h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I jinxed it! Been very difficult to connect for the past couple of days

I've managed to get online log enough to log a call with Microsoft

If that doesn't work, then I don't know what to do

Have you still got ZoneAlarm 5? As your symptoms do match what a lot of others in other forums have mentioned as a result of ZA5 and Norton and XP.

CHawke

Dunno what version of ZA you are using, but this is the link to the user opinion of the last version 5

http://www.download.com/3302-2092-10291276.html

66% against it with many comments descibing similar symptoms - try to google "zonealarm 5 problems"

Sorry to sound like a anti-ZA prohet of doom here - I still use a version 4 quite happily, but from comments elsewhere version 5 has many problems.

CHawke

Microsoft should* be sending an email to my hotmail address, but I've only just been able to get on to the net at home, so can't get to my emails on my home computer. I thought I'd try my work computer, but since we got hit with a virus, IT have stopped us from getting into hotmail

I'm going to the library at dinner to see if they have computers i can use

H plugged my PC into the back of the modem last night. Interestingly we had 6 hours of solid connection. This could have been coincidence of course, but as No1 son has a day off today, I can't hog net access, we are back to the usual arrangement. We will try it again tomorrow and see if it holds up.

It is odd that the firewall logs show no problems at all, but H will apply the new OS from Cisco when he gets the time and see if that helps.

btw, ZA v5 problems. I been running ZA v5 for since it came out with absolutly no problems. But then i ain;t running Norton. Or XP. Both of which have firewalls within them that I think don;t fully switch off.
For anti virus I use AVG, which ZA does not detect, but it doesn;t interfere with either.

ZA 5 has been extremely stable on my system, which is a complete hotchpotch Win2k system. i ran a reg cleaner the other day, got bored when it camne up with over 500 entries that should be cleaned or corrected

For those who have also had the problem, this is what I got in the email reply...







Dear Amy,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Windows Online Support Service. My name is Sophie, and I will be working with you on this issue.

I understand the problem to be as follows: Since upgrading to XP your internet connection has some problems. When you connect to the internet the pages won't load after about half an hour. Sometimes you can solve this by restarting the computer and connecting again. It happens every time you connect to the net. You have installed Spybot, but the issue still exists. You are using Mozilla Firefox to surf online. You use Tiscali Broadband to connect to the net.

The operating system is Windows XP. If I have misunderstood your concern, please don't hesitate to let me know.

As many factors may cause the issue, we need to perform troubleshooting steps to narrow down the issue.

If you use Internet Explorer (IE) to browse the web page, does this issue occur? To isolate the issue, please temporarily turn off Mozilla Firefox, then use IE to perform the troubleshooting steps. Please perform the following steps:


Step 1: Free Virus Scan
======================

To make sure there is no virus on the PC, I would recommend you perform a free online virus scan one by one:


TrendMicro - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

BitDefebder - http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php

Panda - http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

RAV - http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/indexie.php

Free Trojan Scan - http://www.trojanscan.com/


Note:
Please do not perform virus scan at the same time.
Some specific virus or spyware cannot be found by every scanner, therefore, please try every scanner.



Step 2: Please test the commands below in command mode following the steps below:
====================================================================

a. Connect to the Internet.
b. Select Start -> Run, type in "cmd" (without the quotation marks) and click OK.
c. In the command mode, please type in the following commands one by one and press Enter after each command:

Ping www.yahoo.com
Ping 66.218.71.94
Ping www.google.com
Ping 216.239.41.104


Please let me know the result after each command.

Please type in the following command in the command line window:


IPCONFIG /ALL >C:\XP.TXT

Send the C:\XP.TXT file to me as an email attachment.



To troubleshoot the issue, please collect system information of your PC and send it to me for research:
======================
1. Click on Start->Run¡­->type MSINFO32 and press Enter.
2. When System Information opens, click on File and select Save.
3. A "Save Copy As" window will appear.
4. Click the down-arrow next to the "Save In" box and select "Desktop".
5. In the "File Name" box, type your case number: SRZ040816002236. Now click Save.
6. This will save the information from System Information into an MSInfo file that will be placed on the Windows desktop.
7. Attach the file (SRZ040816002236.nfo) as an email attachment, and send it to me.



For your reference, to send attachments, please follow these steps:

1. Right-click the file that will be sent, click Send To -> Compressed Folder, and click OK when you are prompted.
2. Right-click the compressed file, click Send To , click Mail Recipient.
3. Input my email address [email protected] and send it to me.


Take your time, and let me know the results at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to let me know.


