Help needed for internet connection problem before I start chucking stuff

[[1ponders]]

Over the past 24 hours I've been having nothing but problems with my internet connection (broadband with aanet using Netgear modem with wireless connection to my laptop).

It started last night about midnight after coming in from an imaging session and I couldn't get internet connect on my laptop (it was fine half an hour before outside). So I turned my modem off for about 10 sec and then switched it back on, which normally fixes any connection problems. No good. So I turned on my desktop. Same problem, so I rebooted my modem and went through the initialization process. Still no good. Decided to go to bed and worry about it in the morning.

Got up this morning and had a bit of a play and manage to repair the connection between the internet and both the laptop and the desktop. Came home from work this afternoon and nothing again. So I rang aanet tech dest for assistance. While hanging on the line I managed to get the desktop up and going again and when the tech came on he gave me some DNS numbers to put in. Since then I have been having problems with my yahoo mail, very slow loading (if at all) of pages and I have been unable to upload images to here. This seems mainly to be through my laptop. I keep getting the message (both yahoo and here )- the page cannot be displayed) Does anyone have any ideas as I am going not so slowly more nuts than normal.

The problem seems to be limited to my LT atm as my desktop appears to be working fine. I couldn't even create this thread on my laptop

[acropolite]

May be a fault on your DSL modem, your line or a host of other variables. Check your lappy for spyware etc and disable anything that starts up automatically such as skype etc, then try reconnecting the wireless. I've seen laptop/wireless combinations bring the router and modem down because an app is hammering the IP connection trying to get out before the wireless has properly established it's connection.

[[1ponders]]

I'll give it a go Phil. I've removed the wireless and connected with cable and testing a couple of uploads, then I'll remove the cable and reconnect the wireless, reboot and see what happens

[[1ponders]]

Nah, looks like it is choking even on the cable connection. Simple text post work alright but try to include an image and it chokes.

[[1ponders]]

I'll try an image upload from here.

[[1ponders]]

Ok sweet as from the desktop but no go from the laptop. Both running cable through the same router/modem

[[1ponders]]

Somehow, I don't know how there seems to be some problem with my firewall. If I turn the firewall off I can upload here and access downloads from my yahoo email np. Turn the firewall on and nothing. Which is really strange as I have not made any changes to my firewall settings.

[gbeal]

Now you know why I love my Mac

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

I can't explain why it suddenly stopped working, but have you allowed sufficient DHCP addresses to permit all your devices to attach? In my case, I have set a limit of 3 for desktop, wife’s desktop and notebook. If you exceed this limit, the Router will not allocate a DHCP IP address to the extra device thus banning it from the network.

Also, have you enabled MAC address filtering, restricting access to only those MAC addresses you entered as permitted in the Router software application? Has a MAC address changed? E.g. new network card.

Can the desktop and laptop communicate over the wired network?
Has the firewall been update automatically from the web and maybe re-set some default setting?

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

what firewall software do you have on the lappy, uninstall it then reload it from scratch and configure. You should be able to see your connection in the network card settings before any of this. Call me and I can step you through it if you like

[[1ponders]]

double dutch to me Dennis, But what I do understand; yes the laptop and desktop can communicate to each other either by cable or wireless. Firewall hasn't been updated that I know of and I have programs requiring updates to ask before updating.

h0ughy, I'm using Sygate, which I've never had any probs with before. I uninstalled it and still have the same problem.

I do recall one thing from the previous night when I was outside, I went to do an update with Starry Night Pro and couldn't. It said it was blocked or prevented or some such rubbish.

The network says I'm connected np. The really bizarre bit is it seems to be really selective in what itsn't uploaded or downloaded.

[RB]

Paul I have that problem too sometimes with SN Pro. :mad2:

Your problem I think is your firewall.
What I do to get updates is to turn off the firewall for a short time while it updates.
I know it's a no-no but I can't find a solution either.

:(

Sorry I can't help with your prob.
:shrug:

[RAJAH235]

Paul. Which browser & Sygate firewall version are you using? Firefox did an auto update & Yahoo have also changed a few things on their servers. Lots of niggles all round..:D L.

[EzyStyles]

since you are running in a network environment 2 comps, go into your adsl modem interface screen and enable DHCP. Assign each computer with an IP address eg comp 1: 10.0.0.2 comp 2: 10.0.0.3 . also since it is a wireless adsl modem router, make sure your mac addresses for both wireless cards as well as your wep key is entered in the modem interface. easiest way to test is to share files between the comps. if you can transfer files from one to another , it is not your firewall.

[[1ponders]]

That's all over my head like a circus tent Eric. But I can transfer files, I know that as I did that last night to get something uploaded. Only my laptop is wireless, the desktop is cable connected.

