Bizarre Internet Connectivity

[bwilde]

Hello all,

I am having a weird problem with my internet on my new computer runnin
XP Home. I am able to use some internet services with no problems at
all (AIM, Internet Explorer, Firefox, FTP Client, Ping), however other
services give me no connections at all (MSN Messenger, Remote Desktop
Client, FTP Server, Norton LiveUpdate). It seems strange that I would
have selective internet connectivity...

So far, I have tried disabling the Windows firewall and that didn't
help. I made sure that the ports were open on my router, which also
didn't help. I even reinstalled the drivers for the ethernet card.
Nothing seems to work.

To make things even more confusing to me, I tried to ping the server
used for Norton LiveUpdates. The ping came back with no problems, but
LiveUpdate itself still returned an error telling me that there is no
internet connection.

I'm really stuck here and I have no idea on how to procede. I'm open
to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Chuck]

Hello all,

I am having a weird problem with my internet on my new computer runnin
XP Home. I am able to use some internet services with no problems at
all (AIM, Internet Explorer, Firefox, FTP Client, Ping), however other
services give me no connections at all (MSN Messenger, Remote Desktop
Client, FTP Server, Norton LiveUpdate). It seems strange that I would
have selective internet connectivity...

So far, I have tried disabling the Windows firewall and that didn't
help. I made sure that the ports were open on my router, which also
didn't help. I even reinstalled the drivers for the ethernet card.
Nothing seems to work.

To make things even more confusing to me, I tried to ping the server
used for Norton LiveUpdates. The ping came back with no problems, but
LiveUpdate itself still returned an error telling me that there is no
internet connection.

I'm really stuck here and I have no idea on how to procede. I'm open
to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben,

Some services (some destinations) working, but not others, could have 1 or 2
causes. You can't really diagnose either one, just try to fix it, per the
articles:
# LSP / Winsock corruption.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/problems-with-lsp-winsock-layer-in.html>
# MTU problem.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/internet-connectivity-problems-caused.html>

 

[bwilde]

Chuck,

Thanks for your email. I went ahead and looked at both of your
suggestions, and neither of them seemed to help. I have been doing a
little more diagnosis to figure out the problem, and here's what I've
come across...

Every once-in-a-while, when I restart my computer, I find that things
work with no problems. More often, I find that MSN Messenger (which
signs on at startup) is able to start, but that I can not sign off then
log on again. This suggests that I may have some sort of nasty service
running on my computer that prevents certain connections, and that
sometimes, Messenger gets started before this mysterious program runs.

With this in mind, I threw a ton of antivirus and spyware stuff at it.
(AdAware, SpyBot, Microsoft AntiSpyware, Norton, PandaSoftware), and
nothing turned up anything more than some tracker cookies.

So, I have no idea where to go from here. Here's another quick summary
of network programs that I have found work and don't work:

Work: AIM, IExplorer, Firefox, Netscape, Remote Desktop host
Don't work: MSN Messenger, Outlook, Remote Desktop client, FTP Server,
Symantec Live Update, and most other programs that require a connection
to the internet (like Windows Update).

Any help from anybody would be very appreciated. I am getting
frustrated with things.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,

Thanks for your email. I went ahead and looked at both of your
suggestions, and neither of them seemed to help. I have been doing a
little more diagnosis to figure out the problem, and here's what I've
come across...

Every once-in-a-while, when I restart my computer, I find that things
work with no problems. More often, I find that MSN Messenger (which
signs on at startup) is able to start, but that I can not sign off then
log on again. This suggests that I may have some sort of nasty service
running on my computer that prevents certain connections, and that
sometimes, Messenger gets started before this mysterious program runs.

With this in mind, I threw a ton of antivirus and spyware stuff at it.
(AdAware, SpyBot, Microsoft AntiSpyware, Norton, PandaSoftware), and
nothing turned up anything more than some tracker cookies.

So, I have no idea where to go from here. Here's another quick summary
of network programs that I have found work and don't work:

Work: AIM, IExplorer, Firefox, Netscape, Remote Desktop host
Don't work: MSN Messenger, Outlook, Remote Desktop client, FTP Server,
Symantec Live Update, and most other programs that require a connection
to the internet (like Windows Update).

Any help from anybody would be very appreciated. I am getting
frustrated with things.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben,

Most of the time, a "now it works, now it doesn't" scenario can be traced to a
problem with either an LSP / Winsock problem, or an MTU setting problem. But
neither is a magic wand, and if the problem isn't there, then those solutions
are useless. Unfortunately, neither solution is an instant fix either - both
you have to persistently retry. And there's no diagnostic tool to tell you,
before hand, that either will be useful. You just have to look at the symptoms,
and if the symptoms match, you try the solution, repeatedly, til it produces
results.

So if neither solution applies in your case, it would be useless for you to
continue. However, if either solution is applicable, you try once and give up,
and go on looking for other solutions, then you're wasting your time too.

Now looking at the third scenario considered - malware, I see that you listed
AA, SSD, MSAS, NAV, and PAV. All of those are good products, but neither is
100% effective in diagnosing all malware. And together, I wouldn't say you have
a 100% effective suite either. The ultimate, and essential, product is
HijackThis and expert advice.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/dealing-with-malware-adware-spyware.html#DownloadSoftware>

On the other hand, maybe the problem does lie elsewhere. So what's different
about the products that work - and those that don't? Do the ones that work,
work 100% of the time? Do the ones that don't work, not work 100% of the time?
They all have other differences too.
# Content of data transmitted and received.
# Protocol / port used to send and receive.
# Destination server.

From your problem description, I gather that you have 1 computer, and a router.
To isolate the problem, it would help a bit if you could test from more than 1
computer. Do you have any friends who would be likely to say carry a laptop
over to your network, and see if MSN Messenger, Outlook, Remote Desktop client,
FTP Server, etc work for them?

Short of that, can you install a packet monitor / sniffer like Ethereal, or a
firewall log like Wallwatcher, and see just what is getting to, and thru, the
router? What make and model router is it?
<http://www.wallwatcher.com/>

You call this your "new computer". Is there an old computer? Is it still
connected? Can you test from it? When did you get the new computer? Has it
ever worked?

Maybe something above will make you think. Or maybe the answers you can provide
will make me think. Just don't be expecting an instant solution - you might get
one, but don't get discouraged if you don't.