AAARRRGGHH! Frustrating internet connection problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheBuzz
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TheBuzz

Hi all,

Not sure if there is a better group to address this problem, but...

This pertains to my home PC running W2K SP4 with IE6, Opera 7.2,
Netscape7, ZoneAlarm 4.0, Guidescope proxy and Earthlink Cable.

A couple weeks ago, I started having problems accessing some websites
that until then worked fine. For example, a few of them are -

downloads.pokerroom.com
www.clevelandgolf.com
sports.yahoo.golfserv.com
www.golfgalaxy.com
www.tusafe.com - a NoNags site

I first noticed the problem when my PokerRoom client was suddenly
unable to access it's server.

I've tried shutting down the firewall and proxy for a direct
connection with no results. I've also updated my Hosts file. I'm
unable to ping any of these sites using QueryApp.

One thing I have noticed while tracing them is that in each case I get
error messages at one of the following hops -

pop1-chi-P7-2.atdn.net [66.185.141.93]
pop1-chi-P7-0.atdn.net [66.185.136.109]

However, another site - www.idyle.com - DOES hop through the first one
(P7-2) but dies somewhere in Montreal.

I'll admit I'm no network pro, so I'm not sure how to interpret these
results. I am able to access these sites using other computers
(friends and families). But none of them use Earthlink, so I don't
know if this is a problem on my end or the network.

The support people at Pokerroom suggested my problem lay in my
firewall configuration. But I made no changes to my firewall prior to
all this and can't see why I couldn't connect if I shut the firewall
off.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks
 
If you're getting out to the first server, it's unlikely that you have a
network problem that is outside your own computer. Is your virus protection
up to date and operational? Is this happening with each of the three
browsers?
 
Hey! I am getting similar issue that I can get to many sites like yahoio and google, even stockcharts.com, but nix on microsoft.anything. This only occurs from the ICS connected computer. The PC with internet connection and nic cards works great. BUT this only happened after doing some windows updating. That may be a clue! Anyone resolve such an issue?
 
Get a router, they are $50US or less these days and much better than ICS.

--
Michael Culley


Pabloinla said:
Hey! I am getting similar issue that I can get to many sites like yahoio and google, even stockcharts.com, but nix on
Click to expand...
microsoft.anything. This only occurs from the ICS connected computer. The PC with internet connection and nic cards works great.
BUT this only happened after doing some windows updating. That may be a clue! Anyone resolve such an issue?
 
If you're getting out to the first server, it's unlikely that you have a
network problem that is outside your own computer. Is your virus protection
up to date and operational? Is this happening with each of the three
browsers?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes. My Kapersky AVP comes up clean and none of the three
browsers work.
 
Why are you using a host file??
Click to expand...

A remnant from my dialup days using TweakDun. Think I'm better of
without it? Is it as simple as renaming the file?
check your DNS settings.
Click to expand...

According to the setup info from Earthlink I was supposed to use the
"Obtain DNS server address automatically" option with DHCP enabled.
Seem kosher to you?

What has me puzzled is that I haven't made any kind of network
configuration changes prior to this happening. Just woke up one day
and all of a sudden...

As another poster queried, my anti-virus comes up clean and all three
browsers have the same problem. I also shut down my proxy and
readjusted my browser settings for a direct connection with no luck.

Really wierd.
 
Can you try a clean machine connected directly to the cable modem and see if the problem persists? That will tell you if it is an
earthlink problem or a network problem.
 
DNS troubleshooting should start with ip addresses and their corresponding
DNS names. For example, if you can ping a site by IP (216.109.117.204) but
not by name (www.yahoo.com), then the problem is likely DNS related. You
said you could not ping the websites, but are you trying to ping by name or
IP? (You can generally resolve the ip by running "ping -a" from a friend's
computer)
Since you are using DHCP (would suggest going with an ISP that provides you
with a static IP), you should run ipconfig /all and see what the DNS
server's ip is, then see if you can ping that also. You could run an
"ipconfig /release" then "ipconfig /renew" to get a new ip, then see if the
DNS server's ip changed. You should have no need for a host file unless you
have a closed network and no other form of DNS running internally. Another
poster suggested getting a router - another good idea - better and faster
than ICS.

Of course, none of this may be the cause of your specific issues. I have
seen windows hotfixes cause many problems with secure websites due to
increased security measures by Microsoft. Done any patching lately?
 
Of course, none of this may be the cause of your specific issues. I have
seen windows hotfixes cause many problems with secure websites due to
increased security measures by Microsoft. Done any patching lately?
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact, I have. I did apply some security updates. Forgot
all about that until you mentioned it.

Anyway, for reasons I can't explain, I woke up this morning and
everything's back to normal. I checked a lot of things yesterday and
the only thing I changed was unchecking the "Enable lmhosts lookup" in
my TCP/IP settings. It didn't make any difference at the time (or
after a reboot), but lo-and-behold, this morning everything was fine.
Can't say for sure that that was the cure, but I'll see how long it
lasts.

Thanks for your time. You taught me a few things. I'm a little smarter
than I was a week ago :)
 
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