I'm going to ask a couple of dumb questions here, how do I get to my adsl modem interface screen? Is that where I type http://192.168.0.1 into IE address bar. What are mac addresses? The wep key I know is done. Acropolite helped me with that one ages ago.

As soon as I turn sygate off, everything (that I know of) runs like a charm, turn it back on and I start pulling my hair out.

Laurie, I have Version 5.6 build 2808, and using IE for browser

[EzyStyles]

hi paul. yep definitely not your firewall then if you can transfer files from one comp to another. i get your setup. Thats correct. to access your modem interface screen usually it is 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1 etc.. etc. depends on the brand of modem you are using. the last 2 digits are always '0.1 . 0.1 is your router and 0.2 is your comp1 and 0.3 is your comp2 etc..etc. 'I believe you are using a netgear modem? . Each computer peripheral has a unique set of numbers which are called mac addresses for security as well as for identification. like barcodes. To allow a secure wireless connection and also identification from your wireless router, you use these mac numbers. That way, the wireless router can pick it up straight away instead of scanning it. Much faster. and yes... geeks rule lol :D

[[1ponders]]

Yep both card and modem are netgear.

[EzyStyles]

firstly, i take no responsibilities :P

go here (attached devices) after entering in your un/pw for your modem.
http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?todo=nbtscan&next_file=devices.htm

You should see your connected devices. Is the laptop showing that it is connected? if so , you will be able to see it's network card mac address.copy these numbers down.

Then go here (wireless settings)
http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?next_file=wire_sel.htm&todo=cfg_init

click on the add button and enter in name and mac address which you copied before. eg: name = laptop and mac address = 01:5a:53:b7:e5:11

click apply after that and that should save the setting. If it doesnt work or improve it later, follow the last link and simply remove it. What you have done just now is adding your wireless network card identification from the laptop into your wireless router. It should detect and connect to it straight away. give it a shot.

remember, i take no responsibilities if anything goes wrong :D

[EzyStyles]

forgot to mention , go here: (LAN ip setup)

http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?next_file=lan.htm&todo=cfg_init

do you have 'user router as DHCP server' ticked? under that you should see starting and ending ip address. what are the numbers in these?

and those links are for a Netgear ADSL modem router. If you have cable, it might be different but might also still work or find it manually in the interface.

[[1ponders]]

from your first link "device" is showing as Unknown

[EzyStyles]

once you are in the interface, any menu on the left hand side label 'attached devices'?

[[1ponders]]

The starting and ending ip addresses are
192.169.0.1
and
192.168.0.254

[[1ponders]]

No menu on the left hand side at all. There normally is if I enter the inerface the usual way. I'll check.

[EzyStyles]

change the starting IP to 192.168.0.1 instead of 192.169.0.1 unless typing mistake. :P . enter interface usual way.

[[1ponders]]

Just tried to upload again, still no luck

[EzyStyles]

once you are in the interface mode from normal way, on the l-h-side under content filtering, click firewall rules. What have you got under outbound services?

[[1ponders]]

Sorry Eric it is 168, typo :rolleyes:

[[1ponders]]

Yes, any, ALLOW always, any, any, never.

for inbound
yes, any, BLOCK always, any, any, never

[[1ponders]]

BTW I discovered this afternoon that I can't send email through outlook express either

[EzyStyles]

but you can surf the net with the laptop fine?

[[1ponders]]

not a problem there.

[[1ponders]]

I'm working on the laptop now.

[EzyStyles]

i missed this. Under devices you can't see anything connected? then therefore your laptop isn't picking up your desktop router. after entering in the mac addresses check 'attached devices' again and see if anything comes up.

[[1ponders]]

I just got this message in sygate
Application Hijacking has been detected
The application: C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgamsvr.exe try to launch another application: C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avginet.exe to go to remote host

for some reason Sygate is blocking my antivirus

[[1ponders]]

Got an ip address and a mac address but device is listed as Unknown

[EzyStyles]

that error message means that avg antivirus is trying to update itself but sygate is blocking the update. what sygate does is it blocks outgoing communication. You have already uninstall sygate and reinstall it but still no go so your problem shouldnt be sygate.

[EzyStyles]

thats ok. now go back into interface mode and click wireless settings on the l-h-side menu. click button setup access list and under available wireless station. you should see the unknown. click add.

[[1ponders]]

Turn Access control is unticked

Trusted wireless stations shows the "unknown" with mac address as "deleted mac address :P "
Available Wireless stations is empty

[EzyStyles]

remove the 61.x.x.x.x ip and don't post your real mac lol . ok still under wirelesss station access list, type in the name field eg: laptop and type in the mac address. then click 'add' then 'apply' button .

