[carverD]

...as in I wonder what is happening to my laptop.

long story short - internet has become unstable and intermittent in what it will allow me to access / do. Yesterday no email but did have internet access.

Today have email but erratic access to internet e.g. sometimes a site will open straight away, others will hang for 20 -30 secs but mostly it will time-out.

Cannot open my homepage (my website) but can get to main page on BBC and Ebay although any links then tend to timeout.

Line tested on BT website and on Speedtest.net no problems reported.

Have run Spybot, Adaware and XoftSpySE all with no errors reported.

Network diagnostics thru IE7 sometimes says that http & https are okay but no ftp, other times it reports a problem with all 3.

Using a Voyager 210 and diagnostics on this say all ok.

Could not connect to Windows update this morning with error 'cannot connect to server' but did manage to update this afternoon.

Have tried both FireFox and IE7 on both my laptop and PC and although there are some differences in the specifc sites ie on the Laptop Vs PC - browsers on same machine have exact same problems.

I have also un-inst and re-inst Firefox and Zonealarm (free) yet the problem is still there.

If anybody has a scooby at what is going on, I would be immensely grateful if they could point me in the right direction as to what I should do.

Mucho, mucho, mucho gracias in advance.

carverD

[pr-uk]

Find out what your preferred and alternate dns numbers [your broadband provider can tell you but there are other ways] are and put them in the relevant box in your connection details [first, select the 'use the following dns server addresses' option.] if you're on xp, to get there go to start, hover over 'connect to', right click on 'network connectiions' , left click 'properties', then scroll down the list that is in the 'general' option; highlight the last item and click the properties button below it. Don't fill in any IP addresses. Fill in the DNS ones. that solved my recent wonky connection.

If that doesn't solve your problem, or even b4 trying that, switch your router off for a few minutes. Routers get gunked up from noise on the line. and/or run an antispyware program. and make sure all phone connections in your house/flat have a dongle thing stuck in them to dampen noise on the line. also, zap your temporary internet files. and make sure you are getting a strong signal.

also, note that wireless phones systems can effect wireless broadband signals, as indeed can neighbours' wireless broadband signals - you can get into your router and change the network number you are on, and see if that improves things, just in case your neighbours signal is upsetting yours.

[carverD]

pr-uk,

Hadn't thought about forcing the DNS input but will try that today.

Have already done the switch on / off (and even reset and restarted the router) and running spyware and adware with no problems reported so not much luck in these areas.

Dongles - check, tried switching them over as well just in case it was hardware but seems to make no difference :-(

Last point about neighbours is interesting tho - every time I boot up I get a message saying that other networks are available altho their signal never used to peak above 35% - 40% - so will keep an eye on that.

Finally, just in case this makes a difference, about a month ago the phone rang and when I informed the caller she had the wrong number she apologised and hung-up.

Few minutes later phone rang again, same lady saying she was positive she'd dialled XXX when I told her my number was YYY.

At first I thought she was just mistaken so I called my own number (YYY) from the mobile and it rang-out but didn't ring in the house.

So then I called the XXX number and lo and behold it did ring in the house.

Strange eh, anyway I logged on to the 'net and picked up my email with no apparent problem yet it appeared my telephone number had changed.

Thought this was a bit strange as my broadband / 'net surely is connected to the house number and yet email got through okay.

Reported it to BT the next day and they gave me some guff about a bit of metal having slipped and making the wrong connection, however the following day my number re-appeared as normal and email still appeared okay.

Maybe nothing to do with the present 'net problem but a wee aside just in case it rings any bells to anyone (sorry for the appalling pun)

pr-uk - many thanks for the advice, will let you know what transpires.

carverD

[Cookiegal]

I've edited your first post. Please be sure to watch your language and I suggest you read the forum rules.

http://www.techguy.org/rules.html

[carverD]

to all - I apologise for my use of profanity - it will not happen again

carverD

[Cookiegal]

Originally Posted by carverD

to all - I apologise for my use of profanity - it will not happen again

carverD

Thank you.

[pr-uk]

i had a similar phone problem a few years back. suddenly, i was taking calls for my neighbour...and she was taking mine. bt had acidentally linked up the wrong lines when doing a repair. btw, on the netgear router, channels can be changed via 'wireless settings' in the setup bit. that might solve your problems. the dongles i mentioned are the noise dampeners/splitters that go into spare phone sockets. you will also have one that your router phone line fits into.

