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From: GBA on 29 Apr 2010 09:17
hi folks,

have xp/sp3 with 768Ram & 400meghz...have turned off windows firewall and do
not have antivirus at the moment (trying to rule them out)...

both IE8 (set to all default values) and Firefox will hang during any
significant download. Streaming video in example always hangs....but so will
just some web pages that are particularly busy.....browses fine for most
other sites for awhile but will also sometimes just hang.

when can't reach a site - xp will pop up offer network diagnostic feature -
- and that will clear up the problem (though a download has to restart from
beginning and still will never complete...

I ruled out IE8 by trying Firefox....and I don't really think it is a
virus........have looked at the logs offered during the Network Diagnostics
and I see a line about semaphore timeout...

anyone knowing about this? would really appreciate some help on this....

From: Lem on 29 Apr 2010 10:00
GBA wrote:
> hi folks,
>
> have xp/sp3 with 768Ram & 400meghz...have turned off windows firewall and do
> not have antivirus at the moment (trying to rule them out)...
>
> both IE8 (set to all default values) and Firefox will hang during any
> significant download. Streaming video in example always hangs....but so will
> just some web pages that are particularly busy.....browses fine for most
> other sites for awhile but will also sometimes just hang.
>
> when can't reach a site - xp will pop up offer network diagnostic feature -
> - and that will clear up the problem (though a download has to restart from
> beginning and still will never complete...
>
> I ruled out IE8 by trying Firefox....and I don't really think it is a
> virus........have looked at the logs offered during the Network Diagnostics
> and I see a line about semaphore timeout...
>
> anyone knowing about this? would really appreciate some help on this....
>

1. You left out the important part -- how are you connected to the Internet?
2. It's a bad idea to be connected directly to the Internet with no
firewall and no antivirus app.
3. Quote all error messages in full.

--
Lem

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
From: John Wunderlich on 29 Apr 2010 15:50
=?Utf-8?B?R0JB?= <GBA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:DBD77340-AB39-4D09-9C37-D57F5495AF07(a)microsoft.com:

> hi folks,
>
> have xp/sp3 with 768Ram & 400meghz...have turned off windows
> firewall and do not have antivirus at the moment (trying to rule
> them out)...
>
> both IE8 (set to all default values) and Firefox will hang during
> any significant download. Streaming video in example always
> hangs....but so will just some web pages that are particularly
> busy.....browses fine for most other sites for awhile but will
> also sometimes just hang.
>
> when can't reach a site - xp will pop up offer network diagnostic
> feature - - and that will clear up the problem (though a download
> has to restart from beginning and still will never complete...
>
> I ruled out IE8 by trying Firefox....and I don't really think it
> is a virus........have looked at the logs offered during the
> Network Diagnostics and I see a line about semaphore timeout...
>
> anyone knowing about this? would really appreciate some help on
> this....
>

There are a lot of details lacking, but to me the symptoms point to a
MTU value being set too high. The absolute max MTU is 1500 but you
must subtract bytes for headers. Even more bytes must be subtracted
for DSL, and yet more must be subtracted for VPN.

Setting the value too high will force the network to fracture packets
that are too big. This works for a while but soon things get scrambled
and everything halts. This is why this problem is most apparent when
doing downloads.

To rule this out as your problem, change the MTU to an extremely
conservative value of 1300 (assuming you aren't using a dial-up
connection) with the program "DrTCP" available at:
<http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp>
Run it and set MaxMTU to 1300. Reboot machine. If you problem goes
away, then this is your problem. Otherwise you've ruled this out.

You might try the "Tweak Tool" as well:
<http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks>

HTH,
John
From: GBA on 29 Apr 2010 17:22

sorry for leaving out info; am connected directly to a TimeWarner cable
modem.

the firewall/antivirus are off just as a trouble shooting need....

my MTU field was blank - so I put in 1300.

one more thing - downloads such as a file attachment to an email seem to
work....at least so far I've done a couple upto 2M and they've worked ok...

it is the streaming media that really never works at all or at least not for
very long....I went to youtube and tried it after the 1300 MTU entry and the
download to fireup the video went again into hang mode of never ending....of
course I never let it run forever to see if it ever completes....

in the dslreports...mine were not all at default like their example; mine are:
scale: yes
timestamp: no
select acks: yes
path mtu disc yes
black hole: no
max dup: 2
ttl: 64

and then went to <http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks> and saw my java applets
weren't working....so haven't resolved that point....


