Gotta problem...not sure where

[Taffycat]

I am having what I think might either be a connection, or possibly browser problem, but I'm not sure how to decide which it is, so consequently, wasn't too sure where I should post this either.... so apologies in advance, if you consider this to be the wrong area

The symptoms are a bit intermittent, and they are happening on both XP and Vista. I begin to surf normally, but then find that pages are taking minutes to load, instead of seconds. There are frequent "Time Outs" in FF and "The Connection has been reset" messages, also "Server not found." The equivalent is also happening in IE7 too.

At first I thought that I'd lost my connection (dial up, as you might recall) but then Outlook Express is able to collect mail. However, having said that, it too has been faltering and complains that it either "cannot find server" or else it just dithers on the "authorizing" screen for ages and ages, regardless of whether there is mail or not. It also comes up with messages about Proxy Servers (I'm sorry but I didn't note the exact wording last time, due to being so cross with it.)

The ISP did some maintenance the night before last - they emailed to give warning that they would be performing maintenance on one of their leased line routers in IFL1 Manchester.... however, I've no idea whether this would actually have any impact upon my connection.

I have done the usual things, such as making sure that the browser caches are empty, but it doesn't seem to help very much. I don't know whether it is co-incidence or not... but I find the problem worse with some websites. Sainsbury's was absolutely fine, but when I am here, I have to keep closing down the browser and/or reconnecting just to get it going again. Also, I can use programmes such as Yahoo Messenger, without problems. I chatted with a friend last night and Yahoo logged me out just once, but promptly logged me back in again - otherwise it was fine for a couple of hours chat.

So please can any of you Sherlocks glean any clues from my above ramblings, do you think...? Thank you for reading .... now am I going to be able to post it I wonder........

 

[muckshifter]

The ISP did some maintenance the night before last - they emailed to give warning that they would be performing maintenance on one of their leased line routers in IFL1 Manchester.... however, I've no idea whether this would actually have any impact upon my connection.

There's the nail right there.


As I was reading your explanation of what was going wrong, I was saying to myself, "this is an ISP problem", then I read the above ...

IFL1 Manchester is your ISPs Proxy server, they may have more, usually they can reroute you, but you may need to "change the Proxy server" yourself ... leave it for now.

One reason for the email to be functioning better is, it will be on a different server, but probably routing through the same Proxy as your Internet. Hence the spasmodic interference.

There are Servers and then there are Servers ... we share, I think, our server, get around 2000 people on and I experience a slowdown, get any more and I'll get the same as you, page cannot be displayed ... Ian is looking into that though.

Phone your ISP and ask, although they may not admit it, if they are still having 'maintenance' problems. Report your problem to them anyway, it still looks like an ISP problem to me.

 

[Taffycat]

Ah thank you Sherlock..ooops, I mean Mucks I was hesitant about getting in touch with the ISP without checking, because in the past, similar events have sometimes turned out to be down to BT rather than Clara.net, I also forgot to mention that we are on a contention ratio of 5:1 here, so normally, we don't get too much bother.

I'm just downloading some updates, so might email them as I can't use the phone for a while (yes I know... broadband - that is ADSL is sorely needed here )

Thank you again for your help - always appreciated

 

[Taffycat]

Sorry to be rather slow with an "update" but it has been a tad chaotic here over the past couple of days, so I've not had much time. However, when I have been able to get online... the bloomin' problem is still occurring. Rats!

I remembered that my ISP has quite an extensive technical help section, so I have tried out the various steps that they recommended, just to save a bit of time. So I have used the command prompt to ping them, cleared cookies/cache/history, etc., - again - in the browsers. I have also reset the TCP/IP stack (via "netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt")

Next, following their suggestion that the connection might have become currupted, I deleted and reinstalled it.

Finally, I saw Mucks' other thread regarding how to keep XP going for the next few years, and after clicking on the link, I discovered an application for optimising one's internet connection. "TCPOptimizer" from Speed Guide Inc., so I have downloaded and used it - on the XP-Pro PC only. I should have said earlier, that I have only tweaked the XP PC, mainly because I discovered that Vista has its very own optimizer, which apparently just gets on with it automatically(?) Certainly, I have found that Vista has largely got over the problems somehow..... The Optimizer is mainly for Broadband users, but it said that dial-ups could also benefit - and I've not set it to anything silly, but have stuck to what is appropriate to 56K - if you see what I mean

Anyway, the connection seems to be very speedy, when it functions, but it "peters out." For example, when I was uploading/downloading WUs yesterday, it took me about an hour! I needed to keep re-connecting in order to kick-start it - despite the fact that the connection was still "live." So I spent a while watching the figures in BOINC - specifically the Speed column. It began at 4.44 kbps and within just a few minutes had diminished to 0.02 ... then 0.0 (I know that the speeds will fluctuate anyway, but in this instance, they just didn't get higher again.) Also, I don't know whether it is relevant... but over the past few days, BOINC has begun to show "Connected to localhost (X.XX.X)" (the x's representing numbers... but as I don't know if they are personally identifiable, I wasn't sure if I should post them on the open forum... is that paranoia? ) It always used to say "Connected to the Internet"

I'm beginning to wonder whether it has something to do with the PC now... particularly when Vista now seems to be okay. Sorry this is more of a blog than a question.. but I wondered whether there is anything else that I might check?

I have emailed the ISP, but didn't do that until last night - I was going to do it before, but as I said, I thought I should try out their suggestions first, just to get them out of the way. Then, as I mentioned, a few other things cropped-up, so I became a bit side-tracked. But, as I keep saying, in view of the Vista "improvement" I can't help wondering whether I am missing something on the other PC?

If you've managed to read this far ..... you deserve a reward!! Thank you

TC

 

[muckshifter]

Hmmm ... me, I would be on the phone to my ISP asking 'em to fix it.


Do you undestand MTU, no? nor do I, so I won't be using any "optimizer" on my PCs ... yes, you can get a little more out of broadband, because, if your sensable, you are using Ethernet ... I'm afraid Internet Protocal is a little beyond my comprehension.

Nearly every source of information I've read about these fixes conflicts with every other report I've read about what does what.

With Windows, the MTU is set to 1500, but dialup modem servers send data in 576 bit chunks.

Sometimes tweaking these settings will make the connection seem much faster, sometimes it won't change anything, and sometimes it hoses the registry and/or TCP/IP and requires a re-install. I recommend you Backup the registry before making any changes to it ever.

 

[Taffycat]

Must confess that I emailed the ISP in the hope of getting written instructions... I know, cheating a bit

That optimizer backs-up before making changes ... er, as for MTU ... I know that it stands for Maximum Transmission Unit but other than that I thought it was more for shared internet connections (which I don't have)... but I take your point Mucks, not always wise to fiddle without knowing what's what.

Thanks for taking a look though