Re: How to stop OE6 from multithreading on the news server? - another problem

From: Robert Aldwinckle (robald_at_techemail.com)
Date: 04/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:33:29 -0400

> another problem which I have seen on other people's computers
> too over a dialup connection.
...
> suddenly nothing is coming back in from the Internet.
...
> The fix is to logoff the dialup
...
> Ever seen anything like this before? It's like my IP address just vanished
> from the Internet and nothing can find my computer on the Internet
> anymore. Any ideas?

Yes, I have but not frequently enough that I have bothered trying to figure
out how to diagnose it. My test for this condition is to try to ping my DNS
addresses or use nslookup. If there is no response I usually hang up
and redial.

I suppose I should start doing more to understand the scope and probable
cause of such hangs.

Activating netcap and capturing the results of pinging my IP address
or DNS addresses would probably be where I'd start. Without a tool
to capture packets (such as netcap or Ethereal) you could get some
clues about what is happening by entering the following commands
in a command window:
    ipconfig /all | findstr /i "address servers"
    netstat -s >begin.txt
    ping <IP Address from #1> -n 1
    netstat -s >after.txt
    fc begin.txt after.txt >diff.txt

Note that the entire string <IP Address from #1> is just a placeholder
for the IP address that your ipconfig command shows you.

Sometimes that "works" but pinging <DNS Servers from #1> doesn't.
Functionally that causes the same symptom for the end user but is
probably completely different at a detailed level. In either case,
the quick fix, as you have discovered is to hang up and redial.

BTW I just tried substituting the "Host name" there and although that
supposedly worked (e.g. the "pinging" message showed the IP address)
none of the statistics changed! I suspect that in fact 127.0.0.1 was being
pinged and that the message is wrong. That's why I think pinging the
DNS server addresses might be more reliable. YMMV.

The Dial-Up Networking monitor would give you related statistics.
More detail along the same tack is available from perfmon.
Even in NT4 that tool seemed difficult to use; in XP it has been
further obscured by being implemented as a Microsoft Management
Console snap-in. I have never used W2K so I don't know what
perfmon's implementation looks like there.

FWIW here is what I do with perfmon as a supplement to the DUN
monitor. Hide the Console tree. This will make the perfmon toolbar
more apparent. Start a new counter set. Add counters. Object: RAS Port,
All counters, <your comm port>. View Report. Again many of
these statistics are cumulative so before a test I use Alt-PrintScrn to
capture the current statistics to Clipbrd. Then if necessary you could
tile both windows to make comparison easier. Essentially this is just
a manual analogy for the diff.txt step I suggested above. I.e. Clipbrd
contains "begin" checkpoint, perfmon Report view contains "after"
status and the tile hopefully makes noticing the differences easier,
similar to the way fc highlights the differences between the two sets
of netstat statistics.

Actually I believe it is supposed to be possible to capture perfmon
samples to the system log and maybe even capture its reports to text,
thus potentially providing for another automated comparison using fc
but I haven't experimented that far yet.

I think that you will find either of the statistic capturing procedures
I have mentioned more reliable than looking for flashing lights in your
modem. The packets are so small that they might not register that way.

HTH

Robert 

---
"Bill Wolff" <wolffsoftnospam@nospamnetzero.net> wrote in message
news:O8g5HEUKEHA.1192@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl
...
Although I do have another problem which I have seen on other people's
computers too over a dialup connection. And having an external modem
with indicator lights, I can see what is really happening here. And
there is no rhyme or reason that I can pinpoint.
It's weird, I can go for weeks, or sometimes just 15 minutes or so,
before this happens. But suddenly nothing is coming back in from the
Internet. And I can see Internet applications (all of them) sending out
requests and everything finally errors because nothing ever comes back
at all.
The fix is to logoff the dialup (sometimes it takes 20 seconds or so
before the modem will hang up, when it normally happens in an instant).
Then log back on again and everything is fine once again until the next
time this happens. I do know this happens on machines with U.S. Robotics
external modems (5686-xx) running MOH software (they call ICN). Another
thing in common is they all run ZoneAlarm and AVG for AV.
And the OS were Windows 2000 Pro and XP Home. Although I just added a
Zoom 3075 to one of my laptops, but I don't recall if it has ever
happened there yet or not. But I think it has but I can't swear to it.
Also changing the ISP doesn't change this problem.
Running netstat when this happens causes it to display for each port
very slowly. Connections will show established (until they time out I
would guess), except for microsoft-ds which will show as TIME_WAIT. Ever
seen anything like this before? It's like my IP address just vanished
from the Internet and nothing can find my computer on the Internet
anymore. Any ideas?

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