XP LAN intermittant behaviour

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bascom King
  • Start date Start date
B

Bascom King

I bought my wife a newer reconditioned HP machine, a 504n
Pavilion. Is is connected to my LAN, the switch of which
is connected to a verizon DSL modem. The other machines
on this net regularly and reliably connect to the internet
and e-mail no problem. However, this new machine
sometimes works perfectly with it's installed Internet
Explorer and Outlook Express and other times, it does not
connect to either e-mail or IE. I have looked at various
configurations and nothing makes sense i.e. it works
perfectly sometimes and sometimes not. When it does't
work, the other machines do connect so it's not the DSL or
ISP. Further, sometimes when it doesn't work, trying
several times makes it work. Other times, it's no way,
baby.

Any wisdom or suggestions on this?

Thanks,
Bascom King
 
I am having the same problem on XP but it only happens
after my computer goes into hibernation mode. As long as
it doesn't hibernate, my internet connection is fine.
Once it hibernates I can't even ping my gateway. I just
did an ipconfig release and renew (my usual fix), which
requires a connection to the gateway (since it's
assigning an ip address through dhcp) and immediately
afterwards, I could not ping the gateway. This started
happening immediately after I installed an IE patch and a
data connection patch through windows update on Aug 22.
 
-----Original Message-----
You have a switch and a DSL modem, but neither of them acts as a
broadband router to share a single IP address between multiple
computers. Is that right?

If so, you need to get an individual public IP address for each
computer from your ISP in order to use them all at the same time. If
you have fewer IP addresses than computers, some of the computers
won't be able to get an IP address when all of the computers are up
and running, so they won't be able connect to the Internet.

When the Internet connection fails, right click the computer's network
connection and click Status | Support. Does it have a public IP
address, or does it have a 169.254.x.x IP address? The latter would
mean that it couldn't get a public IP address from your ISP.

If it has a public IP address, open a command prompt window and enter
these lines. Each one should receive four replies:

ping 216.239.39.100
ping www.google.com

Computers are more complicated than vacuum tubes, aren't they? ;-)
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, Steve. That little remark about
vacuum tubes - do you know me from my audio profession?
Anyway, your remarks about separate IP addresses being
needed. I sort of knew this but when I got my DSL going,
I was amazed to find that any of my machines could access
the internet, and further, they could all independently do
it at the same time - this without a router. Somenow, the
Verizon DSL modem must be allowing this. As I may have
mentioned, when the subject machine fails to connect, the
other machines do connect. Also, when the machine fails
to connect, it will do so whether or not other machines
are on and on the net.

Could you refresh my memory of what range the "public
addresses" are ?

Also, someone else suggested I try changing the NIC. Is
that a good suggestion?

Thanks,
Bascom King
Click to expand...
 
"Bascom King" said:
Thanks for the reply, Steve. That little remark about
vacuum tubes - do you know me from my audio profession?
Anyway, your remarks about separate IP addresses being
needed. I sort of knew this but when I got my DSL going,
I was amazed to find that any of my machines could access
the internet, and further, they could all independently do
it at the same time - this without a router. Somenow, the
Verizon DSL modem must be allowing this. As I may have
mentioned, when the subject machine fails to connect, the
other machines do connect. Also, when the machine fails
to connect, it will do so whether or not other machines
are on and on the net.

Could you refresh my memory of what range the "public
addresses" are ?

Also, someone else suggested I try changing the NIC. Is
that a good suggestion?

Thanks,
Bascom King
Click to expand...

You're welcome, Bascom. I've been interested in audio for 25+ years,
and I've done a lot of reading in High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio,
Fi, Stereophile, and The Absolute Sound. I think that I've seen your
articles in Audio, and maybe elsewhere. I still use a vacuum tube
phono preamp (Esoteric Audio Research 834P).

Public IP addresses are all addresses that AREN'T in one of these
private IP ranges:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Since the computer can access the Internet part of the time, I don't
think that it's a NIC problem. However, check the tips on this web
page:

Windows XP Network Troubleshooting - Problems with Network Cards
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/troubleshoot/networkcard.htm

It's possible that Verizon DSL is un-intentionally letting you have
more IP addresses than you've signed up for. If your computers are
getting public IP addresses, be sure to run firewall programs to
prevent Internet hackers from getting into them.

