Tech Support Guy banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Solved: flaky internet connection (XP)

1K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  JohnWill 
#1 ·
Hello,

My internet connection is very flaky and it's driving me batty. However, the Mac upstairs (which I am using right now) can browse the web fine through the same connection so I know it's my PC. It might have contracted a virus but I've tried every anti-virus / anti-malware software I could get my hands on. I tried restoring to a previous state, but for some reason that always failed. I tried reinstalling the network components and such too. At this point I don't know what to do other than toss out my pc and get a mac, because I need to use the internet reliably on a regular basis.

Here are the symptoms:

When I boot up my computer, the internet works fine for about 10-15 minutes (half an hour if I'm really lucky). After that point, I can't really do anything online except my email. Yes, I can connect (read/send emails) with my Gmail account (which is the start page when I launch the browser) but I can't go to any other page. Sometimes I can download stuff through P2P but still I cannot browse the web. Usually the browser takes forever (literally) to load the page. So it's as if the computer doesn't know that it cannot connect and keeps trying indefinitely (no error message). This also happens in other ways, such as when iTunes tries to download album artwork, it gets stuck in a rut and keeps spinning its wheels. If I reboot the computer, often everything is ok again... for 10-15 minutes...

here are the specs:

DSL modem connection through the phone line of a very old house
wireless router & wireless adapter on my pc (I've also tried connecting directly to the modem)
I'm running Windows XP with automatic updates. and I use firefox, chrome, and IE (whatever will work!).

In the 8 years I've had this PC I've never had this problem. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to wipe it clean & start fresh (as far as connecting to the internet is concerned) without having to reformat/reinstall or throw it out. THANKS!
 
See less See more
#4 ·
a livecd is an operating system that runs from the cd instead of installing to a hard drive. It makes NO changes to your computer at all, unless you install it.

Linux Mint is a "flavor" of Linux; its customized from the original Linux OS. Basically you download it, burn it to a CD and then reboot your machine into the CD. Then try and see if you have the same problem as you do in XP
 
#5 ·
good idea. I tried it (using Linux now) and it appears it's the software, because the internet seems fine here.

Do you know how I can fix this problem? I'd like to wipe it clean and start fresh with the networking components but I can't do a full reformat of the computer and operating system. I have 8 years of history with this computer that I'd like to keep.

Thanks!
 
#8 ·
At a minimum lose the P2P and do the following.

(From a JohnWill post)

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2 or SP3.

Start, Run, CMD, OK to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.log

Reboot the machine.
 
#10 ·
Hard to believe it was that simple, but who knows. :D

You can mark your own threads solved using the
button at the top of the first page of the thread in the upper left corner.©
:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top