Strange Connectivity Issues

September 8, 2006 7:15 PM

I am having a really strange connectivity problem. My computer won't connect to some sites.

I am running XPSP2. In th past 48 hours it has stopped connecting to YouTube, embedded in other pages or on youtubes site. YouTube pages load slowly and barely, but vid from YouTube calls up the viewer but won't play the video. Google video plays fine embedded from somewhere else or from Google. My wife's computer (all behind the same Belkin router) doesn't have this problem.

But it isn't just my browser. It happens in Firefox (my default), Portable Firefox and IE. Also Podshow podcasts do not download, via iTunes or just direct linked in the browser. I frequent Podcast boards and no one seems to be compaining about it, so I am pretty sure its me. If fact new shows have come out since the problem began and no one has mentioned it, really making me think it is me.

I have spyware scanned (AA and SB) and run a manual scan with AVG. any ideas where to go next? I have had a problem with hard freezes and have been planning a reinstall, and I assume that might fix it, but a less intensive fix would be welcome. All suggestions welcomee.

posted by spartacusroosevelt to computers & internet (13 comments total)

If you hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and start the Task Manager, then click the Processes tab, then click twice on the CPU column heading to sort the running processes by CPU usage from greatest to least, what's on the top line?
posted by flabdablet at 8:40 PM on September 8, 2006

Are you on DSL or a cable modem? Might want to check your MTU settings in the registry.
posted by pjern at 9:12 PM on September 8, 2006

flabdab, it is the System idle process

solop, poking around my reg settings makes me think it isn't MTU, though I am continuing to poke
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 9:29 PM on September 8, 2006

Well, the MTU setting sometimes either disappears, or isn't set up properly...I've had to add it back into the registry a couple of times on different machines that were exhibiting similar symptoms to those you describe.
posted by pjern at 10:11 PM on September 8, 2006

May be a network problem between you and them. Try typing

  tracert youtube.com

at a Command Prompt.
posted by davcoo at 10:33 PM on September 8, 2006

I see YT through traceroute. Me wife's machine here sees youtube fine.

And my podcastcher got a couple of shows this AM, just not any from the Podshow Network.

It's like I am a guinea pig for what happens when net neutrality is a distant memory. Some things get through fine, some things time out. And all the things that time out come from the same place.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 6:51 AM on September 9, 2006

Have you checked your hosts.txt file? Some anti spyware software sticks sites in there that one might want to access.
posted by Yavsy at 7:06 AM on September 9, 2006

hosts is empty but for local hosts.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 7:42 AM on September 9, 2006

Are you running on a wired or wireless Ethernet connection?

Do you have any protocols other than TCP/IP bound?

Can you ping your router, and it's upstream gateway, without packet loss?

You might want to install a sniffer like Ethereal to capture and record diagnostic traces of packet traffic to post here for analysis.
posted by paulsc at 9:21 AM on September 9, 2006

Seconding Ethereal. There really is no substitute for actually seeing what the packets are doing on the wire.

If it's a MTU issue, you should see a difference between "ping youtube.com" and "ping -l 2000 youtube.com" - keep reducing the 2000 until the pings get through.

Could it be that your Winbox has a bigger MTU for that connection than your router, and either the router isn't fragmenting packets properly or youtube doesn't like fragmented packets?

Ethereal will show you what's going on anyway. Install it on your machine and your wife's, and look for differences.
posted by flabdablet at 8:59 PM on September 9, 2006

This might help too.
posted by flabdablet at 9:02 PM on September 9, 2006

I am not entirely sure of the techy reason, but I pinged the sites I wasn't able to access or used dnssstuff.com to get the ip of the websites and stuck the ips + domain name into my hosts.txt file and it worked.

My speculation is that my husband used different nameservers than mine and hence the lag.
posted by bkpr at 10:45 PM on September 9, 2006

Problem was solved.

If I had bothered using my wifes machine a longer time I would have discovered the same connectivity issues. My provider is have routing issues dealing with Limelight networks and hasn't posted a tech bulletin on their site yet.

At least I got hold of Ethereal out of all this. Great tool!! Thanks everyone.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 4:52 AM on September 10, 2006