Unable to get onto Yahoo and Flickr sites

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

For the last week or more I haven't been able to get onto the Yahoo or Flickr web sites. When I try to go to either the progress bar hangs for ages and in the case of Flickr nothing comes up at all, Yahoo does eventually show up but the page is unformatted and progressing any further stalls.? This issue started for no apparent reason..?

I am thinking a setting has changed somehow on my computer that is affecting access to these two sites..? No other web sites (including Pbase) are showing this behaviour.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

For the last week or more I haven't been able to get onto the Yahoo or Flickr web sites. When I try to go to either the progress bar hangs for ages and in the case of Flickr nothing comes up at all, Yahoo does eventually show up but the page is unformatted and progressing any further stalls.? This issue started for no apparent reason..?

I am thinking a setting has changed somehow on my computer that is affecting access to these two sites..? No other web sites (including Pbase) are showing this behaviour.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Mike

What browser and what OS are you using?

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

What browser and what OS are you using?

Internet explorer, Vista home premium

[Marke (Mark)]

Try installing firefox or chrome and see if that works, other thing to do is delete all cookies and internet cache as well .
Mark

[gary]

Hi Mike,

Sometimes when you have a scenario like you describe whereby you can access some
parts of the web quickly but other parts are very slow to load or hang, it can be
DNS related.

On your Vista machine, go to the Network and Sharing Center and for your network
click on View status. A pop-up dialog will appear. Click Properties. Another pop-up
dialog appears. Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 then select Properties.
Under the General Tab, check that you have "Obtain DNS server address
automatically" rather than using a fixed address that is outside your
own intranet which may have changed.

If it did have a fixed IP address, jot it down and using the web browser interface
to your ADSL box, login as the administrator and check what DNS address it was
assigned to see if was the same. In any case, whilst there, make sure that the
ADSL box has been configured to obtain DNS automatically rather than a pair
of fixed Primary and Secondary DNS addresses that may have been given to you
before, you set once, forgot about but now your provider has changed.

If you use a DHCP sever where you use fixed addresses anywhere in a hosts table,
make sure that two machines have not been assigned the same IP number or
that any fixed IP numbers aren't falling into the range of any that the server
has been set to deliver dynamically.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Mike,

Here's one that the general public might not have come across and would cause erratic response. If you can supply the exact hostnames your browser is trying to load we can see if it applies.

Some places are now advertising IPv6 addresses in DNS and overly clever (That's a joke, Joyce) systems like Vista and Win7 try to use them before IPv4. I think a couple of Linux distros do it too, so M$ aren't out on their Pat Malone.

Since there are vanishingly few home routers which support IPv6 (and fewer that do IPv6 tunneled in IPv4), and there are only one or two ISPs who will route IPv6 for customers, this behaviour is at present pointless and merely slows down the connection while waiting for the IPv6 connection to time out.

Assuming you aren't doing IPv6 development you can tell the o/s to disable IPv6 with no loss of function.

When your ISP and router support IPv6 you can revisit the settings.

Andrew

[gary]

Hi Mike,

One other thing to check that comes to mind that can also
exhibit this symptom is the MTU size set in your ADSL router.

Your ISP will be able to provide a recommended value but sometimes
if it is set too large, things can go amiss with packet fragmentation
handling which one can only spot by running an Ethernet packet
sniffer.

For example, if your MTU is set to 1500, you might try a lower value such
as 1492.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by gary

Hi Mike,

One other thing to check that comes to mind that can also
exhibit this symptom is the MTU size set in your ADSL router.

Your ISP will be able to provide a recommended value but sometimes
if it is set too large, things can go amiss with packet fragmentation
handling which one can only spot by running an Ethernet packet
sniffer.

For example, if your MTU is set to 1500, you might try a lower value such
as 1492.

Gary, 1492 is indeed the magic number in ADSL, leaving room for LLC/SNAP headers. Cable and wireless might be different, but similar rules probably apply to their headers.

You will not see fragmentation with a sniffer unless your IP stack sets the "don't frag" bit. The router will silently do the fragging itself.

Unfortunately Windows makes this hard to set by being a registry entry. See Article ID: 900926 but rather than 576 they are discussing use 1492.

If it seems to make no difference you can keep reducing the MTU insteps of 4 and rebooting after each trial, but the next magic number is probably 1456.

Andrew

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by gary

Hi Mike,

Sometimes when you have a scenario like you describe whereby you can access some
parts of the web quickly but other parts are very slow to load or hang, it can be
DNS related.

On your Vista machine, go to the Network and Sharing Center and for your network
click on View status. A pop-up dialog will appear. Click Properties. Another pop-up
dialog appears. Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 then select Properties.
Under the General Tab, check that you have "Obtain DNS server address
automatically" rather than using a fixed address that is outside your
own intranet which may have changed.

