Over the last couple of days I've been having trouble with my
connections to various web sites that I use. I have a x64 PC running
Win 10, a Dynamode wireless USB adapter and a BTHub6.

Yesterday, and more so today, connecting to internet web sites has
been impossible, for example Forte Agent won't connect, nor will
Thunderbird for mail, nor Firefox for general web browsing, even
though my Realtec USB wireless LAN utility tells me I have a good
internet connection, the light on the Hub is blue (indicating internet
connection) and the network and the windows internet settings utility
tells me I have a secure connection to the internet. Firefox just
tells me it can't connect to whatever website I try.

Yesterday, the computer eventually made the appropriate connections,
bit by bit (some started to work quite soon, but Agent and Thunderbird
mail took a while before they would connect. I don't use TB for
usenet), so I thought it might just be that the internet was very
busy, but today nothing would connect. Eventually I tried a system
restore back to two days ago, but it failed (said I'd probably got an
AV running, and to switch that off and try again). But it all seems OK
now, although if system restore didn't actually run, I'm not convinced
it isn't going to happen again.

I have a laptop that will run off the same hub, and that worked OK, so
not the hub or the internet connection itself.

The fact that yesterday it came back bit by bit made me think it was
hardware that was gradually failing, but now I'm far from sure. Can
anyone suggest what is happening, and more to the point, how to
correct it?

Oh bugger as I expected it's gone off again. Switched it all off and
went away to get lunch, now it's back on again and I can try posting
this.

Is it overheating somewhere? I may try opening up the case and giving
the insides a thorough de-dust.

--
Chris

On 23/10/2023 14:35, Chris Hogg wrote:
> Over the last couple of days I've been having trouble with my
> connections to various web sites that I use. I have a x64 PC running
> Win 10, a Dynamode wireless USB adapter and a BTHub6.
>
> Yesterday, and more so today, connecting to internet web sites has
> been impossible, for example Forte Agent won't connect, nor will
> Thunderbird for mail, nor Firefox for general web browsing, even
> though my Realtec USB wireless LAN utility tells me I have a good
> internet connection, the light on the Hub is blue (indicating internet
> connection) and the network and the windows internet settings utility
> tells me I have a secure connection to the internet. Firefox just
> tells me it can't connect to whatever website I try.
>
> Yesterday, the computer eventually made the appropriate connections,
> bit by bit (some started to work quite soon, but Agent and Thunderbird
> mail took a while before they would connect. I don't use TB for
> usenet), so I thought it might just be that the internet was very
> busy, but today nothing would connect. Eventually I tried a system
> restore back to two days ago, but it failed (said I'd probably got an
> AV running, and to switch that off and try again). But it all seems OK
> now, although if system restore didn't actually run, I'm not convinced
> it isn't going to happen again.
>
> I have a laptop that will run off the same hub, and that worked OK, so
> not the hub or the internet connection itself.

The first thing is to identify where in the big stack of things that
need to work, something isn't. Having another machine that is working
ok, at a stroke eliminates the router and the broadband (and assuming
that is connected via wifi as well) the wifi.

So that suggests a problem at the PC end. Lots of things can stop
internet comms working correctly - even something simple like a computer
with too much error in it time of day or timezone can stop secure https
connection completing.

Problems with name resolution can make site appear to be unreachable as
well.

You can run some tests if you drop into a command prompt (click the
start button and type CMD - the first match it finds will probably be
"Command Prompt". If you right click on that and "Run with administrator
access), you will get a command line where you can try some things.

So for example, if you type:

ping www.google.com

You should see some message bounce off a google web server. If you get
an error that it can't find the site, it might indication that what you
have is a name resolution problem.

type

ipconfig /all

That will show all the basic details for all the network interfaces it
can find. Post what it says about your main wifi link an we might be
able to give some more pointers.

> Is it overheating somewhere? I may try opening up the case and giving
> the insides a thorough de-dust.

It is probably more likely to be software...

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

On 10/23/2023 9:35 AM, Chris Hogg wrote:
> Over the last couple of days I've been having trouble with my
> connections to various web sites that I use. I have a x64 PC running
> Win 10, a Dynamode wireless USB adapter and a BTHub6.
>
> Yesterday, and more so today, connecting to internet web sites has
> been impossible, for example Forte Agent won't connect, nor will
> Thunderbird for mail, nor Firefox for general web browsing, even
> though my Realtec USB wireless LAN utility tells me I have a good
> internet connection, the light on the Hub is blue (indicating internet
> connection) and the network and the windows internet settings utility
> tells me I have a secure connection to the internet. Firefox just
> tells me it can't connect to whatever website I try.
>
> Yesterday, the computer eventually made the appropriate connections,
> bit by bit (some started to work quite soon, but Agent and Thunderbird
> mail took a while before they would connect. I don't use TB for
> usenet), so I thought it might just be that the internet was very
> busy, but today nothing would connect. Eventually I tried a system
> restore back to two days ago, but it failed (said I'd probably got an
> AV running, and to switch that off and try again). But it all seems OK
> now, although if system restore didn't actually run, I'm not convinced
> it isn't going to happen again.
>
> I have a laptop that will run off the same hub, and that worked OK, so
> not the hub or the internet connection itself.
>
> The fact that yesterday it came back bit by bit made me think it was
> hardware that was gradually failing, but now I'm far from sure. Can
> anyone suggest what is happening, and more to the point, how to
> correct it?
>
> Oh bugger as I expected it's gone off again. Switched it all off and
> went away to get lunch, now it's back on again and I can try posting
> this.
>
> Is it overheating somewhere? I may try opening up the case and giving
> the insides a thorough de-dust.
>

PS> nslookup www.sun.com
Server: UnKnown \___ My home router does not have a name.
Address: 192.168.2.1 / That number is the "gateway address".

