Help!! Strange Internet Connectivity Issue

[applegbt]

Help!! Strange Internet Connectivity Issue [SOLVED!!]

Edit: See solution at end of thread...here.

Okay, I have had my PC with Windows 7 installed for several months with absolutely no issues. Recently, with no changes to any hardware other than adding some Firewire peripherals I have started experiencing a random loss of internet connectivity.

The strange part is that the Network Status page shows that I am connected to my wireless router, and the internet. But upon opening IE or Messenger you immediately get a page cannot be displayed error or connectivity error in the case of Messenger. I also cannot even connect to my router gui over HTTP. But I can ping my router. Now, here's the really, really strange part. I am sure that I still have physical internet connectivity to my PC, because I have a virtual machine installed (Virtualbox) using the host adapter and it can reach the internet. I'm stumped! It almost seems like something is blocking the default HTTP port or something, but I cannot figure it out. I really don't want to re-install Windows, but I fear I may have no choice.

Oh, after rebooting my PC, my internet connectivity returns for a period of time...sometimes several hours. But eventually it gets lost again. I usually notice the problem every morning, but it happens during the day while I am away as well.

 

[zigzag3143]

Okay, I have had my PC with Windows 7 installed for several months with absolutely no issues. Recently, with no changes to any hardware other than adding some Firewire peripherals I have started experiencing a random loss of internet connectivity.

The strange part is that the Network Status page shows that I am connected to my wireless router, and the internet. But upon opening IE or Messenger you immediately get a page cannot be displayed error or connectivity error in the case of Messenger. I also cannot even connect to my router gui over HTTP. But I can ping my router. Now, here's the really, really strange part. I am sure that I still have physical internet connectivity to my PC, because I have a virtual machine installed (Virtualbox) using the host adapter and it can reach the internet. I'm stumped! It almost seems like something is blocking the default HTTP port or something, but I cannot figure it out. I really don't want to re-install Windows, but I fear I may have no choice.

Oh, after rebooting my PC, my internet connectivity returns for a period of time...sometimes several hours. But eventually it gets lost again. I usually notice the problem every morning, but it happens during the day while I am away as well.

I suspect you are using homegroup, which on some systems has problems with connectivity, slow down loads, and random drops. You can verify this by simply creating a new network connection using the workgroup model instead.

Let us know if you need help

Ken

 

[applegbt]

I am using homegroup, as that is how it was configured when I purchased the PC. I will try to reconfigure as you suggested. Thanks!

 

[applegbt]

Well, I tried the "leave homegroup" option and disabled the two Homegroup services, rebooted, but the problem persists. I had internet for a couple hours, stepped away for a bit, and when I returned I no longer had internet. To take the wireless adapter out of the equation, I disabled it and ran a hardwire to my router connecting to my on-board ethernet adapter. This also had no affect on the problem.

You mentioned completely re-creating the network connection, but I am not sure how to do that. So if you feel that still may solve my issue, could someone please post the steps for doing so?

Thanks!
-Bret

 

[applegbt]

Another strange symptom that I found...I can ping internet addresses. I can ping google.com, yahoo.com, msn.com, etc. But cannot reach them in a browser.

More and more this seems to me like port 80 (at minimum) being blocked by something. I have tried the following telnet commands to google.com and to my router (default gateway):

telnet www.google.com 80
telnet <router IP> 80

Both of these commands return the message "Connectint to xxxxxx...Could not open connection to the host, on port 80: Connect failed"

If I try these commands on another PC on my home network, they connect just fine.

 

[Tews]

try flushing your dns cache..

ipconfig /flushdns

Hope this helps..

 

[applegbt]

try flushing your dns cache..

ipconfig /flushdns

Hope this helps..

Thanks for posting! Unfortunately, no dice. Take a look at my previous post, which I just updated with more information since you posted.

 

[Tews]

try booting into safe mode...are you able to connect??

 

[applegbt]

I can connect after any reboot. Problem always begins a few hours after reboot, usually during inactivity while I am afk.

 

[applegbt]

The only other thing I could think of to try was to assign a specific IP address. Still no change to the situation. Apparently I've stumped everyone with this one. I think I'm gonna give it one more day of troubleshooting before I wipe the system and start over. Very frustrating...

 

[zigzag3143]

Okay, I have had my PC with Windows 7 installed for several months with absolutely no issues. Recently, with no changes to any hardware other than adding some Firewire peripherals I have started experiencing a random loss of internet connectivity.

The strange part is that the Network Status page shows that I am connected to my wireless router, and the internet. But upon opening IE or Messenger you immediately get a page cannot be displayed error or connectivity error in the case of Messenger. I also cannot even connect to my router gui over HTTP. But I can ping my router. Now, here's the really, really strange part. I am sure that I still have physical internet connectivity to my PC, because I have a virtual machine installed (Virtualbox) using the host adapter and it can reach the internet. I'm stumped! It almost seems like something is blocking the default HTTP port or something, but I cannot figure it out. I really don't want to re-install Windows, but I fear I may have no choice.