[[1ponders]]

What 61.x.x.x from where?

[EzyStyles]

:( have to pick up my mrs from the train station and gonna grab abit of tea. will be back on tonight around 9-10ish est

[EzyStyles]

from the sygate error message post. edit that post and remove the ip as well as edit the macaddress post and remove it :P

[wasyoungonce]

1ponders, aanet e-mail has been up and down a bit lately.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=102

In fact their service appears to be showing alot of hiccups since they were sold to EFtel.

i too am on seeing problems.

[[1ponders]]

this keeps coming up

An application named NT Kernel & System (file name ntoskrnl.exe) has been blocked from accessing the network.

[[1ponders]]

NP Eric, I'll be around. Thanks for you help

[[1ponders]]

Thanks WYO. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having probs :P

[EzyStyles]

Hi back :P how is it going now?

[[1ponders]]

:bashcomp:

[EzyStyles]

when the error message comes up "An application named NT Kernel & System (file name ntoskrnl.exe) has been blocked from accessing the network", is the firewall on? I know that and previous error message are caused from the firewall. but the firewall shouldnt stop you from uploading images nor acessing websites.

[[1ponders]]

I tried adding that laptop with the mac address but it wouldn't let me

"That address already exists"

[[1ponders]]

yes the firewall is on

[EzyStyles]

you might want to read this. Refers to the error message:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t43615.html

Is that error from the laptop or your desktop? if you can now surf the net, you wouldnt need to worry about the mac addresses as now the router is connected to the lappy.

[EzyStyles]

you might also want to completely scan both computers for viruses. make sure you have the latest virus definitions.

[EzyStyles]

check out this link Paul

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=61256

Don't want to scare you but remove the virus first before doing anything else.

[[1ponders]]

That is what pops up from time to time, but not when I'm trying to upload, use OE or yahoo.

[[1ponders]]

Damn.

Ok I'll have a good read of that forum and see what I need to do.:mad2:

[[1ponders]]

It only pops up on my laptop. Is it likely to be the cause of my problems?

[[1ponders]]

I'm running the virus check and ntoskrnl.exe came up clean

[[1ponders]]

no virus', though you're links provide disturbing reading. I don't know though if this is my connection problem or a separate situation

[EzyStyles]

apologise for the late reply. was watching a movie with the mrs and fell asleep. it might be paul since it is only popping up on the laptop. Is the anti-virus on the laptop updated with the latest definition?

[[1ponders]]

Yes it is and after running it nothing was found, though it did recognise the ntoskrnl.exe file in the root directory. And I ran a full Spybot and Adaware but nothing there.

I've blocked ntoskrnl with the firewall, and I played around with a few other things. Unfortunately now the whole damn thing has crashed somehow. I'm going to leave it for the weekend and try again Monday as I won't need internet connection with it until then. Plus the frustration has reached eyeball level (ie I've had it up to....here)

Thanks for you help Eric. If it's ok with you I'll give yo a holler on Monday maybe.

[acropolite]

Ponders, this link (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;287664&sd=tech)may be of help. It seems that there are some trojans/viruses that modify the ntoskrnl.exe. If that's not your problem I would do some google searches as there are a lot of problems that effect the ntoskrnl.exe file. Another option is to load Ethereal (downloadable) which will analyse your IP traffic and may give a clue as to where your web browser is trying to access.

[[1ponders]]

Thanks Phil. I'm going to leave everything until Monday now as I'll be a Ron's all weekend. Plus I'll be able to look at the problem with fresh eyes :mad2:

[EzyStyles]

Try other anti-virus if you can . AVG definition might not have it.

[wasyoungonce]

yep, ntoskrnl.exe is a boot process and should not be asking for access to the net if it is it is a virus:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ntoskrnl/

w32.bolzano or variant virus.

http://service1.symantec.com/sarc/sarc.nsf/html/W32.Bolzano.html

this tool at symantec might help::help:
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2000-121515-4146-99&tabid=3

edit again. 1ponders i also have aanet and am using the netgear modem, 834G although i'm not using the wireless link.

[netwolf]

Paul, I would bet that its your Sygate firewall. As such i am not sure why you have this if you have a router modem it alredy should provide you with a firewall . I know some people reccomend a firewall on the PC also but its not realy necessary. I would further say that perhaps Sygate has recived an update that is causing the problem. Otherwise you have perhaps unknowingly answered a popup question by Sygate that is causing the issue.

If no issue exists when Sygate is disabled then that would be the most likely source of the problem. In my humble opinion.

