hey everyone,
i have an ubuntu server box as my gateway and firewall. for days at a time itll run fine, then one or two days out of the week, it will drop connection often because it drops its ip addr. when renew an ip, itll work fine for about 5 minutes and drop again.

ive tried different nics, different wire, my logs dont mention anything, my cron files dont have anything suspicious.

hi, we need more detail
how do you know it drops connection ? is it because network icon turn on/off or you make a connection and lost it ?
generally speaking when nic negotiate with dhcp server for new ip after expiration, it wont drop connection, it's just extended.so it souldnt be your dhcp leasing time . is it accurately 5 min interval ? is your net cable ok ?

In my case when something similar was happening to me it was the MODEM that went bad. However, it would drop consistently and not just one or two days of the week.

Just an idea, are there any cron running on irregular intervals?
Maybe something that makes a reconnet every now and then?
Or maybe some download software that needs a new IP?
You're the only one on that connection?

well this is a server edition, no gui, so there is no icon. but an ifconfig will often either tell me that there is an ip address, but regardless, i cant use the internet.
i tried changing the lease time in the dhclient.conf file, nothing helped. i changed nics and cords, still nothing.

all i see in my error logs is a lot of crap from ntpd and named

and to be honest, i tried calling verizon and convincing them that the modem is broken, but instead the associate spent most of the time explaining that fios doesnt use modems, and that what i was describing, is a terminal. guy didnt even know what linux was

Maybe a firmware update of your modem might solve it. Had it once. My Modem always screed it up and i had to reset it...

well the thing is, i have no access to a modem. what they call the terminal is just how my gateway or any router access the fiber optic network, so i cant update any firmware on it.

i tried looking for cron files, couldnt find anything out of the ordinary. Im not the only one using the internt connection, however i dont think that there are any applications on my network which would ask the gateway to get a new ip or anything like that.

i just did a dpkg-reconfigure bind9 to see if maybe thatll help

could you use a static ip and let us know what happens ?

unfortunately i can't use a static ip because fios doent allow as such. when i tried, i couldn't get on the internet.