Connectivity issues

[vsp]

Connectivity fun:

1) My Verizon DSL connection is annoying me a bit. At intervals, I'll attempt to open up a new link in IE and my connection will freeze for about 15-20 seconds... then the new pages will load as nothing had happened. It's not all the time -- maybe once every fifteen-to-twenty minutes. During this time, the rest of the system is fine -- I can use other applications, so it's not a system lockup.

When doing things like BitTorrent, file downloads, etc., I haven't noticed any problems of this nature. It's only when browsing. (I am trying to replicate the problem in Firebird.)

If I leave my DSL connection on-but-unused for a while (say, I close IE, I go in the other room to get a sandwich, and I come back), it generally exhibits this behavior. It's less explainable when I'm actively browsing through a site (or sites, in multiple windows) and these sudden lockups occur.

Stats: 98SE, 768/128 DSL, IE 6.0.2800, all Windows Update patches applied, Spybot comes up clean, Ad-Aware 6 comes up clean, Norton AntiVirus comes up clean, HijackThis shows nothing unusual in the startup list, Task Manager shows no unusual processes running.

I'd like to work out whether this is a problem on my end (something fubared in Windows) or on their end before getting a Verizon drone on the phone.

2) My father's trying to activate his new Verizon DSL account. Unfortunately, he gets to the point where he'll actually connect to Verizon for the first time... and AOL 9 (still installed) leaps in, attempts to connect itself and hoses the install process.

He doesn't want to kill AOL _yet_, since he wants to make sure that things like PayPal and eBay contact addresses are forwarded to his new email before shitcanning the old one. Can't blame him there. AOL is notorious for sinking hooks into the OS, so while he's busy calling Verizon's tech support (since they probably get this question on a daily basis)... any ideas?

[dar512]

1) It may just be the site you're connecting to. If the site you're connecting to is overloaded or has any number of other problems you may see this effect. The speed of communication between your computer and another is gated at the speed of the slowest responding computer.

The next time this happens, open another browser window and try opening another site like yahoo or google.

2) I think there's a setting for AOL to tell it not to autoactivate.

Another idea. Is there an aol icon in the tray area? If so, try right clicking on that and telling aol to exit. My reasoning here is that some part of AOL must already be running in order to notice that a net connection is coming up.

[juju]

Is it swapping memory back from the hard disk to RAM? Does the hard drive light come on when this happens?

[hot_pastrami]

Do you have a static IP, or a dynamic IP? Many DSL providers give a short lease time to dynamic IPs, like an hour or two. This way, the network can drop your connection if it sits unused. The side-effect is that when you try to connect the first time aftyer the IP lease ends, it takes some time to get a new IP assigned and establish a connection.

As for the AOL problem, you may need an exorcist.

[vsp]

In order:

1) It doesn't matter what site I'm connecting to, as I'd noted. If I have more than one window open, attempting to connect to different sites, one won't connect faster than the other. Both (and a telnet connection as well, if I'm trying to open one then) will hang, then both will resolve at the same time.

2) No swapping. I've cleared my IE cache, with no change. I've defragged recently, as well.

3) I have a dynamic IP. If it's sitting idle for hours and I come back to it, a delay is understandable. If my idle time is about thirty seconds, it's not.

4) AOL sucks big thick monkey rocks, and getting away from AOL is half the reason that I talked my dad into getting DSL in the first place.

[Undertoad]

If it's always on a new link, a new domain name - then there may be something wrong with their primary name server; in which case, maybe the primary times out (after 20 seconds) and your system goes to the working secondary, gets the address, and then runs with it.

If this seems to be the case you could swap the primary and secondary (in networking properties, TCP/IP settings) to see if it has any effect.

[vsp]

That's a thought. Remind me how I do that. (It doesn't do it EVERY time I click a new link, however. Just once in a while, and I can browse normally for quite a while sometimes without it happening.)

I'll be calling Verizon tomorrow ANYWAY. We resolved my dad's DSL problems, and he's doing fine... at 1.5Mb/128. I have 768/128. I called last week and asked to be bumped up, and was told that I'm too far away from the office to qualify for 1.5Mb -- yet he's a good 3/4 of a mile farther away by air and it's going great. WhassupwitDAT? (i.e. whom do I sue?)

