I'm hoping someone can help me, I know very little about computers and i am having a problem with my internet connection. I'm using vista if this matters.
Sometimes pages won't load and i get this message (i've tried using both chrome and IE and the same thing happens):

This web page is not available
The web page at http://twistypuzzles.com/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
Here are some suggestions:
Reload this web page later.
Error 118 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT): The operation timed out.

I have tried searching on google and i've contacted my isp (they got me to change channels and replaced my router but it hasn't helped.) I downloaded a trial version of avast but it didn't find any viruses.

If i'm using bittorrent the download continues without interruption but just surfing i keep getting this message (even though my internet icon shows me as still connected to the internet)

If i keep clicking "refresh" the page might eventually load, sometimes with no pictures or widgets (almost looks like a "safe mode" and videos won't play) If i turn off the wireless on my laptop for a few minutes and then turn it back on usually everything will be ok for a while but if not i turn off and on the router and it always works again. Sometimes everything works great for hours but the problem always returns. .

I think it all started when i downloaded picasa (software for editing photos from google) but i uninstalled this and the problem is still happening. If anyone has any idea how to solve this i would be extremely grateful as it has almost driven me crazy!

[Sorry about the long post!]

Go to command prompt and type ping twistypuzzles.com -n 10

Paste the output here. (It would help if you could paste info for when it's both down and not.)

Also, can you clarify sometimes? Is it once every 5 times you try and load the page, or one day every five? Frequency is key when diagnosing an intermittent problem. Please try and provide as much information as you can about this.

Yet one more thing: when you try and load the page, when you receive the error, did the page display it instantly or does it take a few seconds?

When i was getting the problem i typed what you said but i got Request Timed Out 10 times with 100% packet loss when it was working i got an approximate round trip time of between 210ms and 321ms average =222ms with 0% loss

Sometimes it will happen everytime i click a new page or link until i switch the wifi off or reset the router, other times if i click refresh 4 or 5 times until it works it might keep working for 5 or 10 minutes or and hour or it might not work on the very next click - it happens everyday, that's about as exact as i can be be

When i receive the error it takes a while to display the page - about 20 - 30 seconds, i can tell whether the page is going to load by the speed my cursor rotates at (it's a circle) - if it's moving quickly the page will load if it's moving really slowly it won't.

I plugged in my ethernet cable and i didn't get the problem but it's not practical for me to leave it plugged in - it seems to be a problem with my computer's wifi (i changed routers and still get the same problem)
but if i am downloading something over bittorrent the download will keep working even when i am having these time out errors on my browsing - so it would seem to be a problem with some of my internet settings but why whether i was using wifi or the ethernet cable would change these i don't know.

I really would like the full readout from the ping.

Other than by looking at both ping results, I think it's probably a problem with your computer's wireless card.

When it happens next, go to command prompt and type "ipconfig /release" then "ipconfig /renew" and see if that solves it. Just an experiment.

~N


EDIT:

Rereading your post, it sounds more and more like a problem with your computer. The fact that it takes a while to fail tells me that your computer has resolved the IP of tp.c, however can't connect.

Is it just twistypuzzles.com?

It could be half open TCP connections, if it only happens while you are torrenting. uTorrent and many other clients can suck up the half open connections fairly quickly if you let them. Do you have any service packs installed? (Hit windows + Pause/Break to find out what you've got installed).

I've had a similar problem when living in an apartment building and all of my neighbors had wireless routers as well. I guess it was signal noise. Most wireless routers allow you change the frequency of the radio signal slightly. I turned mine up to the highest frequency it would let me and my problem went away.

Hi everyone

Thank you very much for your replies and advice, i finally got this sorted thanks to the advice of a forum member and skype - it was indeed my bittorrent client that was causing my internet connection problem although it itself was working fine.
I'm so relieved to finally have a working internet connection again - the tech support from my isp was awful - all i can say is a big thank you, i really appreciate your help!