agonizingly slow ICS connection

[ZAP]

Hello -

I posted this once before, but got no response...

Since updating our computers to WinXP from Win2K, we have
a very annoying problem with Internet Connection Sharing.
Our "network" consists of two PCs (just upgraded to XP
Pro), one of which is the ICS host for our cable modem
connection and the other which is a standard ICS client.
Our problem is that it takes an extremely long time (at
least ten minutes) after starting up the client machine
before it can view web pages.

The client can, however, download and send email via
Outlook immediately, which makes me think that the problem
has something to do with DNS. Also, if I try to view
Network Connections or Internet Options, they freeze
completely and have to be shut down from the Task Manager.
I have also noticed that the client is not visible on the
file sharing network from the host computer while the
client is unable to connect.

As far as we can tell, we have set up ICS in the proper
and standard way. What might cause this to happen, and how
can we fix it? Once the client computer finishes making
its connection, we have no problems, but this makes for a
frustrating start to every day.

THANKS in advance for your replies.

 

[gatsome]

Have you ever tried picking up a small hub and having both
computers go through that?

 

[ZAP]

Yes. That would be better but this should work for now.
And it used to work perfectly under Win2K.

The reason that we have to do it this way is that the
ethernet port on our cable modem is busted, so the ICS
host has to connect to it via USB and then out to the
client via ethernet. Our ISP only allows a single MAC
address to connect at a time, so we'd need to use a
router, and I don't have a USB router. We're moving to a
new place in a few months, so this is a temporary solution
anyway.

Any ideas as to why the client connects so slowly?

 

[Deon Brewis [MSFT]]

It appears as if one of the services on your client machine is failing to
start successfully.
This causes timeout issues to happen in the Service Control Manager, and
dependencies that makes other services wait to start (e.g. "Network
Connections" and "DNS").

You can look at the Even Viewer (eventvwr.exe) under 'System' to see if you
can find out what service this is.

Otherwise, you can try to set the "Network Connections" service to
"Autostart". From a command line, run:
sc config netman start= auto

(Note the space between 'start= 'and auto).

 

[ZAP]

You're right! I don't know why I didn't look in the event
viewer before, but now that you mentioned it I did. The
Server service is failing to start (apparently because the
second hard drive is reporting a controller error).

From the looks of this error, I think that my IDE cable
must either be loose or failing. I'll try replacing it and
making sure that everything is properly connected and
updating my hard drive controller if necessary. I guess
the worst thing that will happen is I'll reformat that
drive and hope it's not getting ready to give out on me.

THANKS for pointing me in the right direction!

 

[ZAP]

You're right! The Server service is hanging on startup,
which also explains why that computer sometimes hangs at
the "Loading your personal settings..." screen as well.
Apparently there is a hotfix for this, but the link to
download it from MS is broken (?)...

This is of course the infamous svchost.exe. Any chance
that this is not legitimate system activity but instead
remnants of the Blaster or Nachi worms? We always keep our
computers up-to-date with Windows Update, and we have an
updated copy of McAfee AntiVirus running as well.

Also: One of the Windows Updates has been failing to
install. It is a FrontPage server extensions critical
update, and although we have installed it several times it
always reappears the next day. I deleted the WU Temp files
and tried again, but could this be a related issue?

 

[Deon Brewis [MSFT]]

The Frontpage Server extensions have to do with the "IIS" service though -
not the "Server" service. I would be very surprised if it is related.

I wouldn't rule out that it is a virus, but if you're well protected with an
Anti-virus and up to date with Windows Update, I doubt it.

You mentioned a problem with your IDE cable though. Did this turn out to be
the issue?

 

[ZAP]

My thought was that it was possible that the FrontPage
update were trying to finish installation at startup,
failing, and tripping up the Server service in the
process. I wish you could just tell Windows Update to skip
certain "critical" updates. We will never use this machine
as a web server, and we certainly wouldn't use FrontPage
extensions if we did.

Before swapping out the IDE cable, I ran chkdsk on the
drive and it repaired some minor errors. Since then I have
not gotten this hard drive error, so I haven't changed the
cable either. Perhaps this was unrelated.

So my latest theory is that this is a recognized issue
with XP that MS will provide a fix for soon. There is a KB
article regarding this problem which says that there is a
HotFix available to repair it, but the link to get it is
broken. The specific behavior described in the KB article
is the other thing that happens to us frequently on this
computer - it hangs on the "Loading your personal
settings..." screen and needs to be rebooted. As a rule, I
try to avoid temporary HotFixes anyway unless I absolutely
can't use my computer without it, since they are usually
released in a more stable form in Windows Update later. I
hope that's so in this case.