I replaced a cheap wireless router at my parent's house with yet another cheap wireless router (a $25 Belkin from Walmart). The thing worked fine for a few months and then the problems started.

There are three devices that use internet:

1. A desktop - hard wired to the router with ethernet
2. A Roku wireless box
3. A windows laptop

According to my mother the Roku box experiences no problems....all issues are related to the desktop and the laptop

The issue is constant connectivity issues as of late "DNS server cannot be found", "page can't be reached", "page not found", etc. These problems occur intermittently on either machine. Sometimes it's the laptop. Sometimes it's the desktop, sometimes it's both. It's never the same web page.

Time Warner came and completely replaced all cable from the street up to the outside of the house because they detected some problems (water in the cable lines). This cleared up signal issues from the modem out to the street but not the Internet connectivity issues on the computers.

On occasion and increasingly the router will just kick offline.
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Personally, I suspect a new wireless router will alleviate the issue. As a test, I took the laptop down to Starbucks and the local library and it works just fine at either location's wi-fi.

I tried flushing the DNS cache by opening the terminal and entering ipconfig/flushdns and then hitting enter. Did not work. Also cleared all browsing history/cache in FF. Obviously I'm here to edit this post but don't know for how much longer.

Advice?

I'm pretty sure I know which Belkin you're talking about and it is junk. I'm not willing to spend $150+ on a wifi/router and I haven't found anything under that price that works for any decent amount of time. The best thing you can do in my opinion is disable the wireless portion of that router and buy one of these and plug it into one of the LAN ports.

Spend some money and buy some decent hardware.

Something like this.
Or this.
Or if you are feeling really adventurous, this.




It's not the wireless portion that is going bad. Also, you're not willing to spend some money on a router, but are willing to drop a decent amount of money on an access point?

Generally it IS the wireless portion that is the problem. I'm using a $25 router and it has been running 24/7 for several years with absolutely no problems or slowdowns. It was garbage before I disabled the wireless portion, constantly locking up and disconnecting my devices.

Read the 1 star reviews of the first two devices you linked and you'll notice a pattern. Locking up and requiring restarts all the time.  Consumer level wireless routers just aren't built to withstand constant use, especially with today's broadband speeds. The routing portion is no big deal and any cheap router can handle 100MBit or 1GBit with no problem. It's the wireless that the cheap devices just can't handle.

Some routers run a DNS server or proxy that the local computers use. If the DNS server on the router is being stupid then you would have problems. You might be able to reconfigure the router to advertise external DNS servers instead of the local one.

Yeah okay, except that the DNS issues on a hardwire connection and wireless connection as described by the OP point to routing issues.

Could the wireless hardware crapping out affect the routing issues? Sure. Does more expensive consumer grade networking gear work better than cheap consumer grade networking gear? Yes.

This stuff is all throw away at this point. Most consumers aren't going to bother with APs and switches and stuff. Just plug everything into one and go.

Oh and every networking product has one star reviews with the same complaints.

OP title mentions DNS but they aren't the problem. His wireless router is disconnecting him.

Anyway my point is for $75 you can turn any cheap crappy wireless router into an exceptional router and access point for a lot cheaper than you can get an equally well performing all in one device.

I didn't say that the DNS SERVERS were the problem. OP is describing a symptom. If you are trying to access a webpage and you are coming up with an error (DNS unresolvable/404/whatever) on BOTH a HARDWARE connection and a WIRELESS connection, it is a 99.99999% a problem with something else other than the wireless connectivity.

The symptoms that OP described point to a routing/switching problem. Not a wireless AP problem which symptoms would include wireless connectivity problems. Can disabling the built in wireless AP fix it? Maybe, maybe not. If it does fix it, then the wireless hardware going to shit was interfering with the routing or switching. If it doesn't fix it, then obviously the routing went to shit. Which getting a new AP is not going to help, especially when the next cheapy router flakes out. Cheap networking crap is cheap networking crap. Buying one decent piece of networking gear does not magically fix all networking issues.

Answering the "I'm having routing issues" with "buy a new wireless AP" is

Point the machines to googles name servers. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. If that doesn't fix it, it's not a DNS issue.

It's not a DNS server issue. OP already ruled it out. It is one of the error messages that OP is getting. Obviously something broke on OP's  network and it is most likely the crappy $25 router.

I can make up statistics too.  99.99999999% chance the wireless client is causing the whole router to lock up which then also kicks off the wired client. What I suggested is the most cost effective solution for him. I don't know why you are taking it so personally.

The most cost effective solution is to buy another piece of hardware that doesn't even fix the problem? Ok.

1. Keep it out of the heat, make sure it stays cool and has air circulation. No sunlight allowed.

2. Reboot the thing once in a while. Even the good ones need a power cycle once a month or so.


3. Move it away from power strips, power worts, electric cables or any sources of interference (even the computer you use.)


Sometimes it pays to look at the basic stuff.

SOLVED

Purchased a new wireless router and all is now well...until this one flakes out

You're fired.  Collect your stuff, security will escort you out.