Strange Networking Problem
A very curious problem. I've recently upgraded to Windows 7. Install went fine, everything works great. I leave my machine on overnight.... various things run like virus scanner, defrag, utorrent, etc. When I use the machine in the morning, I cannot browse. However, utorrent is still working happily... in my cmd window I can ping machines on my own network and can ping machines on the internet (specifically, I can see DNS is working; for instance, if I ping Yahoo I can see pings going out to a Yahoo IP address). But cannot use http to get to a site. Skype also works no problem, just no http. I've tried setting to a static IP address on my machine but that didn't help. I upgraded firmware on my NIC and on my router. No change. Note that this only happens if I leave the machine for several hours... an hour or two away and everything remains fine. I've disabled the NIC being powered down to save power. When I restart everything is fine... but I don't want to restart every day (particularly troublesome for me as I have to power down an external USB Drive that always locks up the boot process). What am I running: OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600 NIC: D-Link DFE-530TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter (rev.C) Router: Linksys WRT-600N I've checked and the NIC is Windows 7 compliant... according to DLINK, anyway. Thoughts? something with my router maybe? Replace the NIC?
September 26th, 2010 1:41pm

TBH, it really does sound like DNS. Your DNS test results might be flawed if you're resolving an address which already exists in the machine's DNS cache. To verify this, run "ipconfig /flushdns" and then try the name resolution test - I'd be interested to see if it still works.
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September 26th, 2010 6:33pm

Ok. Happened after four hours on screensaver. I tried the DNS flush, ping still worked and seemed to resolve IPs such as www.yahoo.com and www.google.com. Should have mentioned that I can't even browse to a local web page (such as served by my router or by my WiFi printer) using an IP address. Anything else?
September 26th, 2010 11:29pm

Hello, Some antivirus software will not let you surf the Web unless they are up to date. Check IE under properties and look in the proxy settings to see if the proxy is checked. If so, uncheck it and see if you can surf afterwards. Some AV's act as a proxy for browsers and will deny you access to the Internet. Internet Options/LAN Settings/ Proxy Server (Uncheck Proxy Server) Another thisn you can try is to reset your IE settings to factory default from the advanced tab in Internet Options. This will purge IE of all the lame, badly programmed plug ins that may cause problems. If you can ping IP addresses and Domain Names outside your local network, the the issue is likely related to the Browser itself.Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site
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September 26th, 2010 11:53pm

I agree that it might be the auto proxy setting either failing or timing out in some way - a wierd problem, but not unheard of. To check whether it's a browser problem or a deeper http stack issue, try to TELNET to a known IP address on port 80. If it connects (or at least, you don't get a connection timeout error) then it's almost certainly something to do with the browser.
September 27th, 2010 4:18am

Interesting ideas, thanks guys. Note that I get the same behaviour on several browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox)... but I will try the TELNET and the proxy checking and the IE reset next time it occurs (probably tomorrow AM). Just to be sure I ran a deep malware scan but that didn't show up much other than some Ad programs (and one Trojan buried in a system program). Not sure if it's related, but I did get a Windows Stop Error (Blue Sceen of Death) last night... those things still freak me out. Went by too quickly to see where the problem was (i've disabled automatic restart for next time), but wondering if some component in my system is failing that is causing this http problem. Thanks again!
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September 27th, 2010 1:00pm

Check the Event viewer for any entries related to the problem
September 28th, 2010 4:48pm

Have you tries to run the PC without the Linksys router by bypassing it, connecting the modem directly to your machine? it could be the router issue... If it is the routerthen reset it, andreconfigure the router to your settings
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September 28th, 2010 5:17pm

Yes, considered bypassing the router (although I have already hard reset it). Actually last night went by without an incident -- was able to browse immediately this morning. Only thing I can think of is I updated ALL drivers I could yesterday afternoon: chipset, IDE/ATA, etc (but not NIC card, notably). Fingers crossed this somehow dealt with the issue. Only odd thing was today, in the middle of working, DNS suddenly stopped working. I had set fixed DNS when I had fixed my IP a couple days back. Put everything (IP and DNS) back to auto and went back to normal. Thanks again to everyone for suggestions. Waiting and Watching.
September 28th, 2010 6:28pm

There's an outside chance it could be some funkiness with the NIC driver. Interesting that that was the one driver you didn't update. Might be worth doing, and then you'll have the opportunity to roll it back if it all goes pear-shaped.
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September 28th, 2010 7:44pm

Hello, Some antivirus software will not let you surf the Web unless they are up to date. ... Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site Please identify such antivirus software, so I can be sure to avoid it at all costs.
October 1st, 2010 12:02pm

It's part of the design. Policy based. Like NPS. The idea is that if you are not fully updated or patched, you should not be out surfing around an untrusted network (WAN). Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site
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October 2nd, 2010 1:28pm

On Fri, 1 Oct 2010 15:59:46 +0000, fanfarenj wrote: Hello, Some antivirus software will not let you surf the Web unless they are up to date. ... -- Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS <http://www.falconits.com/> Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase <http://www.falconits.net> Sharepoint Site Please identify such antivirus software, so I can be sure to avoid it at all costs. I'd like to see such software identified too. As far as I know, such anti-virus software does not exist. Ken Blake
October 2nd, 2010 3:38pm

Hello, AV programs can integrate with Network Policy servers to isolate clients into specific zones, i.e. a zone that only allows access to update sites or directs a client to AV update server if the client is in a depracated state. Please review this link. It explains how AV Programs (Usually not the Standalone but the AV security suites) have firewalls that can allow/disallow surfing base on rules. I don't have a lot of experience with them because these types of programs are usually bundled with consumer grade systems and personally I think that in their quest to overprotect they actually create problems. They can block Internet access, acces to applications, service and other. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls Cheers Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site
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October 2nd, 2010 8:42pm

Hello MarcoPolo, Please review this post: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=2604242#2604242 It's the same problem you have, after the computer was idle for a few hours, no Internet. In this person's case, his Zone Alarm was blocking svchost.exe CheersMiguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site
October 3rd, 2010 10:17am

OK Miguel. You learn something every day. Thanks!
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October 4th, 2010 11:39pm

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