[carverD]

apologies for delay in reply - working Sunday and couldn't get on at all yesterday.

Anyway today is a new day and my laptop appears to be working (hurrah) however my PC wont access 'net or email (ya boo sucks).

It will hook up to the 'net but it won't even open my homepage and MS Outlook's test facility fails on all accounts other than acknowledging that it is connected.

As for the dongles, i switched them over (I have two) and no change, I even hooked the laptop up to where the line enters the house in the attic but again it made no diff with either dongle.

At the moment I'm waiting for BT to get back to me on whether an engineer might have to come out - I'll keep you posted.

carverD

[pr-uk]

have you tried re-setting the router from scratch...i.e. from default settings...and/or switching off any firewalls? for a while my avg firewall would automatically go into block web access mode.

[pr-uk]

have you tried forcing a connection via ie7? a few months ago that was the only way i could get on the web. onspeed [or maybe uninstalling it...a bit of it got left behind] was the cause of that problem [which i resolved by finding a few letters to type in somewhere..forget now]. use the network diagnostic tool that comes up on explorer when explore can't connect, the follow the instructions.

or are your proxy servers turned on and need to be turned off?

[carverD]

pr-uk,

usual apologies for length of time before reply - work unfortunately

Router first, yup tried reset and restore, but no overall change.

I also forced the preferred and alternate DNS numbers to no avail.

Have had a cursory look at the proxy's but in comparison with some friends PC's and a bit of digging they appear to be fine.

I un-inst both my firewall and anti-v before re-installing the latest versions as well as trying it before re-inst with no firewall or anti-v.

When I was first having this problem I went thru the net diagnostics and what I've discovered is that throughout I can make a connection to the 'net - borne out by the BT line test and thru Speedtest.net.

Typicall values are 120ms / down 4800 / up 374

Thus (having spent 15 years in IT as a system tester) indications would point to it being my software (like you say firewall perhaps) but this falls down as it also happens on my PC.

On my laptop I have XP Media and on the PC XP Pro SP2 (or is it 3) so they're not linked in any way as well as different versions of my firewall and anti-v.

As of now I can get on the net with the laptop and get my email thru the PC so I'll give it until the end of the month before I get BT out - it's amazing what kind of service you get if you email the CEO of a company when you're having problems - lol.

Football tomorrow and a Christening on Sunday means I won't be back on before Monday - thanks for ALL your help and advice, have a nice weekend and I'll update start of next week.

carverD

[pr-uk]

try going onto IE and getting on the web. then choose the diagnostics option that will pop up if you can get on the web. you might learn from that what the problem is, if it doesn't get you on the web [ i.e. it will tell you what the problem might be, or is.] that option also has a log, which might be useful.

[carverD]

Hi,

pr-uk - have tried diagnostics on both Mozilla and IE7 on both the laptop and the PC.

The main gripe is I have no consistency - logically I'm looking for similiarities to get a base to work from, and with this every day it's different with the main problem being that when I hook up to the 'net I get a connection okay with a line speed of roughly 3500 (whether thru Speedtest or the BT website) but I can't access the email server and when it downloads webpages none of the photo's come thru.

And when I say it's different every day, some days I can access email and others not, and it doesn't matter if it's the PC or the Laptop.

It's like something is (occasionally) inhibiting either access to email and / or webpage photo's and other times it's fine.

I'll give it until this weekend and if there is no difference I'm going to get a mates laptop which I know works well on his BT line and hook it up to mine to see what we get (he runs XP home) so that'll be 3 different OS and if that has problems then I'll at least know it's not my problem.

After that I'll get a BT engineer out and see what they make of it and in the meantime I'll un-install and re-install all my software and see if that makes any difference.

As always ta v much for your time and input, will update soon as.

carverD

[pr-uk]

Have you tried changing channels on your router...in case your neighbours' networks are interfering with yours?

[carverD]

pr-uk,

thanks for all your advice but I think I'm just going to have to live with the problem.

BT say there is nothing wrong with the line and at least (for now) I'm getting all my email but websites are still hit and miss - sometimes the photo's appear and sometimes not, and occassionally only some of the photo's appear (not such a good thing for a photographer - lol).

So for now I'll mark this as fixed / sorted and during the Xmas hols I'm going to re-install on both the PC and Laptop and see what happens.

Merry Crimbo and happy new year to all

R

carverD