Internet Woes

clsCorwin

So basically my internet is very sporadic. Some sites, like google and youtube load almost all the time, while newegg will not whatsoever. Some sites load veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly, and some will waffle between the choices.

I've duked it out with my ISP and they swear it has nothing to do with them, but its my machine. I've changed from automatically obtaining DNS to entering addresses provided by tech support and the issue persists.

Running Vista Home Premium SP1, using Firefox 3.5, but the problem occurs with IE also.

Also have McAfee Security Center running, and doing a scan from Trend Micro as we speak just in case, Spybot to follow.

In the meantime, anyone got a clue wtf?

This just started happening about 3 days ago, and did not occur after any updates or new installations.

Chanus

When's the last time you cleaned out your Temporary Internet Files?

Ruckus

Go to opendns.com and try using their DNS servers. I use them at home and the national company I work for uses them.

seasleepy

Assuming it's the same sites having problems in both Firefox and IE, that certainly sounds like a DNS issue. Probably they've had you do this already, but to help make sure it's a DNS issue, when you've got a site that isn't loading, bring up a command window (Win+R and type cmd) and run "nslookup www.thesitethatisbroken.com." -- and the final period is important! If it comes up with an IP address, it's probably not a DNS problem. (If you do end up with an ip address, run a "tracert x.x.x.x" on it to see where the routing is breaking down, which you can send on to your ISP.)

If it is your ISP's DNS being dumb, you could try something like OpenDNS for the time being (and if OpenDNS fixes things, well, there's pretty obvious proof to your ISP that it's their DNS that's the problem).

Also, I'm sloooow.

matt has a problem

OpenDNS is ok, but it's easier to just put 4.2.2.2 as your primary DNS and 4.2.2.3 as your secondary. They're free, public DNS servers owned by Verizon.

clsCorwin

So nslookup www.newegg.com. yields an IP, but pinging www.newegg.com times out over and over.

Ruckus

clsCorwin wrote: »

So nslookup www.newegg.com. yields an IP, but pinging www.newegg.com times out over and over.

try tracert newegg.com and see how far it gets before it starts to time out.

matt has a problem

Try editing your hosts file. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc, double click the 'hosts' file then choose to open it with notepad/wordpad. Scroll down past the entries started with #, and in an open spot put

204.14.213.185 www.newegg.com

then close and save the hosts file, and try getting to newegg again.

clsCorwin

Vista permissions are really getting annoying. I know I can Run as Administrator, but is there an Open folder as Administrator so I can actually modify this damn file?

Also, tracert starts timing out on hop 15, after passing through charter, qwest, leave13.net, and last stop is border2.po2-4g-bbnet2.ext1a.lax.pnap.net

matt has a problem

Sorry, here's a bit of a walkthrough.

http://geekswithblogs.net/thibbard/archive/2006/12/13/ChangingYourHostsFileInVista.aspx

urahonky

clsCorwin wrote: »

So nslookup www.newegg.com. yields an IP, but pinging www.newegg.com times out over and over.

Times out for me too. Lots of sites do that nowadays.

clsCorwin

Nevermind, figured it out and edited it in. Still no go connecting to newegg.

clsCorwin

Yes and I also can't connect to the site, and haven't been able to for days. Its not the only one, but its the most consistent one.

urahonky

Looks like your internet company is Charter? Have you tried disabling all the firewall/antivirus/spyware software? Just run bare bones. Maybe something's blocking it?

clsCorwin

I've tried disabling that too and it doesn't help.

And yes, I have Charter.

urahonky

Do you lose connection at all to the net? I had Time Warner and had to switch services because I was getting really shitty connections at random times. One moment I will be getting blazing fast speeds, but others I'll be getting nothing (literally).

I tried a ping www.yahoo.com /t and just watched it for about 5 minutes while surfing to see if it loses a connection. If so, it's the ISP's fault, not yours. Alternatively, do you have another computer you can test it on with your modem?

clsCorwin

No, no other computers. And I don't lose connection, I just can't get and/or keep a connection to sites.

Example, I typically have to spam the links to navigate there forums, otherwise it will sit there trying and failing.

urahonky

Try typing netstat and posting what it says in spoilers. I wonder if there's something running in your background prohibiting your connection to these sites.

clsCorwin

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 71.93.246.157:49822 lax04s01-in-f99:https CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:49824 lax04s01-in-f99:https CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:49853 www:http ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:49854 lax04s01-in-f101:http ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:49855 lax04s01-in-f101:http ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:49856 forums:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:49857 forums:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:49880 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 127.0.0.1:49169 Nadia-PC:49170 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49170 Nadia-PC:49169 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49172 Nadia-PC:49173 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49173 Nadia-PC:49172 ESTABLISHED

clsCorwin

and now my netstat looks like...

