TSGL: Network Adress Translation

[Tilman Brandl]

Don,

can't help you much with this. What comes to my mind though is

1. There's a program (maybe more than just one) that's able to "sniff out" any problems, settings etc with network and/or web connections. Network sniffer? Not sure, hopefully some people out there will know what's it's name

2. If you haven't done so yet -  I would certainly also talk to the ISP. Even if they were reliable in the past, they may have had (or still have) a problem which could cause this ...

Tilman
  -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
  Von: Don Penlington 
  An: Tech Support Guy Mailing List 
  Gesendet: Samstag, 30. Juni 2007 09:21
  Betreff: TSGL: Network Adress Translation


  System:

  XP Pro SP2.

  D-Link modem connected by 3Com Ethernet  XL PCI TX NIC (don't even ask me 
  what all that jargon means!). ADSL1500.  Unlimited downloads.

  I don't have a router, and I don't have a local network. This is a 
  standalone computer.

  Problem:

  I have lately experienced several instances of what appears to be lost 
  connections on long downloads or occasionally when trying to connect to web 
  pages. I'm not aware of any recent additions which might have caused this.

  It also happens after about 30-60 minutes of intensive browsing. Suddenly 
  the browser (Maxthon/IE6) Sometimes I have to walk away for 1/2 hour, then 
  everything's fine again.

  Azureus Bittorrent tells me that I most likely have a "NAT" ("Network 
  Address Translation") problem. Most (all?) their suggested fixes seem to 
  relate to routers or LAN's, of which I have neither.

  Bittorrent and other download speeds are about normal---except for these 
  apparent interruptions to the connection.  Modem lights remain flashing as 
  if it is still downloading (probably trying to seek reconnection).

  Device Manager shows that in the Ethernet card/Device Properties/Advanced:

      1. 802.1p support is enabled.
      2. Flow control is disabled.
      3. Network Address is marked "not present".

  Should I change any of these settings? Presumably item 3 only applies where 
  there is a local network of computers.

  Last week I was unable to access a paysite file, I kept getting "file in 
  use" error messages. After extensive investigation and various suggestions 
  re browser security settings (enabling ActiveX etc), they could not solve 
  the problem and decided that it must be some setting unique to this computer.

  I've a feeling these might be 2 aspects of the same problem.

  I've run antispyware scans with Spybot, AdAware, A-Squared, and a-v scan 
  with AVG. Apart from the few usual
  non-critical fleas, the system comes up clean.

  I've also done a "repair" on the connection icon (flushing DNS cache etc), 
  and several times reset the modem by powering off for 60 seconds. No 
  difference.

  Does anyone have any suggestions what might be causing these dropouts?  Of 
  course, I can't entirely rule out overloads at the ISP, but I've been with 
  the same major ISP for several years, and have always found them completely 
  reliable.

  Don Penlington