[Janele]

I switched from phone company broadband to cable dsl last week because I was being disconnected so often. With the cable dsl, I experienced trouble when surfing (using both Firefox and IE6) - messages would pop up saying web pages could not be found. In a few minutes, the connection to those same web sites would be fine. I called the cable company and they sent out a tech who ran some ping tests and said everything was fine, and he thought there was obviously something wrong with the computer. Even when I explained that the destop AND my laptop experienced the same symptoms and problems, he said he couldn't do anything because the problem was obviously on my end.

Then, he went into the hosts file and now I have these entries there:
hosts (C:\Windows\system 32\drivers\etc)
hosts (C:\i386)
hosts.incorrect (C:\documents and settings\recent)
hosts.new (C:\documents and settings\recent)
hosts.old (C:\documents and settings\recent)

Then he suggested that I uninstall Norton Antivirus because of compatability issues. I also have Adaware SE, Spybot and AVG. By the way, these scans are all clean, and it hasn't been that long since I ran hijack this and checked to make sure everything was ok. I uninstalled Norton, and bingo, now there is absolutely no connection to the internet (I am writing from my laptop on the same connection). I checked to make sure there were no norton leftovers in the dns and ?netb? settings and they only had what they were supposed to have.

How can I get my connection to the internet back (even if it was crappy!) first, then can I get some guidance on fixing the on and off connectivity issue??

TIA

[Advertisements]

Why would Norton have anything to do with your internet connection, i don't see why he made you delete it

[Supercalifragilistic]

Why would Norton have anything to do with your internet connection, i don't see why he made you delete it

[james_8970]

having two anti-virus programs like you discribed here could lead to many odd problems such as the oness you where discibing here. Even though Norton is a major ressorce hog, i think its better then AVG. However that being said Norton is a Pain in the bleep to get ride of! It basically has control of your computer due to the large amout of registry changes it makes. Norton can be a huge understaking to uninstall, (i plan to do it myself as soon as my parents allow me to) however as Supercalifragilistic has said it surpirses me that a tech would suggest uninstalling norton. There are many tools on the internet that will uninstall the program for you. However now that you have already uninstalled norton i'm not sure that it'll restore you internet, but its worth a try. http://www.geekstogo...are-t43188.html
if you ahve any questions regarding it, please post them there because i have very little expertise in this area.
thanx
James

P.S. Supercalifragilistic norton does alot of wierd stuff when removing it.

Edited by james_8970, 21 May 2006 - 01:01 PM.

[Janele]

Thanks for the advice. What I finally ended up doing was downloading Winsock Fix.exe, and it fixed the connectivity issue. I still can't surf with any reliability at all on either the desktop or laptop. The home page usually pops up fine, from there on out it is a crap shoot as to whether the site will open or I'll get the message - webpage cannot be found.....

Basically, the tech guy did not know what he was doing (imho). He was just eager to blame the connection issues on me. He did offer to take the computer back to his office and work on it for $40+ an hour til he found the problem.

Now that I have connections to the internet on both computers, I'd like to improve the reliability. I found an issue that involved the hosts file, and it recommended that I just rename the hosts file as hosts.bak (as in backup). I did that, but it hasn't made any difference.

I am beginning to think it is an issue with the Belkin Wireless Router (as the connection is better - but not perfect - when the modem is connected directly to the computer and the router is taken out of the equation. The only other idea I have is that something in the DNS addresses are screwy - if I type in the ISP number address, the computer will go there almost every time, the mistakes come when a www.address is spelled out.

Any ideas on these two issues, or do I need to visit a different forum here for either of these??

TIA - I appreciate the help.

[Johanna]

Not sure if this will help. but it can't hurt:
1. Click Start, click Run, type "ncpa.cpl" (without the quotation marks) and press Enter.

2. Right-click the connection with an overlaid yellow symbol and click Properties.

3. Click on the "General" tab, highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", and click Properties.

4. Click on the "Alternative Configuration" tab, select the "User configured" radio box.

5. Type 192.168.0.2 in the "IP Address" field.

6. Type 255.255.255.0 in the "Subnet mask" field.

If you have an XP disk, do a System File Check
Start > Run > cmd then type
sfc /scannow
(note the spacing)
sfc - system file checker, retrieves the correct version of the file from %Systemroot%\System32\Dllcache or the Windows installation source files, and then replaces the incorrect file.

