Another one for the IT boys (network problems)

[The Stranger:Me]

Do you know if the vista machine behaves on other networks? Not being there to actually see the problem, I would suggest check the following in order.
1) Check for and remove malware/spyware using say malwarebytes.
2) Uninstall limewire or any peer to peer network apps
3) Disable windoze updates.
4) Disable the DNS Client service
5) Disable all unused or unnecessary protocols such as QOS, IPv6, ipx/spx etc.
6) Download and install either ethereal or wireshark and see what the packets actually are.

[YellowDog]

OK just seen the IPconfig stuff above.

His this been used on the Internet before, perhaps elsewhere?

[batboy]

Any reason that you know of why the vista machine has NetBT enabled?

Can you ping external addresses from either machine when the internet connection dies?
Also have you had this problem from get go? or just recently, might pay to reset the router back to default and reenter your ISP data again?

[marty]

Ive got 2 PCs running XP and 1 running Vista on my home network and have no problems, sorry don't know how to fix yours.

I am disappointed in Vista thou, got sucked into the hipe, I have to do all my iso file, mounting/burning on XP, why I need the network to transfer files between machines.

if you bought a system new in the past few months running Vista, there is a us$20 upgrade to Windows 7, delivery on 24th October. All the barn-type retailers are recommending this, as vista is basically shit unless you have about 5gig of RAM.

[paddy]

Do you know if the vista machine behaves on other networks? Not being there to actually see the problem, I would suggest check the following in order.
1) Check for and remove malware/spyware using say malwarebytes.
2) Uninstall limewire or any peer to peer network apps
3) Disable windoze updates.
4) Disable the DNS Client service
5) Disable all unused or unnecessary protocols such as QOS, IPv6, ipx/spx etc.
6) Download and install either ethereal or wireshark and see what the packets actually are.

Yep - based on the network configurations you provided I don't think this is a configuration issue. I would still disable IPv6 as there is an outside chance that this is causing your issue but to be honest I doubt your router supports it so it is a real outside chance.

It seems much more likely that you have network contention issues. That's covered of in points 1, 2, and 3 in The Strangers post above.

I wouldn't expect DNS Client service, QoS, IPX/SPX, or NetBT as mentioned by others to be the problem although feel free to experiment with the advice others have offered.

I also would default your router as suggested by one poster. That is extremely unlikely to help and is typically a response offered by help-desks to get users to a known state so that their support "script" works. (Remember helpdesk is generally a fairly junior and low paid role.)

As your router will have a switching backplane I don't know how much use Wireshark will be. It might be useful to packet capture on the Vista machine and see if it is generating a whole bunch of traffic or not. If you don't understand TCP/IP though it might be hard to interpret. There is no harm in trying and seeing if it makes any sense to you though. I don't know what level of knowledge you have.

P.

[paddy]

Can you ping external addresses from either machine when the internet connection dies?

I would hazard, based on his description that the answer would be yes but with high-latency and high packet-loss.

Also have you had this problem from get go? or just recently

This would actually be a good question to know the answer to.

might pay to reset the router back to default and reenter your ISP data again?

Noooo...... unless you can offer an actual technical reason for this then it is just a "shotgun" approach to fault diagnosis. He's more likely to end up with no internet on all of his machines and nowhere to post for help.

[batboy]

Noooo...... unless you can offer an actual technical reason for this then it is just a "shotgun" approach to fault diagnosis. He's more likely to end up with no internet on all of his machines and nowhere to post for help.

i agree, but he has stated he has a "flatmate" who runs the other XP machine.
Which in turn could mean there may have ben some tinkering with the router with out OP's knowledge possible for p2p port forwarding which may means incorect DNS server, ppoa/e entries or who knows?
was just a thought, and no im not a low level helpdesk person with limited knowledge, just merely offering another approach is all...no offence taken or meant

[paddy]

i agree, but he has stated he has a "flatmate" who runs the other XP machine.
Which in turn could mean there may have ben some tinkering with the router with out OP's knowledge possible for p2p port forwarding which may means incorect DNS server, ppoa/e entries or who knows?
was just a thought, and no im not a low level helpdesk person with limited knowledge, just merely offering another approach is all...no offence taken or meant

And no offence taken/meant here either. I just didn't want to see him make the problem worse for himself. The router is performing DNS "proxying". This would also fail for the XP machines. In terms of PPPoA/PPPoE issues - again this would almost certainly cause global faults. I can't imagine PAT (port forwarding) being configured in such a way as to cause issues...but as with some other ideas, it's an outside possibility. This of course gets more complicated in the modern setting where you introduce routers support UPnP.

[Squiggles]

Throw the vista machine out the window. Then

[The Stranger:Me]

I wouldn't expect DNS Client service,

No you wouldn't (or shouldn't) however it's not that uncommon for the DNS Client service to enter an infinite loop and disappear up it's own arse. Upon reboot it will continue from where it left off.
It's unnecessary, kill it.

[paddy]

No you wouldn't (or shouldn't) however it's not that uncommon for the DNS Client service to enter an infinite loop and disappear up it's own arse. Upon reboot it will continue from where it left off.
It's unnecessary, kill it.

I'm somehow not surprised... still wouldn't expect that to effect the internet access of the XP hosts unless it was generating a huge amount of packets and loading the router - I'm no Windows engineer but I presume that Vista would be pushing those packets out to either it's first DNS server or the DHCP server (which are both the router). I agree though - no harm in disabling it.

[paddy]

No you wouldn't (or shouldn't) however it's not that uncommon for the DNS Client service to enter an infinite loop and disappear up it's own arse. Upon reboot it will continue from where it left off.
It's unnecessary, kill it.

Hmmm...having read a little more - I wouldn't expect that to cause the issues Indy described. I presumed that the DNS Client Service performed the Dynamic Updates but it turns out (according to wikipedia at least) that this is actually performed by the DHCP Client Service. The DNS Client Service is just a caching resolver. And again, unless it decides to make thousands of queries continuously (and therefore loads the router) I wouldn't expect that to affect the other hosts.

[Indiana_Jones]

Well Yellowdog has popped over and had a look, and it seems to be going again, turns out that the vista machine had service pack 2 update waiting to be installed and he thinks that might of been blocking the network.

I'm sure he'll post and explain a lot better then I can

Thanks YD and everyone else for your replies

-Indy

[paddy]

Well Yellowdog has popped over and had a look, and it seems to be going again, turns out that the vista machine had service pack 2 update waiting to be installed and he thinks that might of been blocking the network.

I'm sure he'll post and explain a lot better then I can

Thanks YD and everyone else for your replies

-Indy

Cool. Glad is working for you!

[YellowDog]

Checked the obvious. All seemed fine.

Logged on to Router. Not great software, but seemed fine.

Tried manual settings on offending PC. Couldn't see external DNS server.

Swiched to second on-board adapter (without any fault finding debris).

Killed processes one by one, but nothing much was going on.

Ran network scanner which revealed bugger all and only three live nodes (correct).

Pinging of DNS servers wasn't happening.

Noticed Vista SP2 awaiting installation. Vista is famous for opening the door for installation and killing everything else to wait for it to happen.

Installed SP2 and all of a sudden (30 minutes later) the world was happy again. Auto and manual setting both OK.

Cannot explain death of network by vista machine (with no activity). Have recommended replacement network adapter.

BUT if it ain't broke (again), don't fix it!

BTW: The Scrambler is a beauty and sounds like heaven