Can anyone recommend a newsgroup to get help with networking problems in Windows 8? Most of my Internet access seems to have died last night. I don't have an idea of what caused it. I can ping some URLs, but not all. I can only access google.com from Chrome and nothing from FF or IE. Eudora email is not working and T-bird newsgroup access is hit and miss.
I'm dug around on the Internet all day using a netbook which is a PITA, but works. I've checked a number of possible causes and none seem to be the ticket. It's strange that the symptoms seem to ebb and flow a bit.
I am subscribed to a few networking groups, but they are all rather inactive.
but none of the groups have much traffic these days.
It sounds like you've somehow lost DNS services.
Did you check the TCP configuration to see if the DNS servers are either correct or automatically assigned?
Can you resolve addresses with nslookup?
Have you flushed the DNS cache? "ipconfig /flushdns" or restart the DNS Client service. Actually the DNS Client is not needed - it only caches resolved addresses, so you could try turning it off entirely and see if that changes anything.
Can you navigate using raw IP addresses? Most of the major sites now require clients to provide name URIs and don't respond to IP addresses alone, but you can try
https://157.56.148.19/ msdn.microsoft.com
You should get a certificate warning. If you accept the certificate, you will reach an "invalid request" page , but that page has links to the MSDN home page, developer center, etc. ... see if those work.
Did you check for a "hosts" file hijack? The hosts file is in \system32\drivers\etc. Unless you deliberately added to or replaced it, the only entries in the file should be
127.0.0.1 localhost ::1 localhost #[IPv6]
Also check "lmhosts.sam" if it exists. There should be no entries in that file (just instructions).
"netsh" generally is the way to explore your network settings.
netsh /? for instructions.
You can try resetting the network stack:
netsh int ip reset netsh winsock reset
If none of this works, then I'm out. Sorry. George
I didn't keep a close record of what I could ping and when, but my email and newsgroup access would on occasion return.
Didn't try that.
No. I could nslookup some URLs. I could ping some IPs. But the only web sites I could reach at all were some.google.com (www and groups, not others like mail) and oddly enough youtube.com. But I couldn't see any of the video which must come from a different server than the web pages. Using IP addresses didn't matter.
Nothing there except the above.
Didn't know about that one.
One post I found talked about MTU settings and I verified my setting was ok using ping with a specific packet size.
Did that many times. I have a .bat file which runs in a privileged command window for that. It usually works right away, but some instructions say to reboot after.
I was pretty much shotgunning without getting too crazy with it. The last thing I tried was uninstalling the adapter hardware and reinstalling it. That didn't work either until I rebooted the next morning. :)
Who's your provider? And what does "ipconfig /all" show for the DNS server(s)?
Have you checked the settings in your router also?
IIRC, Google owns Youtube, so weirdly that might make some sense.
I don't understand, though, why you aren't able to navigate with addresses - that should always work. If your computer is working properly (a big IF I know), the only reason might be that your address
- or a subnet that you are a part of - has been blacklisted as a source of spamming or DDOS attacks.
If you are willing to reveal your IP address, I'm happy to check for you whether you've been blacklisted. My email is correct so you can send it to me privately if you want (and if you can).
You also can try http://166.62.40.238 ...
formatting link
This is a site that I am directly involved with. We do use name URIs for restricted access areas, but I know for certain that the default page is accessible using just IP address.
The site is still in development and only partly operational. You won't be able to do much of anything, but you should be able to reach the home page.
AFAIK, the MTU settings matter only if you're tunneling IP over DSL.
But that begs the question of whether your modem and router are ok. You might try doing a hardware reset on the router and reflashing to the latest software. (You do keep a local copy don't you? 8-))
If the modem is separate, cycle the power. There are many cases of rented modems being left open to remote administration. Unfortunately there's generally nothing the user can do about that except to take it up with the internet provider.
There also have been several recent articles about many Linux-based routers being vulnerable to hacking regardless of their security settings. The problem is in the NetUSB drivers and affects routers which have USB ports and built-in "personal cloud" capabilities. It has already been confirmed that certain devices from D-Link, Netgear, TP-Link, Trendnet and ZyXEL are affected. I'd give you links to the articles but you probably can't get to them anyway. 8-(
That is a bit vague. I looked at the router, but nothing had changed that I could tell, but that doesn't include a lot.
Yeah, I know.
Or the IP stack was "messed up" maybe? It is fixed now and all is well again after uninstalling and reinstalling the adapters and rebooting.
Yes, the IP worked, but everything is working now.
Who said anything about DSL? I'm on a wireless link. That's the WISP in iWisp.
It doesn't look like a problem with the router since it only affected one PC and not the netbook.
