Problems Connecting to the Internet

kodakjack · 10 Jul 2015

For the past month or so, I am having problems connecting to the Internet. I called Time-Warner and the lady I spoke to looked at a few things and then scheduled a visit from a tech. He almost immediately knew it wasn't from their end, but he checked things out and proved what he thought was true. There are times when the computer does exactly what would be expected, but other times, it just sits there spinning its wheels and going nowhere. It's a 64 bit system using Mozzila Firefox and having Yahoo as a home page. Using other browsers and going to other sites does not help. I have an old XP machine and two iPads and they do not have a problem. In addition, I can be doing something when I do get a connection and then it will go off in never never land so that I'm stuck waiting. If I try to go to Task Manager to see what's going on, it takes forever for that to respond also. It's like there is something running in the background and pulling the system down, but when Task Manager does come up, there isn't anything unusual showing up. Using the troubleshooting tools Windows 7 offers doesn't help. FWIW, I have McAfee and use Spyware Blaster, SpyBot Search and Destroy and Malware Bytes. I would really hate to take my machine somewhere and have them clean the hard drive and start from scratch, but don't know what to do to attack this problem.

The one thing the cable guy saw was that my ip address is hex instead of digital. Would this be something McAfee did or a possible problem?

Ztruker · 10 Jul 2015

Press WIN + X to open Start context menu.
Select Command Prompt (Admin).

Paste the following into the Command Prompt window, exactly as shown, including double quotes:

cmd /c "ipconfig /all > postme.txt & ping yahoo.com >> postme.txt & reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" | find /i "proxy" >> postme.txt & notepad postme.txt & del postme.txt"

and press ENTER.

A file will open in Notepad. Please copy and paste the contents here. Close the Notepad window and the file will be deleted and the Command Prompt window will also close. Post results in a reply here.

kodakjack · 11 Jul 2015

Here is what I got:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Jack-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : rochester.rr.com

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell Wireless 1506 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : A4-17-31-02-A2-E8
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : rochester.rr.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 78-45-C4-36-97-49
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2604:6000:6380:6400:25b8:a9f6:a594:ce17(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2604:6000:6380:6400:541f:c885:dec:1f2d(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::25b8:a9f6:a594:ce17%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, July 11, 2015 6:27:50 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, July 13, 2015 6:27:49 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::2273:55ff:feaa:1d51%11
192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 242763204
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-18-48-EB-CA-78-45-C4-36-97-49
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 209.18.47.61
209.18.47.62
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{D25C5D7B-2E6B-49B1-A5EF-23EF6BBD4D88}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.rochester.rr.com:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : rochester.rr.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Pinging yahoo.com [2001:4998:58:c02::a9] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 2001:4998:58:c02::a9: time=48ms
Reply from 2001:4998:58:c02::a9: time=48ms
Reply from 2001:4998:58:c02::a9: time=48ms

Ping statistics for 2001:4998:58:c02::a9:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 48ms, Maximum = 48ms, Average = 48ms
AutoConfigProxy REG_SZ wininet.dll
MigrateProxy REG_DWORD 0x1
ProxyEnable REG_DWORD 0x0
ProxyOverride REG_SZ *.local

FWIW, it started acting better yesterday. I downloaded the latest Windows updates that came through yesterday, but it was acting better before I did that. The night before, in one of my attempts to use the troubleshooting tools attached to Windows 7, it showed me a list of programs that were running at start-up and asked me which ones I didn't want starting with each session. I clicked off a few that I thought I would only want running as needed. It came back and said I had not fixed the problem. Was it expecting me to click off all of them? McAfee was in that list and that needs to run all of the time, right?
One of the things I had to correct again is the "Get Windows 10" icon down in the tray. A friend had previously told me how to get rid of it, but with the latest updates, it was back again.
FWIW, clicking the Windows button and X did not bring me to the command line. I had to use the Start icon and type in Command.

kodakjack · 11 Jul 2015

Well, my 24 hours of computing bliss are over. It's back to the SOS where I can't get a connection! Mozzila's outline comes up and the little thing on the top left of the screen sits there saying "connecting" but it doesn't. I even tried clicking on my bookmark for this site to bypass Yahoo and to no avail. I am posting this using my iPad - no problems.
I know this sounds crazy or coincidental, but there are many times when I cannot get a connection, so, I check my iPad to see if it can connect and, after that, I can connect as usual to the Internet on my desktop. Right now, that is what happened! I now get a connection.