Oh, after rebooting my PC, my internet connectivity returns for a period of time...sometimes several hours. But eventually it gets lost again. I usually notice the problem every morning, but it happens during the day while I am away as well.

Applegbt


Some thoughts


First you can configure IE (or any browser) to use port 8080 instead. Try that to see if it maintains connectivity.

Second, it may be a dns/dhcp problem, Try reconfiguring your browser to use opendns (google how) . That way you would be using opendns' IP's.

I dont remember if anyone asked you what Antivirus/firewall.

Have you resest your router to default?


The thing that troubles me is after re-boot it works for a time. What NIC/wifi???

Is the wired and wifi on the same card?

Let me know.

Ken

 

[chev65]

Here is your problem,quote: adding some Firewire peripherals, I suggest that you remove those peripherals or reconfigure your firewall to allow those ports to work again.

 

[applegbt]

Applegbt


Some thoughts


First you can configure IE (or any browser) to use port 8080 instead. Try that to see if it maintains connectivity.

Second, it may be a dns/dhcp problem, Try reconfiguring your browser to use opendns (google how) . That way you would be using opendns' IP's.

I dont remember if anyone asked you what Antivirus/firewall.

Have you resest your router to default?


The thing that troubles me is after re-boot it works for a time. What NIC/wifi???

Is the wired and wifi on the same card?

Let me know.

Ken

Thanks Ken.

The wired NIC is a motherboard integrated port (NVIDIA), the wireless is Realtek. I typically keep one or the other disabled. And as I mentioned, I have tried both with the same results.

The fact that i have tested connectivity over several ports using telnet leads me to believe that it's not just a port 80 issue. But I will give port 8080 a shot and see what happens just in case.

Currently I am only using the standard Windows firewall, and Spyhunter.

 

[applegbt]

Here is your problem,quote: adding some Firewire peripherals, I suggest that you remove those peripherals or reconfigure your firewall to allow those ports to work again.

I hadn't really considered that the Firewire devices could cause an issue. Actually there is only one device now, an audio recording interface. I will try disconnecting it.

 

[applegbt]

The saga continues. Removing the firewire peripheral had no effect. Also, the wireless lan card is actually a Gigabyte GN-WP01GS. The integrated "wired" lan interface is Realtek.

 

[JKPlasm]

Okay...I feel your pain and frustration, My search has brought me to this posting. I am having the exact same problem. I have followed all the suggestions and many more, still no go. I have 2 other computers on my network and they have no trouble with staying connected to the internet when the main pc is down. One is wireless and using XP, the other is Win7 32bit and no problems at all.

I am open to any suggestions short of a clean install.

John

 

[applegbt]

Well, I will tell you the steps I took that eventually led to a solution. Still not 100% sure what the exact solution was, but this is what I did to solve it.

1. Do a selective restart using msconfig. Uncheck all startup items that you don't recognize, or things that have been installed or updated since the problem started happening. Don't be too judicious here, if in doubt uncheck it.

2. Restart and see if the problem continues. If the problem is solved, slowly add startup items back in one at a time to determine which is the issue. If the problem was not solved, move on to step 3.

3. Install the Microsoft Network Monitor utility. Run the utility for all active network interfaces. Watch the log for anything unusual. I noticed thousands of hits per hour on port 14869 from random IP addresses.

4. I installed ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 30-day trial. Set every component to max security, and ran the virus scan. The virus scan found one trojan that my previous scans did not find. And the firewall started blocking the random hits on port 14869. My internet drops ceased at this point.

5. I then set up my router firewall to block incoming traffic on that port. I uninstalled Zone Alarm. The problem, so far, has not returned.

 

[CommonTater]

The only other thing I could think of to try was to assign a specific IP address. Still no change to the situation. Apparently I've stumped everyone with this one. I think I'm gonna give it one more day of troubleshooting before I wipe the system and start over. Very frustrating...

If you are a little bit proficient with RegEdit you could try this...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters
Size = 3

I was having connectivity issues, this solved it for me.

 

[JKPlasm]

Applegbt, Thanks for the tip. I have done as describes in steps 1-5, if anything I am impressed with ZA as it too picked up a Trojan that my other scans did not. The bad boy listed was Win32.Buzus.dasd, when researched it stated it would compromise system and/or Network environment and was found in memory, sound familiar?

Anyways I have completed the steps and will respond back tomorrow to let everyone know, I will know by then if I lose my internet. Until then... Thanks again.

I cant believe I was naive to think it was a virus and was blaming Win7... lesson learned. Wish me luck.

 

[JKPlasm]

So far so good... Seems to be all better, no drops since the previous post. That virus was aka a DROPPER.