I am having some performance issues with the Internet and wrote to my provider... guy. I described my problems and asked if there was anything he could do about them and basically he said, "yes". No comment about when... just that there were some things he could do. lol It's a small outfit and stuff happens.
Not familiar with iWisp, but I am on Comcast myself.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Your computer is showing your router as its DNS source. This usually is correct.
The router will show the addresses of the DNS servers it is using.
Yes. I said above "if your computer is working properly".
I'm glad it's working now. 8-)
You said you checked the MTU. In almost all circumstances, MTU is only a performance issue - but with DSL it is an operational issue: on some DSL systems IP traffic is tunneled through the PPPoE protocol and the IP MTU must be reduced for that to work.
Almost no one nowadays would think to reduce MTU so low that normal operations are affected. Windows requires ~1040 bytes for NetBios to work [NetBios is used for remote drive mapping and a handful of other things]. I did not even consider the possibility that you tried that.
I'm not knocking your provider - I said only that there have been problems with rented modems being left exposed to hackers by the internet providers. Just because a modem or router has remote administration enabled does _not_ mean it is particularly vulnerable [if the passwords are strong enough], but it's one more possibility when things aren't working.
And modems and routers just go nuts on occasion. A lot of SOHO equipment is subject to overheating and might do anything when it gets too hot.
Even if there's no overheating, weird shit can happen. I have 2 WiFi routers at opposite ends of my home (big open space prevents one in the middle) on channels 1 and 11 respectively. One day I found them playing "see-saw", alternately increasing and decreasing transmit power because they apparently were seeing each other as interference. WTF ??? Channels 1 and 11 don't overlap ... there shouldn't be any possibility of interference. Rebooting both of them fixed the problem, but I don't know how it started in the first place.
My current routers have mostly behaved themselves, but in the past I had a router that twice had to be reset and reflashed because it simply stopped working. Creeping crud in the software.
Small outfit serving a limited rural market. Very rural. There is another, similar business which does not have high towers. Their service agreement is like the cell companies and they want to be paid for installation even if the service I would get is poor. Limited monthly data just like you get on your cell phone too. So glad I never signed up with them. I don't think I would have been remotely happy.
That would be the modem. I recall looking at that the other day.
I found one reference about having an MTU that was too low would prevent packets from being sent at all. I didn't notice that was specific to DSL. I measured it and it was fine, so I didn't change anything. Odd that you can set the MTU, but you can't ask what it is currently set to. At least I couldn't find info on that. Word was to ping with specific packet sizes until it crapped out. That gives you the MTU size minus some overhead. Mine crapped out exactly where they said it would.
I think the number was 1500
When my Internet gets funky, cycling power on both the modem and router is SOP. My provider even asked me if I had done that.
I am using an old router and might spring for a new one. A friend got a new router which solved her access problems. I would log on there and an hour later my speeds would go to dialup rates until I rebooted it.
That's true but the absolute minimum MTU as defined by the standard is ridiculous: 68 bytes.
The practical minimum is 1100 on Windows if you need NetBios/NetBEUI functions. If you need only TCP/IP, you can reduce the MTU to 552, which is, I think, the lowest you can actually set.
But typically there is no need to deliberately reduce MTU unless there are IP tunneling connections. (PPPoE is such a connection).
There is a dynamic process called "MTU discovery" which adjusts the MTU at runtime to match the actual connections that are in use. MTU discovery does not understand IP tunneling so it sometimes needs help.
Basically once you are past your modem, all the IP packets are being tunneled through some other protocol. The key is that some of these tunneling protocols work transparently and some don't.
Many (but not all) DSL systems tunnel IP packets through PPPoE. The PPPoE protocol takes 8 bytes of the packet for its own use, so the maximum IP packet that be sent through PPPoE is 1492.
netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces netsh interface ipv6 show subinterfaces
netsh has lots of nooks and crannies to hold the melted butter.
formatting link
1500 is the default for Ethernet and its WiFi counterpart. Other types of media have different defaults.
This problem is back after making the mistake of connecting to my phone via bluetooth. I can reach google groups this time, but only a couple of othe r web sites. Oddly the sites I can reach diminish. I was reaching yahoo.c om, but not now. I was reaching my router and modem, but not now.
I've done all the stuff I tried last time when I got it working and can't s eem to find the right combination. reset some stuff, uninstall other stuff , reboot, twirl three times holding the mouse between my knees... Still all three browsers are mostly if not totally out. The sites I can reach are d ifferent with different browsers. I can reach google groups with chrome bu t not firefox. Firefox will reach digikey, or so it seems. It won't go pa st the main page, so maybe that is a cached copy or something.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.