IE Routing Problem

[DDJ]

See previous parts of this thread. Resolution is not a problem. With that
in mind, Ace thought it might have something to do with the MTU settings,
but I'm not sure that is still on the table.

This question may sound naive, but is there any software out there that will
tell you what IE is doing when processing user selections for a site? It's
pretty crazy, from my perspective, that pinging, tracing, etc. all seem to
work fine, but IE has a problem. Also, after a reboot, it only seems to
have this problem for a few minutes, then fails. Even after IE fails, all
other processes keep right on working (including logging on to this
newsgroup which may not be important because resolution is not required???).

Thanks!

Dan

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In DDJ <[email protected]> asked for help and I offered my suggestions below:

I remember when we first set this up last year, I had also thought
that we needed to set the LAN side IP of the ActionTec to a different
subnet than the WAN side IP of the SonicWall (hope I said that
right!). It was either Qwest or SonicWall, however, that said we
needed to do it this way. It WAS working for some time though, so I
am curious why it has gone crazy now.

Hopefully the above helps you understand. Let me know if not, and
thanks for your patience!

I see, so the Sonicwall has three interfaces, that makes sense. Now I
understand what's going on. THanks

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

See previous parts of this thread. Resolution is not a problem.
With that in mind, Ace thought it might have something to do with the
MTU settings, but I'm not sure that is still on the table.

This question may sound naive, but is there any software out there
that will tell you what IE is doing when processing user selections
for a site? It's pretty crazy, from my perspective, that pinging,
tracing, etc. all seem to work fine, but IE has a problem. Also,
after a reboot, it only seems to have this problem for a few minutes,
then fails. Even after IE fails, all other processes keep right on
working (including logging on to this newsgroup which may not be
important because resolution is not required???).

Thanks!

Connecting to this newsgroup does require resolution. No way around that,
after all, since you are using Outlook Express, you supplied
news.microsoft.com for the news server here, correct?

As for the MTU, I would have probably chosen 1460 (seen this work many
times before) to try for the MTU. Restart the system after you set it, as
Kevin said. Also, I would try to eliminate the MTU setting all together in
the Sonicwall, if you can. Have you called Sonicwall about this issue?

So if it's not the MTU, then its definitley a browers issue. So far we've
established that resolution works, and pings and tracerts work. So that's
half of the puzzle, the other half is once IE gets the name resolved, it
connects!

Gots to ask... any viruses, adware, trojans, BHOs, etc etc? Have you tested
for that stuff?


--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[DDJ]

When you say three interfaces, I don't understand. I'm thinking the LAN
side and the WAN side. What is the third?

Thanks,

Dan

"Ace Fekay [MVP]"

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

When you say three interfaces, I don't understand. I'm thinking the
LAN side and the WAN side. What is the third?

Thanks,

Dan

DMZ?

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[DDJ]

Will change MTU to 1460 on local box and also try to eliminate at firewall
level...will report results back here.

One of the first things I did was to run virus checks on all boxes. Nothing
found.

Dan

"Ace Fekay [MVP]"

 

[DDJ]

Do you mean set MTU to 1460, or 1488 (1460+28)?

"Ace Fekay [MVP]"

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

Will change MTU to 1460 on local box and also try to
eliminate at firewall level...will report results back
here.

One of the first things I did was to run virus checks on
all boxes. Nothing found.

I think you've ruled out the MTU issue, since you can ping your ISP with an
MTU of 1464. The best your going to get is 1472.
Have you turned off "Show friendly HTTP errors" if not do that (Advanced tab
of internet properties) and post the exact error in IE.

 

[DDJ]

I may have discovered the cause of the error (see "duplicate names problem"
below), but first I turned off "Show Friendly HTTP Errors", tried again,
and here is the message received:

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your
browser settings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

a.. Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

b.. If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that
it is spelled correctly.

c.. To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and
then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings. The
settings should match those provided by your local area network (LAN)
administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
d.. If your Network Administrator has enabled it, Microsoft Windows
can examine your network and automatically discover network connection
settings.
If you would like Windows to try and discover them,
click Detect Network Settings
e.. Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help
menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength
security you have installed.
f.. If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your
Security settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click
Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section and
check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0.
g.. Click the Back button to try another link.



Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

Also, I checked the system log and see an EventID 4319 with the following
message:

A duplicate name has been detected on the TCP network. The IP address of the
machine that sent the message is in the data. Use nbtstat -n in a command
window to see which name is in the Conflict state.

When I do an nbtstat -n I get the following:

C:\>nbtstat -n

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.168.100] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
PC1 <00> UNIQUE Registered
OURDOMAIN <00> GROUP Registered
PC1 <03> UNIQUE Registered
PC1$ <03> UNIQUE Registered
PC1 <20> UNIQUE Registered
OURDOMAIN <1E> GROUP Registered
USER1 <03> UNIQUE Registered

In reading an MS KB on this, I see a number of troubleshooting tips, as
follows:
a.. There is a computer on the network with the same name.
After converting the hexadecimal numbers in the Event Viewer
message, it looks like it's the DC (192.168.168.187) sending the message
regarding the duplicate name. But the DC has a different name???
a.. An identical user name is logged on to multiple computers.
Have shutdown all machines on network, except the DC and a SQL
Server machine (which has another user logged on)...same problem.
a.. There are inactive or duplicate names in the Windows Internet Naming
Service (WINS) database.
We're not using WINS.
a.. There is corruption in the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
database.
We're not using DHCP.
a.. There are conflicting network adapters in a multihomed computer.
There are no multihomed machines.
a.. The ipconfig /all command returns an incorrect host name.
This returns the correct host name.

The KB articles I'm reading suggest I should be seeing something about a
"conflict" state when doing an ipconfig /all, but I'm not seeing it
anywhere. Is there another way to identify where the conflict is?

Thanks!

Dan

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

I may have discovered the cause of the error (see
"duplicate names problem" below), but first I turned off
"Show Friendly HTTP Errors", tried again, and here is the
message received:

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently
unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical
difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser
settings.

Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

This is a general error that means that IE is unable to connect to the
website on the IP address it was given.
This can be caused by a multitude of problems, but DNS is returing an IP
address.

If DNS was unable to resolve the name to an IP address you would receive
this error in your Browser:
Client error

Host name lookup for 'www.example.com' failed

So we know IE is getting an IP from DNS for the name, BTW what was the
website name?

I suppose the next step is to see what the MTU you can ping that site with
using the same command your used to ping your internet gateway.

ping www.example.com -f -l 1464

Some websites are not pingable so you'll have to use a pingable site. Here
is an example of pinging www.yahoo.com:
W:\>ping www.yahoo.com -f -l 1464

Pinging www.yahoo.akadns.net [216.109.117.106] with 1464 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.117.106: bytes=1464 time=190ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.117.106: bytes=1464 time=190ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.117.106: bytes=1464 time=190ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.117.106: bytes=1464 time=200ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 216.109.117.106:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 190ms, Maximum = 200ms, Average = 192ms

****************************************************************

Also, I checked the system log and see an EventID 4319
with the following message:

A duplicate name has been detected on the TCP network.
The IP address of the machine that sent the message is in
the data. Use nbtstat -n in a command window to see which
name is in the Conflict state.

Does this server have RRAS and is it configured for incoming connections?
292822 - Name resolution and connectivity issues on a Routing and Remote
Access Server that also runs DNS or WINS:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q292822

This can also cause DNS problems if you have the DNS proxy enabled in RRAS.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

Do you mean set MTU to 1460, or 1488 (1460+28)?

Try setting it to 1460.

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[DDJ]

I've been on the phone with MS Support most of the day and we got the
problem fixed. Although I am embarrased by what the problem turned out to
be, I wanted to make sure I thanked both Ace and Kevin, and let the group
know what the problem was.

About three weeks ago, we uninstalled Zone Alarm from some of our boxes. As
it turns out, the Zone Alarm uninstall doesn't work very well. As a matter
of fact, it didn't seem to uninstall much at all, particularly some dll's
and one .sys file in the System32 directory. Once these files were removed,
the problem was solved. These were not files that showed up in "Services"
or any other place we initially looked to see what might be the problem...it
essentially required going through the System32 directory, one file at a
time, and determining what the purpose of each dll/sys file was for.

So anyway, please accept my thanks for your help. I really appreciate the
time you took in trying to resolve this issue.

Dan Johnson


"Ace Fekay [MVP]"

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

I've been on the phone with MS Support most of the day
and we got the problem fixed. Although I am embarrased
by what the problem turned out to be, I wanted to make
sure I thanked both Ace and Kevin, and let the group know
what the problem was.

