Computer Help/Understanding - Connection Interrupted

[GingerGolden]

Hi, it seems that this is the message I get about 8.5 out of 10 x while trying to load any of the pages here (it does seem to happen more on this site than any other site).

Unfortunately, I spend more time trying to load a page than reading or replying.

Can someone tell me exactly what this means and if there is someway that I can fix this?

I am on dial up connection.

Vista Home/Windows with a Foxfire browser.

Thank you.

Connection Interrupted

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again.

Edited March 14, 2009 by GingerGolden

[john doe]

Is this a new thing? I know I have been dealing with a similar problem. My browser stops after 15-30 minutes. I have to restart Vista to make it work again. I understand that this may be a problem with Vista, but I haven't figured out the procedure to correct it. Something to do with deleting and reinstalling my TCP/IP drivers.

[Guest tomk]

Perhaps open a command prompt, then try ipconfig /flushdns?

Try "Googling" with those error messages.

[Mahone]

Perhaps open a command prompt, then try ipconfig /flushdns?

Try "Googling" with those error messages.

Agree with first point, though googling those errors is unlikely to come up with direct solution as there are 1000's of things that can cause that error.

Are you sharing the internet connect on a home network? Are you on a wireless network? Do you have any local network issues like being disconnected every now and then?

Vista is well known for wireless problems - in fact vista has so many problems and my network at home is probably more complicated than most so I needed the connection to be perfect, I got rid of vista completely and went back to XP - been fine ever since.

Again, if you have a wireless network, there could be interference with another wireless network in the local area on the same channel.

Depending on how your network is set up, there could be IP conflicts, though to be honest, if you have a router/access point, most have DHCP enabled by default nowadays which prevent the user having to mess with IP settings.

Does it happen on just your computer, or other computers on the local network as well (if you have a network?)

If could also be noise on your phone line. Does your internet connection get disconnected spontaneously? You might want to get the phone company to run a test on the phone line.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Mahone

[MikeUpton]

Several things I would do: for one i am a heavy advocate of firewalls when connecting to the internet. not to sure on vista, but in windows xp, an unpatched computer connected directly to the internet WILL be infected with a virus within 10 minutes.

Survival Time | SANS Internet Storm Center; Cooperative Network Security Community - Internet Security - isc

this About Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall recommends the use of software firewalls, however i recommend taking it a step further with a router. However this could only be said for a broadband connection, unless you understand how to connect with dial up through a gateway which most people don't. So, dial up through a gateway is not the best advice for many, and perhaps pointless to mention here. Personally I would never ever ever connect in windows without a hardware (not software) firewall in windows. Such as a network router. But thats me.

My point? I hate dial up for this additional reason, its not only slow, its unsafe in windows.

But, if you'd just like to fix your internet connection and get onto the internet without everything hanging up, heres what i recommend. clear all your cache and cookies. In firefox its tools, then clear private data. delete all internet cache and cookie files. Good idea to do this in internet exploder too(internet explorer hehe). just go to tools, internet options, and on the general tab, hit the delete button. then you will be given a different selection of things you can delete. this is for internet explorer users obviously, and wont affect firefox, but i post this for anyone else who is having problems.

Next, open a command prompt. To do this, go to the start button or orb, then all programs, then accessories, then command prompt. A black box will pop up where you can type in windows commands. Here is the command you want to type.

netsh winsock reset

hit enter. you will be given a message to reboot. If you've installed any third party firewalls, chances are they will need to be reinstalled. This resets your "winsock settings" to factory defaults.

Good luck! Remember these are just general tips, and may not specifically work for your problem, although they do tend to fix the majority of internet problems.

Edited March 14, 2009 by MikeUpton
attention deficit disorder

[Mahone]

but in windows xp, an unpatched computer connected directly to the internet WILL be infected with a virus within 10 minutes.

I tested this myself once about five years ago. Took less than 10 seconds before I noticed unusual behaviour and found none standard processes running

[MikeUpton]

one more thing, i love this little utility, what it does is automatically clean out all temp folders, browser cache files, cookies, etc etc etc, whatever temp files are left behind by many applications on your computer. Its quick, and its easy, and it used to be called crap cleaner, so how can you get much better than that?

