IE 6 on XP

[CanadianTek]

Hello Fellow Techies.. Happy Festive Season to ALL :S

I have a friend...3 systems on a linksys router.. over cable high speed...

ALL HAVE HAD LATEST SPYBOT AND Ad-aware RUN ON THEM .. ALL CLEAN...

system 1 - win xp.. patched to sp2. runs spy free..recent convert from Norton's to AVG7(free)..VIRUS FREE = great system (recently added Marine Aquarium 2 screen saver - no problems, always boots.. never has connectivity issues is NOT running Zone Alarm (Pentium 4@3GHz, 512 Meg of Ram, (448 used by system, 64 meg used by video, 40gigs free on an 80 gig hd drive)

system 2 - with win 2000 patched to sp2.. runs spy free, virus free has spyware guard and zone alarm and AVG 7 - boots fine, connects to the net fine - is actually a laptop with a xircom pcmcia nic - can stay on.. 2, 3, 4 days straight, pulls outta hibernation or sleep mode and bingo.. still on the net, still surfs.. still connects.. no problem (pentium 3 @650 Ghz 4 gig hd space free, 256 megs of ram)

System 3 - with win xp patched to sp2 - was running virtually spy free.. IS virus free under the watchful eye of AVG7 - is firewalled with zone alarm, is also running spybot s and d v 1.3.1.tx - cleanly.. Ad-aware SE 1.05 +R23 (just like the other 2 systems) PLUS bazooka, spyware blaster and spyware guard (spyware guard just added, 2 months back.. maybe 2.5 and bazooka just run for the first time this week) AND on Dec 2, also had Marine Aquarium 2 added as a screen saver..

..... system 3 was actiing a little "slow" even though, it is an AMD 1700 (1.4Ghz) 20 gigs free space on a 34 gig hd drive, 256 Meg ram

BUT the real tip off was.. if the system was fired up for say.. 2 hours.. but not in use, 90 percent of the time.. when you sat back down to the system.. you could msn chat.. but NOT pull up the internet explorer..

immediate checks on the other 2 systems show that they can at that moment get to the net and get fresh material .. time stamped from say.. Cnn.com.. so we know it is not the router having a brain fart..

I thought it might have been the NIC (its integrated to the mobo.. on this HP tower) .. might not have been coming out of "sleep" mode, so i turned APM off.. rebooted to make sure it took effect.. and after a couple hours .. still ie would not let us surf

I went into apm and turned hibernation off.. = no effect -> 2 or 3 hours later when i checked back on the system.. ie again would not allow us to go to the web to surf (occassionally .. would not let us msn chat either)

i then fired into the bios and made sure the wake on lan.. feature was enabled.. or disabled.. - in either mode.. it made no difference.. 3 or 4 hours later after sitting unused.. ie would not let you surf..

Here's the kicker.. if you do a start.. shutdown.. RESTART...

in 3 out of 4 cases.. the NIC still would not let you connect to the net..

YET ... in 4 out of 4 cases.. if you do a start.. shutdown.. shutdown

then physically turn the system back on .. say after anywhere from a 1 minute to 10 minute pause.. with power completely off..

BOOOOM ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS able to connect to the net


Sooo my friend - installed free version of Webroot's spysweeper.. and found 36 items and 80 traces.. 1 of which was TurboTax 2002 by Cdilla (u.s. income tax program.. that requires some kinda hook into the o/s) - so we added it to the "allow" list.. cleaned everything else..

waited 2 or 3 hours.. froze.. no ie surfing, msn fine, other desktop apps fine

did a restart.. still no ie surfing - full shutdown.. and fresh boot from no power all fine

did a run with registry mechanic.. - fixed a handful of lost links..nothing too critical,
rebooted system..

waited 2 or 3 hours.. boomph.. ie again would not surf..

any thoughts..?

[Limp]

Have you checked for IRQ conflicts. Your NIC could be sharing the same IRQ as your video card, sound card, ect. Also do you have a NIC card that you could throw in the PC to see if it works?

Merry Xmas to you too.

[CanadianTek]

Hello Limp..

Thanx for giving this a read..

yes, as a matter of fact i do have a spare dlink 530 tx lying about here.. so i will pop that in and give it a try....


in the interim..

i had a buddy tell me to "rebuild" the tcp/ip stack on that xp box

by issuing the following command.. at the start\run\cmd prompt

netsh interface ip reset resetlog.txt

and then reboot the system...

did


as soon as i connected.. xp sp2 came up and said that i have low connectivity.. i was told this happens so i hit properties.. turned on the "show connectoid" on the system tray.. and removed the check mark next to the .. "notify during periods of low connectivity" option.. (something like that.. new feature that came as part of sp2 for xp.. more of an annoyance then anything else)

anyway.. as soon as the system finished booting..

ie would keep asking... "Work offline"

i would say Try again..

it would not go out.. to the net

so i tried running mozilla firefox.. it too said.. could not find www.google.com

soooo

obviously the NETSH command was not a good one to run..

my buddy praises it and says its the best way of clearing corruption ouf of the stack.. should it be present.. he is now a little be-fuddled as to why the system didnt connect to the net.. as that command usually helps fix ip connectivity issues..

....im thinking maybe i need to reset the router now too.. ? ..

and or take another peak at the network properties.. as im not sure if the netsh command also reets the ip i had manually assigned to the system (2 or 3 months back) - it has always worked.. now.. NOT at all :S

wanted to send this message back.. just in case.. resetting the router sets off a chain reaction of unrecoverable events

but otherwise as we speak / type right now.. system 1 and 2 are still able to connect to the net....

thanx, will keep you posted..

if i get the integrated nic working..back to where it was.. (slow and unreliable) - then i may try that new dlink 530tx.. and see if it starts behaving properly from this point on ..?

thx,

(if you have any other ideas.. feed back .. anyone.. do drop me a line.. here.. thanx

[CanadianTek]

.... put the ip, gateway and dns back in manually..

was able to reconnect to the net....


Have tested it twice now in past 4 hours.. and STILL able to connect...

(holds breath, crosses fingers)


may have been... and hopefully was.. only a corruption somewhere in the tcp/ip stack?

will update in a few more hours...

[CanadianTek]

[CanadianTek]

update..

after very intermittent failure by changing the pinched cable.. (ie: i plugged my laptop into it and experienced NO problems.. )

I put a new dlink 530tx into the system.. fully configured and tested over a 2 hour period..

left it alone for 4 hours.. ok... let it alone for 3 more.. fine, left it again for 4 more......hours.. dead, APPs work, msn chat works, yahoo, all fine, as soon as you try to get into msn chat.. nothing..

so we know it is not the NIC
a corrupt tcp/ip stack, (reset with the netshc command)
Not the router port we were logged into..
Not the cable between pc and router

have submitted this problem over in the HJT side

[icecube]