Can't receive Net, but see traffic, and can VOIP

[zofficedepot]

Suddenly I became unable to receive anything at home over the net. In
the past I've corrected this either with repowering or shutting down
XP - home (as opposed to my typical hibernation). But not this time :
( I'm a heavy PC user and applications programmer, but a real IP and
connectivity moron, so bear with me. And I know this is long, but I'm
trying to get you everything relevant.

I have Time-Warner cable (a.k.a. Road Runner) configured in this order
wall
Cable Modem
Linksys router (non wireless)
PC with XP
Sygate Personal Firewall and Windows (XP) firewall
Internet Explorer 6

Vonage supplied the router. I use VOIP. This is the only thing that
works! No web. No Messenger. No anything else that uses the Net.

I've tried overnight powerdowns, even plug away from wall; full XP
shutdowns; clicking on "automatically detect settings" under LAN
settings, and back off again; bypassed the router; while bypassing
tried the other ethernet cable instead; disabled both firewalls.

WHAT I SUSPECT TELLS THE MOST:

Checking the Sygate traffic log, almost 100% of the trickle of traffic
shows 192.168.15.100 (or .255). It SHOULD show things like the Google
IP and everywhere else I try to browse. But there's not even an
ATTEMPT to connect to Google shown. (And if some firewall rule was
blocking, that should have shown on the log.)

The only remote host address among dozens of 192.168.15.xxx log
entries is 10.8.0.1. However, sadly, I can't even backtrace that with
Sygate Firewall, 'cuz I can't get to the Net

Watching the firewall's activity graph, while clicking "hide broadcast
traffic," I see blips from my webmail checker - but only outgoing, and
zero bytes incoming. And when Roadrunner support tried remote
diagnosis, I could see both incoming AND outgoing blips.

ROADRUNNER support says I have a bad NIC card. Is this all I can try?!
Sounds bogus to me. What about the blips on the Firewall graph?

Finally, if I uncheck "hide broadcast traffic" I can see continuous
movement on the activity graph. Tiny, but something. This is like
"noise" that just buzzes along, regardless of whether I have an
application attempting traffic.

What can I try now?

 

[John Wunderlich]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Suddenly I became unable to receive anything at home over the net.
In the past I've corrected this either with repowering or shutting
down XP - home (as opposed to my typical hibernation). But not
this time : ( I'm a heavy PC user and applications programmer,
but a real IP and connectivity moron, so bear with me. And I know
this is long, but I'm trying to get you everything relevant.

I have Time-Warner cable (a.k.a. Road Runner) configured in this
order wall
Cable Modem
Linksys router (non wireless)
PC with XP
Sygate Personal Firewall and Windows (XP) firewall
Internet Explorer 6

Vonage supplied the router. I use VOIP. This is the only thing
that works! No web. No Messenger. No anything else that uses the
Net.

I've tried overnight powerdowns, even plug away from wall; full XP
shutdowns; clicking on "automatically detect settings" under LAN
settings, and back off again; bypassed the router; while bypassing
tried the other ethernet cable instead; disabled both firewalls.

WHAT I SUSPECT TELLS THE MOST:

Checking the Sygate traffic log, almost 100% of the trickle of
traffic shows 192.168.15.100 (or .255). It SHOULD show things like
the Google IP and everywhere else I try to browse. But there's not
even an ATTEMPT to connect to Google shown. (And if some firewall
rule was blocking, that should have shown on the log.)

The only remote host address among dozens of 192.168.15.xxx log
entries is 10.8.0.1. However, sadly, I can't even backtrace that
with Sygate Firewall, 'cuz I can't get to the Net

Watching the firewall's activity graph, while clicking "hide
broadcast traffic," I see blips from my webmail checker - but only
outgoing, and zero bytes incoming. And when Roadrunner support
tried remote diagnosis, I could see both incoming AND outgoing
blips.

ROADRUNNER support says I have a bad NIC card. Is this all I can
try?! Sounds bogus to me. What about the blips on the Firewall
graph?

Finally, if I uncheck "hide broadcast traffic" I can see
continuous movement on the activity graph. Tiny, but something.
This is like "noise" that just buzzes along, regardless of whether
I have an application attempting traffic.

What can I try now?

It's my bet that something's screwed up with your firewall, but if I
were you, my next step would be to connect your computer directly to
the modem and get a Live-Linux CD and boot your machine from this CD.
This will give you a full-up pristine operating system running your
existing hardware. If it works, then it's a good bet you have a
Windows or local firewall problem and you hardware is OK.

"Knoppix" (Live Linux CD)
<http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html>

HTH,
John

 

[zofficedepot]

Suddenly I became unable to receive anything at home over the net.
In the past I've corrected this either with repowering or shutting
down XP - home (as opposed to my typical hibernation). But not
this time : ( I'm a heavy PC user and applications programmer,
but a real IP and connectivity moron, so bear with me. And I know
this is long, but I'm trying to get you everything relevant.

I have Time-Warner cable (a.k.a. Road Runner) configured in this
order wall
Cable Modem
Linksys router (non wireless)
PC with XP
Sygate Personal Firewall and Windows (XP) firewall
Internet Explorer 6

Vonage supplied the router. I use VOIP. This is the only thing
that works! No web. No Messenger. No anything else that uses the
Net.
[snip]

It's my bet that something's screwed up with your firewall, but if I
were you, my next step would be to connect your computer directly to
the modem and get a Live-Linux CD and boot your machine from this CD.
This will give you a full-up pristine operating system running your
existing hardware. If it works, then it's a good bet you have a
Windows or local firewall problem and you hardware is OK.

Thanks for your concern and advice. It turned out to be hardware. A
new NIC solved it. Whoda thunkit?!