CCleaner - Home

[Mahone]

Good points Mike, I was steering towards it being a more of a network issue, though you are correct in saying most people don't normally know how to share dialup.

[MikeUpton]

yea reason I recommended those things, they're connecting in windows with dial up, very likely something crawled onto the computer and made its home there. You're right about it being a network issue, often malware will blow out the networking stack in windows, or just make enough modifications so that it doesn't run well. Chances are, its malware and doing this will just fix the internet problem but still makes the internet accessible for the virus too.

I ran wireshark (Wireshark: Go deep.) on my home network shortly after a computer got infected. It was a worm, and hosed the network stack, trying to modify it i guess. But i sat there with my sniffer watching over a hub at the network traffic. When I went back to the infected computer and reset the winsock settings, sure enough it started spraying malformed UDP packets all over the internet. The computer could get on the net, but the virus did too.

Whoever posted, make sure you have a decent virus scan on your computer, fully updated, and scan well. Virus scans aren't the end all be all to finding viruses, they often fall short of their intended job, but its good to do it anyways. The word "Windows" is often synonymous with the word virus nowadays, much to Microsoft's chagrin, but well you do what you can.

As a general rule, I don't trust computers. You do what you can to make things more secure, but I like to think of a Windows home computer as more of a hotel than a fortress. Keep your guard up about anything you put on your computer or type on your computer when your computer is connected to the internet.

Sometimes its helped me to reinstall firefox. I don't know that this is a virus, the things I've mentioned are simple suggestions of things to look out for. Often when network settings are blown its due to a virus, but not always. Once not too long ago I had this problem and had success when i reinstalled firefox.

Edited March 14, 2009 by MikeUpton

[Mahone]

Whoever posted, make sure you have a decent virus scan on your computer, fully updated, and scan well. Virus scans aren't the end all be all to finding viruses, they often fall short of their intended job, but its good to do it anyways. The word "Windows" is often synonymous with the word virus nowadays, much to Microsoft's chagrin, but well you do what you can.

As a general rule, I don't trust computers. You do what you can to make things more secure, but I like to think of a Windows home computer as more of a hotel than a fortress. Keep your guard up about anything you put on your computer or type on your computer when your computer is connected to the internet.

Sensible way of looking at it :)

I don't like windows - it was designed from the ground up to be user friendly, though to do that they sacrificed security. This was acceptable before the internet became common place in homes, floppy discs were the most likely source of a virus and therefore involved social engineering to get the user to run a program from the disc.

However Microsoft have been dragging their feet in changing their methods - hence why a plain old XP installation without extra user added security will get infected in seconds when connected to the internet yet an unprotected linux box went months in a honeypot test I read up on. With vista, they attempted to copy some linux security features, but in the only way I can put it without using language against this forum rules, they screwed up big time - lets hope windows 7 is what vista should have been and the "wow" really is coming :)

As a side note, I use a live linux CD (knoppix) for any important data I need to enter into my computer to send over the internet, like bank details - much less risk then doing it on a windows computer.

[GingerGolden]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your replies and helpfulness.

John Doe, I'm new here, maybe about a week I think.

So, yes it's new to me, but not sure if it's new to the site... Thanks

Ummm... guys, I don't understand the half of what you said with the computer speak. (Sorry, I guess I should have asked for the CliffNotes)

I'm not on a network.

The computer is a HP laptop, not sure of the model. One of my online bosses ordered it for me, I picked it up from Best Buy. I'd have to turn it over or go dig the box out of storage. It is set up for wireless, but way out here in the woods, there is no wireless nearby.

I guess I've had it for about 6 months.

The Boss had me install Webroot/Spysweeper on it shortly after receiving it. I don't go onto ummm, any sites that are well known for providing their guests with viruses.

If anything shows up to be, contagious the spysweeper throws up a warning and I block and get out of Dodge. I do not think it is a virus or any kinda of pc nasty. And I do not open emails unsolicited emails.