If it did have a fixed IP address, jot it down and using the web browser interface
to your ADSL box, login as the administrator and check what DNS address it was
assigned to see if was the same. In any case, whilst there, make sure that the
ADSL box has been configured to obtain DNS automatically rather than a pair
of fixed Primary and Secondary DNS addresses that may have been given to you
before, you set once, forgot about but now your provider has changed.

If you use a DHCP sever where you use fixed addresses anywhere in a hosts table,
make sure that two machines have not been assigned the same IP number or
that any fixed IP numbers aren't falling into the range of any that the server
has been set to deliver dynamically.

Thanks for teh ideas Gary

Ok, checked all this and nothing looks out of place..?

Originally Posted by gary

Hi Mike,

One other thing to check that comes to mind that can also
exhibit this symptom is the MTU size set in your ADSL router.

Your ISP will be able to provide a recommended value but sometimes
if it is set too large, things can go amiss with packet fragmentation
handling which one can only spot by running an Ethernet packet
sniffer.

For example, if your MTU is set to 1500, you might try a lower value such
as 1492.

Sorry, where are these settings found..?

Cheers

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Mike,

Here's one that the general public might not have come across and would cause erratic response. If you can supply the exact hostnames your browser is trying to load we can see if it applies.

Some places are now advertising IPv6 addresses in DNS and overly clever (That's a joke, Joyce) systems like Vista and Win7 try to use them before IPv4. I think a couple of Linux distros do it too, so M$ aren't out on their Pat Malone.

Since there are vanishingly few home routers which support IPv6 (and fewer that do IPv6 tunneled in IPv4), and there are only one or two ISPs who will route IPv6 for customers, this behaviour is at present pointless and merely slows down the connection while waiting for the IPv6 connection to time out.

Assuming you aren't doing IPv6 development you can tell the o/s to disable IPv6 with no loss of function.

When your ISP and router support IPv6 you can revisit the settings.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew

Where is the disable IPv6 option found?

Cheers Mike

[Lester]

Mike, you could try a system restore, to date when you had access.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Lester

Mike, you could try a system restore, to date when you had access.

Hi Lester, cheers for your advice

How does one do this? Will this wreck anything else?

[Marke (Mark)]

Have you tried a different browser yet Mike ?

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Thanks Andrew

Where is the disable IPv6 option found?

See M$ knowledge base Article ID: 929852

Andrew

[Lester]

Hi Mike, go to start on your start up screen and in the start search box, type in system restore. You can reset the date, and it will take your computer back to then, so any uploads or computer changes that have taken place will be removed or reset. I have done this a number of times when my laptop has begun misbehaving. The only time it did not work I had a trojan, that had to be removed with a new anti virus program.

All the best. Computers are lovely when working, but, when not can be frustrating.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Well guys, I downloaded Google Chrome and made it my default browser and I can get onto everything now and somewhat faster it would appear..? Have to re-enter passwords and log in info but all my favorites transferred over to bookmarks in Chrome OK too so looks like I am cooking, not not sure what happened to Explorer..?

Thanks for the ideas though guys...I probably could have fixed Exploer too but this computer incompetent baulked at that

[Marke (Mark)]

THats great Mike , I kinda guessed it was related to IE. Sometimes a cookie gets messed up or the security settings fall over and locks you out of certain sites - its typical of the behavior you saw.
Glad you back up and running , Chrome or Fox are much better anyway

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Marke

THats great Mike , I kinda guessed it was related to IE. Sometimes a cookie gets messed up or the security settings fall over and locks you out of certain sites - its typical of the behavior you saw.
Glad you back up and running , Chrome or Fox are much better anyway

Funny, if I open with IE rather than Chrome now I can get onto Flikr fine but still not Yahoo..?

Strange....

Mike

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Funny, if I open with IE rather than Chrome now I can get onto Flikr fine but still not Yahoo..?

Strange....

Yahoo groups have had all sorts of missing posts and duplicate posts over the last couple of weeks. It's probably 90% their problem, but Windows and IE are quite possibly making it worse.

I haven't had any Yahoo problems with Linux and Firefox.

Andrew

[gary]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Sorry, where are these settings found..?

Hi Mike,

Your ADSL router will typically be running its own embedded web server that
you would have accessed the first time you set it up.

Most come from the factory with a default IP address of 192.168.0.1
so if you type that IP number into the URL entry field of your browser
the ADSL web server should prompt you for an administrator login and password.

What make and model ADSL router do you have? Chances are one of us
could then find the manual for it online and tell you specifically where to look
but a typical place will be the Advanced configuration setting for the WAN.
You should see an entry designated as MTU.

Even though the behaviour changed when you changed the browser, the MTU
setting may still be the culprit and so is worth checking.

Best Regards

Gary