Most of the day? Ouch!
I guess it would have been a lot easier to just disable zone alarm instead
of uninstalling it!
I didn't think to ask if there was any software changes, if a case like this
comes up again. I'll know to ask.

It's just too bad we were unable to narrow it down for you. I hope you have
a good day tomorrow, you'll probably sleep better tonight without this
eating at you.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

I've been on the phone with MS Support most of the day and we got the
problem fixed. Although I am embarrased by what the problem turned
out to be, I wanted to make sure I thanked both Ace and Kevin, and
let the group know what the problem was.

About three weeks ago, we uninstalled Zone Alarm from some of our
boxes. As it turns out, the Zone Alarm uninstall doesn't work very
well. As a matter of fact, it didn't seem to uninstall much at all,
particularly some dll's and one .sys file in the System32 directory.
Once these files were removed, the problem was solved. These were
not files that showed up in "Services" or any other place we
initially looked to see what might be the problem...it essentially
required going through the System32 directory, one file at a time,
and determining what the purpose of each dll/sys file was for.

So anyway, please accept my thanks for your help. I really
appreciate the time you took in trying to resolve this issue.

Dan Johnson

Congrats on finding it! All day with PSS? WOW!

Don't be embarassed. It wasn't your fault if Zone Alarm didn't uninstall
correctly. That is Zone Alarm's fault!

I agree with Kevin, never thought to ask about a personal firewall. Can you
do us a favor and let us know exactly what DLLs and sys files that you had
to remove that weren't removed? It will help us in the future!

Thanks, appreciate it.


--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[DDJ]

I've been on the phone with MS Support most of the day and we got the
problem fixed. Although I am embarrased by what the problem turned out to
be, I wanted to make sure I thanked both Ace and Kevin, and let the group
know what the problem was.

About three weeks ago, we uninstalled Zone Alarm from some of our boxes. As
it turns out, the Zone Alarm uninstall doesn't work very well. As a matter
of fact, it didn't seem to uninstall much at all, particularly some dll's
and one .sys file in the System32 directory. Once these files were removed,
the problem was solved. These were not files that showed up in "Services"
or any other place we initially looked to see what might be the problem...it
essentially required going through the System32 directory, one file at a
time, and determining what the purpose of each dll/sys file was for.

So anyway, please accept my thanks for your help. I really appreciate the
time you took in trying to resolve this issue.

Dan Johnson

"Ace Fekay [MVP]"

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

I've been on the phone with MS Support most of the day and we got the
problem fixed. Although I am embarrased by what the problem turned
out to be, I wanted to make sure I thanked both Ace and Kevin, and
let the group know what the problem was.

About three weeks ago, we uninstalled Zone Alarm from some of our
boxes. As it turns out, the Zone Alarm uninstall doesn't work very
well. As a matter of fact, it didn't seem to uninstall much at all,
particularly some dll's and one .sys file in the System32 directory.
Once these files were removed, the problem was solved. These were
not files that showed up in "Services" or any other place we
initially looked to see what might be the problem...it essentially
required going through the System32 directory, one file at a time,
and determining what the purpose of each dll/sys file was for.

So anyway, please accept my thanks for your help. I really
appreciate the time you took in trying to resolve this issue.

Dan Johnson

Dan, can you let us know what exact files you and PSS found that were
causing this?

Thanks!


--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups
so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees
and confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers
HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;
A lifetime commitment for a pig.

 

[DDJ]

Ace,

I found the following Zone Alarm files in the System32 directory:

vsdata.dll
vsdatant.sys
vsmonapi.dll
vsutil.dll

Was able to delete the three dll's without a problem (although I noticed
after doing so that the 5 minute "window" I always had for using IE after a
reboot went away...which was kind of our biggest clue actually).

The sys file, on the other hand, was (pardon my french) the file from Hell.
Took forever, but we finally found a way to kill it (by changing permissions
on file, then rebooting in safe mode with networking and deleting the file).
Problem solved. However, I'm still kicking myself because (particularly
since our boxes here are development machines), I would have liked to figure
out what was loading the vsdatant.sys to begin with...I assume that whatever
that process is, is still lurking somewhere.

Let me know if you need any more info. Again, Thanks!

Dan


"Ace Fekay [MVP]"