Best regards,

Sophie






I've just tried a couple of the sites she's given, but They won't load up

After doing the cmd thing and entering these Ping www.yahoo.com things...it just says "ping ... is not recognized as an internal or external command , operable program or batch file"


After entering the IPCONFIG /ALL >C:\XP.TXT into the cmd bit, I get the same response "is not recognized as an internal..."


But I have managed to do the last step!




Sophie hasn't been much help so far

Unless you have a VPN installed, Footbacon, I'm afraid this will of no use to you.

But we do, as H uses it for accessing his stuff at the office. After an hour searching all the logs on Thursday evening he found that it was the VPN logging in every 30 mins that was causing our problem. Once he disabled it we haven't had the problem since and I can get 2 hours of uninterrupted online gaming in without any problems!

SOrry for a bit of hijacking, just checked some of those links and ran the trojan scanner.
It scanned a folder called C:\RecycledNow I never heard of this folder before. It doesn't show up under Explorer, but I can cd to it under the dos window. What on earth is it? It's flipping huge!

Hello Footbacon. I know I have joined this thread late, but I have scanned the back-log quickly. Please accept that I may say something that has already been suggested.

The advice that Sophie is giving you seems to be quite good advice, though remember to stop using IE again as soon as you have followed her directions.

Firstly, what Tiscali Broadband package do you have? What I really mean is, how fast is your broadband connection meant to be? Is it 512kps, 256kps or faster perhaps? I just wanted to know how fast you should be expecting the Internet to be.

Since the problem only occurs after upgrading to the dreaded XP (is it Home or Pro, by the way?) then we can safely conclude that Windows XP has ruined your Internet connection. Am I right, or am I right?

The experience that I have had in the past with Norton AntiVirus is very bad. What version do you have and when did you last to a LiveUpdate?

Do you also have Norton's Internet Security package as part of AntiVirus? If so, then the firewall that Norton provides may be conflicting with ZoneAlarm. If you have any other anti-virus software installed, then turn one of them off because they will probably conflict with each other.

If you have the Windows XP built-in firewall enabled, it is probably best that you disable it and enable Norton, and then try the Internet; and then try it the other way around. To find out if you have the XP firewall on, go to the Control Panel and find the Network Connections area. Right-click your connection icon and select Properties, then go to the Advanced tab and there is a check-box there somewhere that deals with the XP firewall.

It is worth going through the following list of generic WinXP-related rituals if you haven't already done so. Sometimes they do no good whatsoever, but sometimes you get a glimmer of hope.

1) Defragment your hard disk.
2) Do a Windows Update and install all the latest service packs and security updates.
3) Re-install the modem and Tiscali broadband software, if there was any. (Only if you are confident with doing this).
4) Close all other programs running in the background before trying the Internet again. You can do this by right-clicking the 'task-bar' and selecting 'Task Manager' and then going through the cryptic list of processes and terminating the ones that look unnecessary.
5) Ask Tiscali for technical support. They might tell you that their packages aren't compatible with XP.
6) Run ChkDisk.
7) Do a Norton AntiVirus scan.
8) Disable AntiVirus altogether and check (very quickly) if the Internet goes any faster.
9) Re-install Windows.
10) Back-up your data, format your hard drive and then re-install everything.
11) Uninstall XP and continue using your old OS.

When I was using Windows I literally went through all of these steps at least once a year (including steps 9-11!). I don't think I could survive if I was still using Windows.

Could you post your computer's technical specs too, if you haven't already done that?

Anyway, that's the only advice that I can give at the moment. You might want to ask on the www.experts-exchange.com forums; you almost always get a quick and detailed response on there. Although given the state of your Internet connection you probably wouldn't! (Sorry).

You may have to ask somebody else to ask on a forum for you.


One other point that has entered my mind: before you upgrade to XP, the installer asks if you want an 'upgrade report' generated. This report lists software/hardware that may be incompatible or stop working after upgrading to XP. If somehow you have this report saved/printed somewhere, or if you could possibly generate it again, it might be worth scrutinising.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck.

Thanks for your help BB. I think* it might be sorted out now though...

Sophie asked for me to send some Sytem Info in an email, she saw that I've got Adaptec Cd creator which wasn't compatible with XP...So she said to unistall it and

It seems to be running smoothly so far!

But I've not got a cd creator thingy anymore

That's great.

I believe XP comes with its own basic (read 'trashy') CD creation facilities. Besides using that you'll just have to get hold of Nero, or the latest version of CD Creator, or MGI's CD/DVD creation software.

I'd love to suggest that you use K3B, which is equivalent to, if not surpassing in functionality, the commercial software mentioned above. And it's free. But it's for Linux.

Nero is good I use that out of preference, but at a pinch you can use the inbuilt cd/dvd creator that comes with XP or Windows media player.