Ztruker · 11 Jul 2015

Need the ipconfig /all information when the problem is occurring. What you already posted looks good.

UsernameIssues · 11 Jul 2015

kodakjack said:

........FWIW, I have McAfee and use Spyware Blaster, SpyBot Search and Destroy and Malware Blaster.......

Just until we find the cause of this connectivity issue, please consider:

1) Uninstalling McAfee. Install Microsoft Security Essentials in its place.

2) Turn off the protection offered by Spyware Blaster. You can leave it installed, just turn off the 3 areas* of protection that it offers for Internet Explorer. You can leave the protection turned of for any other browsers that you may have.

* restricted website, active x stuff and something that I cannot remember :-(

3) Totally uninstall SpyBot Search and Destroy.

4) Totally uninstall Malware Blaster. For my benefit, can you provide a link to where I could download/test Malware Blaster?

Open a command prompt window and ping 192.168.0.1 using this line:
ping 192.168.0.1 -t
Minimize that command prompt window - just let it run.

Open a second command prompt window and ping yahoo.com using this line:
ping yahoo.com -t
Minimize that command prompt window - just let it run.

Use Internet Explorer to surf the Internet during this test period. If/When you get disconnected, bring up those minimized ping windows and grab a screenshot of each one while you are having trouble connecting to a website.

You might also want to try the steps in this tutorial:
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

kodakjack · 11 Jul 2015

I did the originally posted results this morning. I also did another one at 3PM and the pings were at 76ms. This thing comes and goes for no particular reason.

kodakjack · 11 Jul 2015

UsernameIssues said:

kodakjack said:

........FWIW, I have McAfee and use Spyware Blaster, SpyBot Search and Destroy and Malware Blaster.......

Just until we find the cause of this connectivity issue, please consider:
Use Internet Explorer to surf the Internet during this test period. If/When you get disconnected, bring up those minimized ping windows and grab a screenshot of each one while you are having trouble connecting to a website.

You might also want to try the steps in this tutorial:
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

We're not talking about me having problems connecting to a site, I'm having problems getting connected to the Internet AT ALL! I have tried using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox and it doesn't behave any different - when I'm having the problem. I guess I don't understand why it isn't consistent (either bad or good).
Sorry, I typed in the wrong program name:

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

I turned off the stuff suggested on Spyware Blaster. I'll leave it at that now as it's getting late and do more tomorrow when I get in trouble again. Thanks.

UsernameIssues · 11 Jul 2015

Yes, I understand that you lose all connectivity to the Internet. I was suggesting that you use Internet Explorer while testing precisely because it is not your main browser. It probably has few - if any - add-ons. But you can stick with Firefox it it is easier for you. Hopefully, there is nothing within Firefox that is causing these outages.

Ztruker's idea to gather the ipconfig info while there is a problem is an interesting one. I look forward to seeing that info.

Follow Ztruker's lead. Anything that I request is just secondary.

You can keep Malwarebytes installed

kodakjack · 12 Jul 2015

When I run the suggested script from Ztruker, is there anything more than the pings that we're looking for? How long do the pings have to be to be considered "bad"?
The cable guy suggested going to Chrome just because it has less advertising, etc. that can affect performance. When it accidentally got on my wife's laptop, it was like it wanted complete control of anything and everything. I was always told hackers went for Microsoft products, so, I thought Mozzila was a good alternative.