[Beestie]

You'll love this one. I switched to DSL last November. The service kept disconnecting us. They gave us some VPN software saying that would help. After we installed it and cofigured it, same problem. Upgraded from win98 to win2k. Same problem.

Told our ISP to move the service from line 1 to line 2 (we had 2 #s at the time). Verizon (not our ISP) takes the service OFF of line one but refuses to add it to line 2. Their reason? Our phone numbers are foreign exchanges and you can't have DSL on a foreign exchange phone number (forget that we already had it).

Soooooooooooo, I change the phone #s we've had since 1995 and get new ones.

Same problem.

Gave my ISP the finger and switched to Cable. Oh, I kicked cable out of my house a year ago and switched to DISH. So getting them back in here only for internet access was interesting but at least it works now.

A networking guru buddy told me to invest in a router if I ever wanted my DSL to work. I never got that far.

Good luck.

[vsp]

I spent most of tonight on the phone with a pair of Verizon techies. No dice, and it locked up repeatedly with them on the line via Support Center.

They suggested specifying certain values in Network -> (my Linksys adaptor) -> IP Address. The freeze happened again, except this time no DNS addresses would resolve at all until I reset it back to Obtain IP Automatically.

One suggested that it could be failing memory. I'll download memtest and see if it can find anything tomorrow.

Of course, the same guy suggested that I probably had the W32.Welchia.Worm virus. One problem with that suggestion -- I'm running Windows 98SE, which is unaffected by either Blaster or Welchia (which is supposed to fix Blaster). I am running a full scan just to make sure nothing else is on board, but hey...

[Scopulus Argentarius]

This happens on IE only? (Tried it on Moz? )

If does, then alter the "LAN " settings about automatic discovery of proxy (uncheck it - default is on...). That could be your delay. Also, AOL could be trying to determine if you'vegot a connection ... make sure that settings for connection specify no dialing.


If that does not do it, check to see if you're already connected to something..... pull up a dos box and type in 'netstat -a 3' ... this will tell you what ip's you are connected to... it refreshes every 3 seconds...( hit cntrl-c to exit it). Please note IF you have 'established' connections with the outside world... let us know...

[vsp]

I haven't used Firebird long enough to replicate the problem. This doesn't mean that it won't happen there, of course.

If I leave netstat running while I browse, I get occasional ESTABLISHEDs. I got a bunch for Google, a couple for the Cellar, a couple for other sites that I visited like Shoutcast.

AOL has never touched and will never touch this machine.

Norton AntiVirus came up clean. (Of course.)

[vsp]

The following (from <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,82084~mode=flat~days=9999~start=40">this source</a>) SEEMS TO* have fixed the problem:

jester21
Posted 2000-11-02 07:48:24 EDT
Service HANGING and then Continuing
A fix that will usually fix these problems in Win 98/98SE/ME:

-->Right Click Network Neighborhood, select Properites

-->Highlight TCP/IP (Dial-Up Adapter) Select Properties
------>IP Address should be set to "Obtain Automatically"
------>WINS tab - Ensure "Disabled" is marked
------>Click "OK"
-->Highlight TCP/IP (Ethernet Adapter) Select Properties
------>IP Address - Click on Specify, enter IP Addx - 192.168.1.1 with Subnet of 255.255.255.0
------>WINS tab - Ensure "Disabled" is marked
------>Click "OK"
-->Highlight TCP/IP (DUA#2 - VPN Support) Select Properties
------>IP Address - Click on Specify, enter IP Addx - 192.168.1.2 with Subnet of 255.255.255.0
------>WINS tab - Ensure "Disabled" is marked
------>Click "OK"

------> Click "OK" again

------> Restart Computer.

The base reason for the hold up is that every XX minutes Windows takes over your connection and start hunting for a new IP address. It will do this for all 3 TCP/IP stacks. This can cause "freezes" of anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.


* SEEMS TO equates to "now that I'm posting this, it will start locking up even harder any minute now."

Next up: yelling at Verizon as to why I can't get 1.5Mb.

[vsp]

Grrrrrraaagh. Verizon drone: "Your distance from our central office doesn't matter. Your distance on the loop line is 15.1K feet, and we will not give 1.5Mb to anyone beyond 12K feet."

Speakeasy offers 1.5, but they'd be $50 as compared to Verizon's $35, plus the usual hassles of changing all my email addresses again.

(Of course, I'm also still paying ten bucks a month for my old Net Access shell account, which is still in use.)