If you want to see what was replaced, right click My Computer > manage, expand event viewer > system.

Reboot, and visit the MS update page for any updates you may need. Post back with progress or questions.

Johanna

[Janele]

I did the system file check and came up with one consistant error (although I don't know what it means):

1.Details
Product: Windows Operating System
Event ID: 1002
Source: Dhcp
Version: 5.0
Symbolic Name: EVENT_NACK_LEASE
Message: The IP address lease %1 for the Network Card with network address %2 has been denied by the DHCP server %3 (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message).

Explanation
The DHCP Server service did not extend the lease on your computer's IP address, so your computer temporarily lost its connection with the network.

This could be caused by a scope change. For example, when a roaming laptop moves from one network to another, its IP address lease might need renewal. When the DHCP Client service tries to renew the address, that request might go to a different server that will not extend the lease either because it does not know about this address lease or because it has already issued the address lease to another client.

This also happens when two DHCP servers are configured to give out addresses in the same IP address range.

User Action
No user action is required. The DHCP Client service will continue trying to obtain a working IP address until it succeeds, and DHCP establishes the network connection on its own.



Could something here be at the root of my problem?

[Johanna]

I'm going to move this to Networking because the experts there will tell you how to troubleshoot the hardware, and if it checks out okay, they will tell you what to say to the ISP. Windows seems to be operating normally.

Johanna

[dsenette]

on one of the computer's do start > run > cmd > ipconfig /all and post the results

that dhcp nack message worries me...and i would assume that you would see that on both the LT and DT...

the way dhcp works is that your computer sends out a broadcast to the designated dhcp server (in your case that would be your router) that basically says "hey...could i have an ip address?" then the dhcp server shoots back one of two messages "yes. you can have this ip address" or "no..you cannot have an ip address ask someone else"....you're getting the second message from your router...which could mean that the router is indeed the issue (though....you state that you're having the same issue without the router in the mix)...

[Janele]

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Floyd
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connect
on
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-20-63-7C-AA
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, May 22, 2006 6:06:47 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 18, 2038 9:14:07 PM

[Janele]

I just wanted to thank you both again (sometimes that gets lost in the shufffle, and I didn't want to let it get by).

The problem is definitely worse when with the router in the mix, but I have the same problem to a lesser degree with a straight connection to the modem. My brother in law signed up with the same local cable company a week before we did, and he is having the same issues. Clearing the cache seems to work temporarily, but that isn't a long term fix at all. Thanks again!

[dsenette]

right click on my network places > choose properties > right click on the network connection > choose properties > click tcp/ip and press the properties button

now click the button that says "use this ip address" and enter the info bellow
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

under use the following dns servers put this info in.
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1


is surfing better?

[Janele]

It seemed to work pretty good for a couple minutes, then errors began cropping up on the pages, and now I am back to www..... not found.

[dsenette]

change all the stuff i just had you change back to where it was (i.e. automatic detection)....do you by chance have access to another router for testing?

[Janele]

All switched back, and unfortunately, no, I don't have access to another router.

[dsenette]

there's an issue somewhere in the chain here...i'm gonna point my finger at DHCP for sure given the dhcp NACK errors you recieved...i'll do some research there (this would be easier to test with a second router)...i'd also point my finger at a DNS issue...either with your ISP's DNS server or the dns records in the router...once again...easier to test with a second router


Test your Network
1. Goto Start > Run > type: NETSH DIAG GUI - press 'OK'. A Command Prompt window will open temporarily; don't touch it, it will disappear in a moment.
2. A Microsoft Help and Support window will then open; select the option 'Scan your system'.
3. Wait for the scan to finish and then scroll down to the heading 'Modems and Network Adapters'. Look at 'Network Adapters' (don't expand it yet). Beside your connection information, you should see a green 'PASSED'; if you do not (if you see a red 'FAILED') then expand 'Network Adapters', scroll down the list until you see the heading with the 'FAILED', expand that option and copy and paste the results here.
In the NETSH DIAG GUI, you should be looking for any red 'FAILED', however the key one is Network Adapters for you. If you see any other red FAILED, expand the component and copy the results.