Regards

[Dennis]

Hi Netwolf

I use both the Router firewall (HW) and Norton Internet Security firewall (SW) simply because I can configure the SW to allow or prevent applications accessing the internet, something that I think is not possible with the HW firewall?

Cheers

Dennis

[netwolf]

Dennis,

You are 100% right one of the benifits of the local PC firewall is to filter outgoing traffic. And I did not mean to advocate disuse of it. Most home modem/Router based firewalls only protect you from incomming traffic. This outgoing filtering helps in protecting one from malicious code that you unwitingly allow to run on your system that feeds back information from your system to an outside IP. Steve Gibb's the security guru very aptly demonstrated this using a simple program he asks you to download and run that makes a ftp connection and notifys you of a leak. The point he is making is that the software made an outgoing connection without your permission. Normally you do want to use FtP but you want to specify when wher and to whom.

Usualy such malicious software is aptly named Trojan horse, as per the greek myth it is let in unwtingly by the user. However such software can also be disabled by most modern malicious malware that is created to detect such software and disable it calling into question its usefullness. In Paul's case i do not mean to advocate the disuse of Sygate, but rather to point out that it is the casue of the problem.

I belive that Paul's problem lies in the Sygate software rather than his network setup for the following reasons:
1. He can use internet with it disabled.
2. He can talk to other computers on his local network while it is on or disabled..

The above two would indcate his network settings are not the problem.

One issue most common with home modem routers can be DNS forwarding. Usualy the DHCP server on such Home modem routers is set to make itself the DNS server for PC's behind it. Basicaly the PC's send DNS request to it and then it pases to the DNS Server provided by the ISP to the modem/router.
I have found that its usually better to make your DHCP Server set DNS on internal systems to the ISP provided dns servers. AS this forwarder can often get overloaded and stops working in many of these home modem routers.

But if this was the problem or if there was another network config issue, then his Internet connection would not work when his local Sygate firewall was disabled.

Regards

[[1ponders]]

Well I ended up chucking something - Sygate. After uninstalling it and reinstalling it and still having problems, I decided to pitch it and give ZoneAlarm a go.

So far all systems look good :thumbsup: Fingers crossed I've finally got it sussed.

I still have to check out that possible virus issue though :doh:

[[1ponders]]

I don't know if this is an update on an existing problem or it's a whole new one. Someone here might be able to tell me if the two are connected.

This morning I got a phone call from the helpful people at Westpac credit card security. It appears someone tried to spend $500 US on my credit card at 04:00 this morning :eyepop: There is no drama now as the payment has been cancelled and an investigation is under way. I've checked the usual likely scenarios of having the CC info compromised and it all seems clear atm (my investigation is ongoing).

However I am wondering if my info could have been sent from my computer if my firewall was not functioning. I stopped using Sygate for a while, and I hadn't as yet installed ZoneAlarm to monitor outgoing traffic and I'm wondering if during this time this bolzano virus (if I have it - still looking) or some other malware may have sent my info out.

Is this possible or am I totally barking?

[RB]

Paul a month or so ago I had the same thing happen to me.
It was on my cc which I also use for PayPal.
I've cancelled both now.

:sadeyes:

[[1ponders]]

It's not the sort of morning wake up call that I would normally ask for, but all things considered I'm glad they called :scared:

I'll certainly be looking at how I conduct my online purchases more closely now.

[Dennis]

I had a similar occurrence. The CBA ‘phoned me saying that some “Family Tree” organisation in the USA has tried to debit our CC for $40.00 so the card was immediately cancelled. It seems that in this crime scenario, they go fishing for small amounts and if they get away with it, they’ll start hitting you for larger and larger amounts.

I would imagine that your number was obtained from poor data handling practices at an overseas supplier, a dishonest employee, bank stuff ups (a US bank once lost storage media containing 3,500,00 CC transaction details) rather than someone breaking into your computer? Just guessing here.

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

You could well be right Dennis. I'm generally very careful about how I carry out Online transactions, but this has certainly been a wakeup call. I'm in the process atm of going over my various computers and checking that all security/adware/spyware detection is uptodate and funtioning.

[SMR]

Sorry, Eric, but this doesn't make sense. If you enable DHCP, each computer will be assigned an IP address by the router. If you manually assign IP addresses to each computer, you don't need (and aren't using) DHCP. It's one or the other, mate.

Steve.

[netwolf]

SMR,
I think Eric, is talking about DHCP assignment using MAC addresses. I use this to ensure only the MAC addresses i have on my network can get IP's. DHCP allows for IP assignment be MAC address. It usefull if you want to have your PC's get the same IP everytime, this makes port forwarding easier.

Regards

[SMR]

Sounds logical. Thanks!

Steve.