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: e120265.dscx.akamaiedge.net
Addresses: 2600:140a:5000:9::17df:1134 \
2600:140a:5000:9::17df:1119 \___ Look for IPV4 and IPV6 addresses.
104.124.10.91 / Connecting via the wrong one, can
104.124.10.27 / be slower (due to search order).
Aliases: www.sun.com

Browser: https://www.whatismyip.net/

IP Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.156 IPv4 <=== says I used IPV4 to get there.

If we check what that web site offered, it has both.

PS> nslookup www.whatismyip.net

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.whatismyip.net
Addresses: 2606:4700:130:436c:6f75:6466:6c61:7265 <=== IPV6
172.64.80.1 <=== IPV4 (a 172.x in the public range)

An ISP can provide two DNS servers. On Windows, a dumbass algorithm
is used, where the DNS servers are always consulted in order. If
the first DNS server is down, Windows makes you wait for the timeout,
before it consults the second DNS. In Linux, the working DNS is consulted
first, and only if the working one does not respond, does Linux consider
swapping the order and trying the other one first.

In Windows, you can change the DNS, by taking the configuration off
Auto and using the dialog box to type in addresses. There are several
providers of DNS servers (Cloudflare, Google, ...) you can use in a pinch,
if your ISP DNS setup is defective. You should select these carefully,
as there can be dodgy offerings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Public_DNS 8.8.8.8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.1.1.1 1.1.1.1

The ISP DNS addresses are served to you via things like
DHCP, and instead of using a load balancer, some ISPs use a fleet of
separate DNS addresses and you can sometimes be served equipment that
is in the process of rebooting. That's what my previous ISP used to do.
I did a lot of manual entry of DNS addresses, while using that ISP.
The DNS the current ISP provides, is five nines material, and the
details are hidden behind just two addresses for the entire setup.
You never have to play with it, to get it working.

You can try a traceroute to a popular node, to see what route
the comms are taking.

PS> tracert www.sun.com

Tracing route to e120265.dscx.akamaiedge.net [104.124.10.91]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.2.1 <=== my router
2 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms \
3 20 ms 13 ms 13 ms \___ My ISP forwarding
4 13 ms 16 ms 13 ms /
5 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms <=== Some Canadian Level3 style address
6 204 ms 108 ms 13 ms ae3.torix-yto.netarch.akamai.com [23.203.148.193]
7 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms a104-124-10-91.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [104.124.10.91]

Trace complete.

Where torix would be Toronto Exchange. And that is a damn short tracert.
If I traced to my news server, it could be 12-15 hops. The news server
for this message, will be in Finland.

Paul

Mangled nameserver cached on the machine in question perhaps. That list has
to be correct as it one supposes converts the web page friendly names to the
e numeric IP addresses.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
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Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Chris Hogg" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:qgtcjihqobb72v95t9hm9r3q0mfjo8sgp4@4ax.com...
> Over the last couple of days I've been having trouble with my
> connections to various web sites that I use. I have a x64 PC running
> Win 10, a Dynamode wireless USB adapter and a BTHub6.
>
> Yesterday, and more so today, connecting to internet web sites has
> been impossible, for example Forte Agent won't connect, nor will
> Thunderbird for mail, nor Firefox for general web browsing, even
> though my Realtec USB wireless LAN utility tells me I have a good
> internet connection, the light on the Hub is blue (indicating internet
> connection) and the network and the windows internet settings utility
> tells me I have a secure connection to the internet. Firefox just
> tells me it can't connect to whatever website I try.
>
> Yesterday, the computer eventually made the appropriate connections,
> bit by bit (some started to work quite soon, but Agent and Thunderbird
> mail took a while before they would connect. I don't use TB for
> usenet), so I thought it might just be that the internet was very
> busy, but today nothing would connect. Eventually I tried a system
> restore back to two days ago, but it failed (said I'd probably got an
> AV running, and to switch that off and try again). But it all seems OK
> now, although if system restore didn't actually run, I'm not convinced
> it isn't going to happen again.
>
> I have a laptop that will run off the same hub, and that worked OK, so
> not the hub or the internet connection itself.
>
> The fact that yesterday it came back bit by bit made me think it was
> hardware that was gradually failing, but now I'm far from sure. Can
> anyone suggest what is happening, and more to the point, how to
> correct it?
>
> Oh bugger as I expected it's gone off again. Switched it all off and
> went away to get lunch, now it's back on again and I can try posting
> this.
>
> Is it overheating somewhere? I may try opening up the case and giving
> the insides a thorough de-dust.
>
> --
>
> Chris

Thanks for the suggestions. Sod's law of course, but the problem seems
to have 'gone away', at least for the moment. Fingers crossed.

But if it returns, I shall move the computer nearer to the hub and
connect it directly with an Ethernet cable. That at least will tell me
if the wireless USB adapter is at fault.

--
Chris

On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:26:11 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestions. Sod's law of course, but the problem seems
> to have 'gone away', at least for the moment. Fingers crossed.
>
> But if it returns, I shall move the computer nearer to the hub and
> connect it directly with an Ethernet cable. That at least will tell me
> if the wireless USB adapter is at fault.

It strikes me that another reason might be an IP clash. Some glitch has
caused two network members to get the same IP address, and they are
swapping between them.

--
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