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 71.93.246.157:50019 pw-in-f190:http CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50050 lax04s01-in-f101:http ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:50052 lax04s01-in-f101:http ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:50114 209.17.73.20:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50118 folding:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50120 209.17.69.18:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50124 p3nlhg02c002:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50128 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50129 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50131 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50155 209.17.73.30:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50156 us:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50158 us:https TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50160 us:https TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50161 us:https TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50162 us:https ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:50163 us:https ESTABLISHED
TCP 71.93.246.157:50164 forums:http FIN_WAIT_2
TCP 71.93.246.157:50166 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50167 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50168 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 71.93.246.157:50189 forums:http TIME_WAIT
TCP 127.0.0.1:49169 Nadia-PC:49170 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49170 Nadia-PC:49169 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49172 Nadia-PC:49173 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:49173 Nadia-PC:49172 ESTABLISHED

urahonky

Wow cls, I'm out of ideas. My hail mary is going to be having you uninstall your network card, and reboot your machine so Windows sees it again.

quietguyintheback

Ok. Before you do anything like that, disconnect your router. Plug straight in to the modem. One sign of a dying router is a random inability to load certain sites. My last router refused to load images from youtube and ebay wouldn't load at all.

clsCorwin

I have no router. I have a hard line running straight from my Linsys cable modem.

Also, I did uninstall my my network card, but on reboot, it couldn't reinstall it, so I had to do a system restore.

urahonky

What the living hell? That has never once happened in all my years working in IT.

clsCorwin

Yea, its never happened to me either.

I blame Vista. XP never did me wrong.

going to Acer's site to track down this driver and stumbled upon the fact that Acer group controls Acer, Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell. I didn't even know PB existed as a brand anymore, damn. lol

Acer's driver support on their site sucks. They don't even have the driver for the network controller. Argh.

onceling

Do you have a friend with a laptop or anything that could come over real quick to confirm it's your computer?

clsCorwin

No, sadly I do not. In about a week I should be ordering parts to build my comp (this one is my wifes) but I'd rather not have to deal with this until then.

urahonky

Is this an Acer laptop? If so, could you try to go to a place like Panera Bread and use their wireless?

Ruckus

clsCorwin wrote: »

Yea, its never happened to me either.

I blame Vista. XP never did me wrong.

going to Acer's site to track down this driver and stumbled upon the fact that Acer group controls Acer, Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell. I didn't even know PB existed as a brand anymore, damn. lol

Acer's driver support on their site sucks. They don't even have the driver for the network controller. Argh.

What? I've never been unable to get a driver from acer, and at work I've had to service laptops and desktops back from like 2001.

What model is it?

clsCorwin

Its a desktop, model X1300.

clsCorwin

Booted off a Crunchbang livecd and I'm still getting the same damned issues.

System restore 2 weeks back also has done nothing.

kaliyama

clsCorwin wrote: »

I have no router. I have a hard line running straight from my Linsys cable modem.

Also, I did uninstall my my network card, but on reboot, it couldn't reinstall it, so I had to do a system restore.

Why do you think it's the ISP if this problem doesn't hpapen on any other computer? It seems pretty clear from this that something is wrong with your network card. It could be an IRQ conflict, or a vista issue.

urahonky

He doesn't have another computer to test it, is the problem.

clsCorwin

Update, going through a proxy server I can connect to www.newegg.com

So no, its not my problem.

urahonky

Weird. Now to get Charter to admit they are fucking it up. Good luck with that one.

clsCorwin

Yea, seriously. I'm talking to a tech right now and THEY can't get to newegg either. They refuse to see the obvious though. Though, they're probably just following a script and don't know anything anyways.

kaliyama

readingcomprehensionfail on my part, sorry. I don't have much value to add in your current interaction with their phone jockeys, but it seems likely that the people on the phone can't fix this and you won't be able to escalate this up to the people who know what they're doing via your customer service interaction. Hopefully they do, but if they can't help, you might try calling a diff. IT or tech number for Charter, or contact newegg directly - they'd have the incentive to make sure charter fixed it, and hopefully that would resolve your issues with other sites.