Who can help me with a techie question?

[Guest Captitalistdoginchina]

Comrades,

I really need some advice. Please.

I seem to have nightmare problems connecting to the internet and i don't know why.

I dial up as normal and the modem goes through its negotiation with the isp and it connects ok and the little icon drops into my sys tray.

But it all goes dead from there. I see the little icons flash once and then stop....dead as a doornail. My dial up connection shows about 400 bytes sent and received which is the negotiation data - but no more data can flow. I cannot open web pages, send/recieve mail or update anti-virus. Just dead. But i am connected to the ISP.

So i must disconnect and reconnect again and again and again until for no apparant reason the little lights start flashing and then all is well - everything returns to normal. Until the next time i try to connect of course.

This is so frustrating, it takes up to 2 hours sometimes of repeated connect, disconnect, then dial up over and over and its driving me crazy. On somedays it connects first time, others after 20 or 30 attempts and sometimes more than 50 dial ups are necessary before the data will flow.

My computer is a relatively new Athlon 900 with internal 56K modem, 256MB Ram, top notch graphics and sound cards etc.

At first i thought it was the modem so i got a new one (External 56k) plugged it in and gave it a shot - but no difference. I tried 2 different com ports but still the same. I removed my internal modem and re-installed it with updated drivers but all to no avail.

I also thought it may be the ISP, but i use the same ISP, username and password from my office laptop without any problems. My colleagues also do not have a problem with the same ISP. So i figure it must be something to do with my home computer.

I have used this same ISP/username and password for 5 years and with 3 computers in this appartment and all worked without this problem - This computer had no internet problems at the beginning when i first purchased it but the problem only started after i had a virus about 5 months ago. I decided to format the harddrive and start again, the only thing i did differently was to install Windows ME instead of the previous Win 98 SE. This problem has stemmed from there leading me to believe that maybe Win ME has some problem?

If anyone can shed some light on this i would be so grateful - any suggestions at all will be looked into i promise because this is driving me mad. I usually play CM with my buddy and gameing soulmate in USA at weekends but i just cannot connect to meet him online for our regular TCP/IP games of CM. The poor guy is waiting and waiting for me to join up and its very frustrating.

So if any of you kind hearted souls have any idea please let me know. I feel that i have tried as many things as i can with my limited knowledge of computers.

Thanks all in advance.

CDIC

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"Death solves all problems - no man no problem"

J.V.Stalin, 1918

[Compassion]

Your ISP might have a dead modem. You might want to contact them (to work out when you are connecting so they might be able to track the bad board down with the help of your logs) or try a different POP if that's possible.

[Maximus]

This is just a guess, but I understand Win ME is quite buggy. It's possible, but not necessarily that the problem lies with that in that maybe your modem may not be configured properly for Win ME, although I have no clue on how to change configures.

[Strider]

By chance, have you changed/tried a different phone cord? The shorter the better...

You say you are connected to your ISP...can you ping your ISP, or past it? Just "seems" weird that you can get "to" your ISP, but not past it...unless it really is at their end, and they are "limiting" some connections.

I was using WinME with a phone connection before the boss let me get cable and I didn't expirence any problems. Was using an external 56k USrobotics modem. In fact, I just installed it for one of the kids at their house, and it's working just fine, with WinME as the OS.

[Guest Captitalistdoginchina]

I wonder if Maximus is right? Maybe i need a new driver for Win ME ?

I shall have to contact the Modem supplier.

Contacting the ISP company is not easy unless i get my staff to help - cuz i don't speak the lingo!

But thanks for the replies.

Cheers

CDIC

[Vanir Ausf B]

Perhaps you could persuade one of your colleagues to bring his computer over to your appartment and try logging on. That would help isolate the problem.

I assume you know the correct settings for your modem and have checked them in Dial-Up Networking?

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What a bunch of horsecrap. -Steve

[This message has been edited by Vanir Ausf B (edited 03-25-2001).]

[Guest Heinz 25th PzReg]

Try the following:

1. A new cord

2. New drivers for your modem. Find out what kind of modem it is, then go to the producers homepage and download the latest drivers for Win ME.

Regards,

Heinz

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home.online.no/~andhess/cm/

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[Viceroy]

Are you still in Shanghai? Remember the problems of about a month ago(?) when one of the main server links across the Pacific was cut/severed. Do you think it could be realted to that, or was that problem all taken care of?

[SenorBeef]

First step you want to take is:

connect to your isp normally. Get to a prompt (or start->run) and type winipcfg

Select PPP adapter, and go to more info...

First, ping your default gateway. To do that, type "ping [iP of your default gateway]".. something like "ping 102.42.85.103".

It'll either give you a time it took (probably around 120 ms), or it'll tell you that it couldn't reach it. If it did reach it, then on the same page in winipcfg, ping the entry under "DNS Server". If that ping is succesful, then you've got a more nebulous problem - but if either of those fail, it'll be easy (hopefully) to track down the problem. Respond here or by email with the results.

[Guest Captitalistdoginchina]

Thanks for the feedback guys,

Ok, first i am still in Shanghai Viceroy and i have been informed that the undersea Fibre Optic Cables have been fixed.

SenorBeef, i did what you said to do and here is what happened.

If i type it in when its connected (But dead) i get an info box - but inside the Default gateway is blank, IP address shows 0.0.0.0 and subnet mask also shows 0.0.0.0

If i click on "renew all" the computer completely locks up and i must shut down as Ctrl Alt Del has no effect.

If i do get a good connection and type the same commands i get all the numbers and i type ping (followed by default gateway number) and it responds with a ping of 83ms.

Can you determine anything from that? Tell me what else to check.

I have not tried a new telephone cable yet or the new modem driver, I will get round to that as soon as i can.

Many thanks in advance.

CDIC

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"Death solves all problems - no man no problem"

J.V.Stalin, 1918

[Guest Captitalistdoginchina]

SenorBeef,

Just to clarify that - If i type Ping (DNS Server) i get a response of 83ms

If i type Ping (Default Gateway) i get a response of 10ms.

The above is when my ISP is responding - when it does not respond i am unable to get a default gateway number.

I am sure you understand that more than i do.

Cheers

CDIC

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"Death solves all problems - no man no problem"

J.V.Stalin, 1918

[GriffinCheng+]

You don't need "default gateway" entry for your dial-up networking. I don't understand cause I just use all the settings supplied by the ISP so I just have the dial-up num and the username/password and that is! No DNS, no gateway, blah blah blah.

Well, check the lights of the ext modem to see if the ones need to be lit up had lit up.

That is why I love ADSL service.

Sicne I can receive your taunting emails, I think you are alright by now.

Griffin.

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[Skorpion]

In reply to Griffin:

You don't need to specify them in connection properties, but when you're connected you will have had them assigned automatically, which is why SenorBeef asked him to check the settings using winipcfg

To CDIC:

As you are connecting but not being given a DNS server address or a gateway address it suggests that something is wrong with either the ISP's DHCP server, which allocates the numbers, or your machine's dial up networking components. Either way it's not going to be easy to troubleshoot.

Firstly try uninstalling the TCP/IP protocol and reinstalling it. If that doesn't work you may need to reinstall the OS or just use the fallback technique of manually entering the DNS server and Gateway addresses in to the connection properties page.

The only problem with manually entering the addresses is if they change you won't be able to connect at all.

Hope that helps you some.

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Skorpion

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