Mike, if I do this:

clear all your cache and cookies. In firefox its tools, then clear private data. delete all internet cache and cookie files. Good idea to do this in internet exploder too(internet explorer hehe). just go to tools, internet options, and on the general tab, hit the delete button. then you will be given a different selection of things you can delete. this is for internet explorer users obviously, and wont affect firefox, but i post this for anyone else who is having problems.

Next, open a command prompt. To do this, go to the start button or orb, then all programs, then accessories, then command prompt. A black box will pop up where you can type in windows commands. Here is the command you want to type.

netsh winsock reset

hit enter. you will be given a message to reboot. If you've installed any third party firewalls, chances are they will need to be reinstalled. This resets your "winsock settings" to factory defaults.

Will it delete my webroot/spysweeper?

I don't want to have to reinstall this program, since it takes nearly a days time to do so.

(I think I answered all the questions, I began this hours ago, but had unexpected company.)

I appreciate your time, thank you.

Edited March 15, 2009 by GingerGolden

[Mahone]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your replies and helpfulness.

John Doe, I'm new here, maybe about a week I think.

So, yes it's new to me, but not sure if it's new to the site... Thanks

Ummm... guys, I don't understand the half of what you said with the computer speak. (Sorry, I guess I should have asked for the CliffNotes)

I'm not on a network.

The computer is a HP laptop, not sure of the model. One of my online bosses ordered it for me, I picked it up from Best Buy. I'd have to turn it over or go dig the box out of storage. It is set up for wireless, but way out here in the woods, there is no wireless nearby.

I guess I've had it for about 6 months.

The Boss had me install Webroot/Spysweeper on it shortly after receiving it. I don't go onto ummm, any sites that are well known for providing their guests with viruses.

If anything shows up to be, contagious the spysweeper throws up a warning and I block and get out of Dodge. I do not think it is a virus or any kinda of pc nasty. And I do not open emails unsolicited emails.

Mike, if I do this:

Will it delete my webroot/spysweeper?

I don't want to have to reinstall this program, since it takes nearly a days time to do so.

(I think I answered all the questions, I began this hours ago, but had unexpected company.)

I appreciate your time, thank you.

If webroot acts as a firewall (which it seems it does), then yes, you'll likely have to reinstall it. But why did it take a day to install? Was that due to having to download it over a dialup connection? In that case, I can understand your frustration - if you kept the installation file, you won't need to have to download it again though.

However clearing your cache and cookies won't require you to reinstall. In firefox, click on Tools >> Clear private data and then select all available tick boxes. Alternatively, you can just download cccleaner which should do all that for you - it is a useful piece of software as Mike said.

However if doing that doesn't work, something else I can suggest which should show us whether you are really infected with a virus or not is to download and run http://majorgeeks.com/download3155.html . When you download that, open it, extract it to your desktop and then run the extracted file. Tell it to create a log then copy and paste that log here. This will tell us all the processes that are running on your PC and also all the potentially suspicous activites such as auto loading registry keys. We can take a look and tell you whether you are infected or not. WARNING: Do NOT tell it to "fix" any processes until we tell you to. Most of them will be legitimate, if not all of them, and deleting the wrong ones could screw up your computer.

The other potential problem is noise on your phone line. It's quite common with dialup and causes all sorts of connection problems. If you live in the woods with no close neighbours then it's likely your line has to travel some distance, and you may end up having to contact the phone company to ask them to do a test on it.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Mahone

[MikeUpton]

show us whether you are really infected with a virus or not is to download and run |MG| HijackThis 1.99.1

Oh snap! Hijack this! logs on the lds.net forums. hehe.

[MikeUpton]

The other potential problem is noise on your phone line. It's quite common with dialup and causes all sorts of connection problems. If you live in the woods with no close neighbours then it's likely your line has to travel some distance, and you may end up having to contact the phone company to ask them to do a test on it.

very true. Dial up is a hotbed for problems, its not very good internet. having her show us the hijack this log should also show us if there's any wierd lsps in her winsock catalog. good call.