In any event, I'd strongly recommend getting an inexpensive broadband
router. For example, the D-Link DI-604, which I use in my home
network, is on sale for $19.99 (after rebates) at Best Buy stores this
week. The router shares one public IP address between all of the
computers, assigns private IP addresses to them, and acts as a
firewall.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
-----Original Message-----
You're welcome, Bascom. I've been interested in audio for 25+ years,
and I've done a lot of reading in High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio,
Fi, Stereophile, and The Absolute Sound. I think that I've seen your
articles in Audio, and maybe elsewhere. I still use a vacuum tube
phono preamp (Esoteric Audio Research 834P).

Public IP addresses are all addresses that AREN'T in one of these
private IP ranges:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Since the computer can access the Internet part of the time, I don't
think that it's a NIC problem. However, check the tips on this web
page:

Windows XP Network Troubleshooting - Problems with Network Cards
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/troubleshoot/n etworkcard.htm

It's possible that Verizon DSL is un-intentionally letting you have
more IP addresses than you've signed up for. If your computers are
getting public IP addresses, be sure to run firewall programs to
prevent Internet hackers from getting into them.

In any event, I'd strongly recommend getting an inexpensive broadband
router. For example, the D-Link DI-604, which I use in my home
network, is on sale for $19.99 (after rebates) at Best Buy stores this
week. The router shares one public IP address between all of the
computers, assigns private IP addresses to them, and acts as a
firewall.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
Click to expand...

Hi again, Steve:

I finally narrowed down my problem to the free Zone Alarm
program on the XP machine. If I disabled it, OE & IE both
worked like a champ. I fooled around with the settings of
ZA but to no real avail. I think I will uninstall it and
install it again. It did work initially but somehow
became more "ify" and finally, didn't allow access for IE
& OE. Wierd though, I could telnet to my ISP, which is
separate from the DSL account, which told me the NIC and
the net were working.

I checked the addresses that my various machines had when
they were all up and accessing the internet. They were
public and different all right. I don't know why or how
Verizon is allowing this but for now it works. I might
get that D-Link router and try that out too. One thing I
noticed with all machines and that there is a constant
incoming "tap" from the outside. Zone Alarm log shows
that the particular machine's IP is the destination and
most of the incomings are from the basic 4.46.X.X that is
what Verizon is assigning to me. Any wisdom on what this
means?

Thanks again for your help!
Bascom King
Click to expand...
 
"Bascom King" said:
Hi again, Steve:

I finally narrowed down my problem to the free Zone Alarm
program on the XP machine. If I disabled it, OE & IE both
worked like a champ. I fooled around with the settings of
ZA but to no real avail. I think I will uninstall it and
install it again. It did work initially but somehow
became more "ify" and finally, didn't allow access for IE
& OE. Wierd though, I could telnet to my ISP, which is
separate from the DSL account, which told me the NIC and
the net were working.

I checked the addresses that my various machines had when
they were all up and accessing the internet. They were
public and different all right. I don't know why or how
Verizon is allowing this but for now it works. I might
get that D-Link router and try that out too. One thing I
noticed with all machines and that there is a constant
incoming "tap" from the outside. Zone Alarm log shows
that the particular machine's IP is the destination and
most of the incomings are from the basic 4.46.X.X that is
what Verizon is assigning to me. Any wisdom on what this
means?

Thanks again for your help!
Bascom King
Click to expand...

Nice job of troubleshooting, Bascom.

As long as your computers have public IP addresses, you definitely
need a firewall on each one to keep out hackers who constantly scan
the Internet for unprotected computers to attack. I don't even look
at my firewall log any more.

Some of what your firewall is reporting could be Verizon itself
scanning for un-authorized servers on its network. I saw that
frequently when I had AT&T@Home cable service.

XP's built-in Internet Connection Firewall does a good job of blocking
incoming scans and attacks. So do broadband routers.

ZoneAlarm and other commercial firewall programs have some additional
features:

1. They can allow access by other computers on your local area network
while blocking access by other Internet users. XP's firewall can't.

2 They can block undesired outgoing traffic from your computer to the
Internet. XP's firewall and broadband routers can't. Apparently, ZA
decided that OE & IE shouldn't be allowed to access the Internet, as
if they were hacker tools or worms.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
Back
Top