"John Wunderlich" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?R0JB?= <GBA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> news:DBD77340-AB39-4D09-9C37-D57F5495AF07(a)microsoft.com:
>
> > hi folks,
> >
> > have xp/sp3 with 768Ram & 400meghz...have turned off windows
> > firewall and do not have antivirus at the moment (trying to rule
> > them out)...
> >
> > both IE8 (set to all default values) and Firefox will hang during
> > any significant download. Streaming video in example always
> > hangs....but so will just some web pages that are particularly
> > busy.....browses fine for most other sites for awhile but will
> > also sometimes just hang.
> >
> > when can't reach a site - xp will pop up offer network diagnostic
> > feature - - and that will clear up the problem (though a download
> > has to restart from beginning and still will never complete...
> >
> > I ruled out IE8 by trying Firefox....and I don't really think it
> > is a virus........have looked at the logs offered during the
> > Network Diagnostics and I see a line about semaphore timeout...
> >
> > anyone knowing about this? would really appreciate some help on
> > this....
> >
>
> There are a lot of details lacking, but to me the symptoms point to a
> MTU value being set too high. The absolute max MTU is 1500 but you
> must subtract bytes for headers. Even more bytes must be subtracted
> for DSL, and yet more must be subtracted for VPN.
>
> Setting the value too high will force the network to fracture packets
> that are too big. This works for a while but soon things get scrambled
> and everything halts. This is why this problem is most apparent when
> doing downloads.
>
> To rule this out as your problem, change the MTU to an extremely
> conservative value of 1300 (assuming you aren't using a dial-up
> connection) with the program "DrTCP" available at:
> <http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp>
> Run it and set MaxMTU to 1300. Reboot machine. If you problem goes
> away, then this is your problem. Otherwise you've ruled this out.
>
> You might try the "Tweak Tool" as well:
> <http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks>
>
> HTH,
> John
> .
>
From: Jack [MVP-Networking] on 29 Apr 2010 19:09
Hi
First it is a big mistake to connect directly to a modem even if you have
one computer.
Especially on Cable Internet that works thta employ a topology of many users
connected together on the same Node.
Get yourself a Router that are very inexpensive (Example,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320033&cm_re=wireless_router-_-33-320-033-_-Product )
..
The MTU on Cable Internet should be 1500.
In case you get a router read this, http://www.ezlan.net/broadband.html
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"GBA" <GBA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AFC9F75E-A4C5-4771-9409-A65C860BB99E(a)microsoft.com...
>
> sorry for leaving out info; am connected directly to a TimeWarner cable
> modem.
>
> the firewall/antivirus are off just as a trouble shooting need....
>
> my MTU field was blank - so I put in 1300.
>
> one more thing - downloads such as a file attachment to an email seem to
> work....at least so far I've done a couple upto 2M and they've worked
> ok...
>
> it is the streaming media that really never works at all or at least not
> for
> very long....I went to youtube and tried it after the 1300 MTU entry and
> the
> download to fireup the video went again into hang mode of never
> ending....of
> course I never let it run forever to see if it ever completes....
>
> in the dslreports...mine were not all at default like their example; mine
> are:
> scale: yes
> timestamp: no
> select acks: yes
> path mtu disc yes
> black hole: no
> max dup: 2
> ttl: 64
>
> and then went to <http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks> and saw my java
> applets
> weren't working....so haven't resolved that point....
>
>
> "John Wunderlich" wrote:
>
>> =?Utf-8?B?R0JB?= <GBA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>> news:DBD77340-AB39-4D09-9C37-D57F5495AF07(a)microsoft.com:
>>
>> > hi folks,
>> >
>> > have xp/sp3 with 768Ram & 400meghz...have turned off windows
>> > firewall and do not have antivirus at the moment (trying to rule
>> > them out)...
>> >
>> > both IE8 (set to all default values) and Firefox will hang during
>> > any significant download. Streaming video in example always
>> > hangs....but so will just some web pages that are particularly
>> > busy.....browses fine for most other sites for awhile but will
>> > also sometimes just hang.
>> >
>> > when can't reach a site - xp will pop up offer network diagnostic
>> > feature - - and that will clear up the problem (though a download
>> > has to restart from beginning and still will never complete...
>> >
>> > I ruled out IE8 by trying Firefox....and I don't really think it
>> > is a virus........have looked at the logs offered during the
>> > Network Diagnostics and I see a line about semaphore timeout...
>> >
>> > anyone knowing about this? would really appreciate some help on
>> > this....
>> >
>>
>> There are a lot of details lacking, but to me the symptoms point to a
>> MTU value being set too high. The absolute max MTU is 1500 but you
>> must subtract bytes for headers. Even more bytes must be subtracted
>> for DSL, and yet more must be subtracted for VPN.
>>
>> Setting the value too high will force the network to fracture packets
>> that are too big. This works for a while but soon things get scrambled
>> and everything halts. This is why this problem is most apparent when
>> doing downloads.
>>
>> To rule this out as your problem, change the MTU to an extremely
>> conservative value of 1300 (assuming you aren't using a dial-up
>> connection) with the program "DrTCP" available at:
>> <http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp>
>> Run it and set MaxMTU to 1300. Reboot machine. If you problem goes
>> away, then this is your problem. Otherwise you've ruled this out.
>>
>> You might try the "Tweak Tool" as well:
>> <http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks>
>>
>> HTH,
>> John
>> .
>>

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