[GingerGolden]

Yes, webroot has a firewall and a virus sweeper/eliminator.

(Sorry if I'm not using the proper words.)

Yes, dial up makes for the slow downloading time.

I thought I did keep the download for the webroot installation, but just checked and find that I must not have. *smaks forhead.

The one I have is to be re-uped in August.

~

Question about posting a log from majorgeeks:

This is my business computer.

Will posting a log, here online from my pc cause there to be any breach in security for my job sites?

I can't risk any type of breach in security.

I need to know if by posting such I won't be providing any type of log in or password entrance ways for anyone to violate.

Thanks Guys!

* And, yes, it is happening here more often than with any other site.

I've just checked emails for yahoo & gmail as well as being able to open the webgeek site and several different links on the work site in another window.

Been trying to post this message for about, I dunno 15/20 minutes now.

[Mahone]

Three things:

- Did you try clearing your cache?

- No, I wouldn't be silly enough to ask you to post personal information on a public forum - the logs are basically system information but nothing that could be considered really personal such as passwords or internet history :)

- If it happens on this website and not on others, it could also be something on the route the data takes between your computer and the servers of this website. Obviously everyone on this website lives in different areas of the globe and every website is hosted on a different server elsewhere on the globe. So the route the data takes through all the backbone cables, routers and servers will be different for each person and website. So it could be that the route the data takes for you personally, there is dodgy router or server somewhere. This possibilty, while unlikely, I have known to happen on more than one occasion and it causes nightmares for both the server operator and end user trying to find out whats going on.

Edited March 16, 2009 by Mahone

[GingerGolden]

Hi Mahone,

I'm sorry, I wasn't implying you were silly at all.

I just needed to know something I didn't already know.

No, I haven't cleared the cache, yet, but I will.

I was waiting to see...

Do you need to go offline to clear the cache?

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound clueless, I just am...

This time, I got it to load by clicking the link to open in another window and so far, I haven't had any problems with it loading for me.

Edited March 16, 2009 by GingerGolden

[GingerGolden]

Ok, clearing the cache didn't help.

Since I'm not having this trouble with other sites, perhaps it is...

something on the route the data takes between your computer and the servers of this website

Thanks Guys!

[Mahone]

Further to our posts on this subject, I have received the same message several times for the first time today. Definately suggests a server issue. Also pages are extremely slow loading - again, not something I have experienced before, possibly due to not usually browsing the site at this time and the surge of people browsing the site due to general conference.

Edited April 5, 2009 by Mahone

[GingerGolden]

I've learned to live with it.

My mind is definitely faster than dial up!

I get bored or frustrated while waiting, but it hasn't killed me yet.

It does help to click open in a new window sometimes, not sure why that is...

[Mahone]

I've learned to live with it.

My mind is definitely faster than dial up!

I get bored or frustrated while waiting, but it hasn't killed me yet.

It does help to click open in a new window sometimes, not sure why that is...

Some webmasters use scripting techniques to prevent the pages always fully having to reload the entire page whenever you click on internal hyperlink, instead just loading the bit that changed to save bandwidth. Loading the page in a new window forces it to reload the entire page. I've not used these scripting techniques in webpages I have designed before, however that's how I understand they work from being observant when browsing websites that do use them

Edited April 5, 2009 by Mahone

[GingerGolden]

Well, the only scripting techniques I've ever used pertained to stories and dialog, so I guess you got me beat there...

[Guest missingsomething]

one more thing, i love this little utility, what it does is automatically clean out all temp folders, browser cache files, cookies, etc etc etc, whatever temp files are left behind by many applications on your computer. Its quick, and its easy, and it used to be called crap cleaner, so how can you get much better than that?

CCleaner - Home

I love you Mike Upton! Marry me!

Oops wait... cant do that... already married and MOE has dibs on me next...

Ok.. so anyways... you are SUPER cool and now my BFF!

[Guest missingsomething]

by the way - I get this error too... and Im not techy enough to understand why- but all i normally have to do is shut my wireless router off and turn it back on and boom I work like a charm.