks so much!
August 29th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Many thanks for this post. Solved my problem also!