Idle delays

[steppenwolf]

This is sort of Westfield related as much of my Internet experience is to do with Westfields!

Having just had to re-install W98 on to a new hard drive following a head crash, I keep on having to wait (sometimes for up to 40 seconds of total non-activity) for browsing data to flow. The 2 tell tale screens on the task bar just sit idle and then suddenly off they go again and the new data appears. There is no particular time of the day that this happens but it is diving me mad especially when browsing this message board as the delays can be very frustrating.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Blatman]

Which version of IE are you using, and is it dial up or DSL?

[steppenwolf]

Version 5.5  dial up via Bt Connect (although the I.E. software came off a Freeserve Disk - I installed this in an atempt to resolve the same problem with the original V5.0 I.E. supplied with the freshly installed operating system)

[Blatman]

I'm having a similar issue with BT CD supplied IE 5.01. I also have a problem with IE hanging when internet activity is stopped (disconnected). Ctrl+alt+delete shows it not responding, and ending task makes it worse..........It seems to be looking for something on the BT servers. My firewall warned me about a programme called ARDNS32.exe trying to access the internet. (I tried the IP it was looking for, but it came up page cannot be displayed) That programmes lives in the BT directory on my hard drive, although I could be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5 (01 )

I've been trying for 2 months + to get to the bottom of it. My IT guy at work advised me to download IE6 from the Microsofts web-site, as the assumption is that the BT derived IE is looking for up-dates or somesuch.

I really like IE5.01 though, 'cos the programme is nice and stable when running, and doesn't seem to be full of holes like 5.5. So far I'm just putting up with it, but I'm crumbling fast. We have IE6 at work, and it's OK really. I just don't like changing stuff like this, 'cos it normally causes more problems than it solves.

OR..........it could be something simple like a problem with the dial up server experiencing packet loss. I know our esteemed Webmaster had a problem with packet loss (or rather, his ISP did) a little while ago, which gave the symptoms you describe. Have you had a look at BTopenworlds help pages for the service status?

[Mike H]

My tuppence:

Assuming you have a decent connection speed, this sort of thing usually implies network problems with your ISP or general routing problems.

With BT, I think they assign you an IP address and DNS servers each time you dial up - make sure your dialup connection is set like this and you don't have some strange DNS server address specified. (also make sure you only have tcp/ip protocol enabled)

Just out of curiosity try a ping to wscc.ggr.net or a tracert and see how long they take (run these from a command prompt) next time you are having browsing problems.

rgds

Mike

(The conspiracy theorists will tell you it's the Freeserve badged IE deliberately slowing things down as you're not dialled up to them - but I doubt it.)

[westy]

This sort of trouble can be a complete pain in the ass to troubleshoot unless you have a packet analyser…(even more so as it can sometimes just be hardware sending IRQ requests delaying the system) but my two p worth:

Firstly, you are able to move around the internet so connection stuff is ok, question is what other stuff is in the way to cause the delay before it is invoked.

When you are moving around the internet you are trying to contact a DNS server which maps IP addresses to namespaces ie 192.168.0.10 = www.westy.com.  If you have an incorrect DNS server specified your computer will try and connect to it to resolve a name (that is not already in its cache) and do a lookup.  If the DNS server does not exist then it will wait for a specified period before trying another.   Also if your local DNS cache is incorrectly pointing to a namespace when it has been mapped to a different IP address this will also confuse it and cause a time out situation before trying another DNS server.  Windows 9x do not store incorrect DNS lookups but w2k onwards does.

So things check when you are on the internet next run:

Windows Win2k/XP

Ipconfig /all

(you can also run an ipconfig /flushdns to clear client cache out)

Equivalent Windows 98

Go to a dos prompt and run winipcfg  (I think that’s what the command is cant remember)

Check that your primary and secondary DNS servers are your ISP ones and that there are no other adpaters that have them specified.

Let me know how you got on to save my typing fingers anymore and we will try the next thing…

Cheers.

Westy.

[Stueyboy]

You could try to install a better version of Windows as 98 is nototiously bad at almost everything. I'm assuming that you have no trace of the old install on your system as you had a dead HD.

Also, the freeserve install of IE I once had installed all sorts of extra trash which slowed things down for me. Best to try and find a cleaner version.

[westy]

upgrading to Windows 98 Second Editition may be a little drastic for a network connection problem...

[steppenwolf]

Thanks guys,

I am evaluating the information you have all given. I am (still! running W98 SE which is what I was running before and in fact it came from the same server image. However, I was running I.E. V6.0 (I think) before the crash so perhaps this is significant.

My ISP does issue dynamic IP address each time I log in and I do not have any set DNS primary and secondary for them.

I may well take my PC to a friend who has a wide bandwidth connection and download the I.E. V6 upgrade as this would seem to be the one variable since the head crash.

Thanks again.

[JonnyBoy]

reinstall with xp...assuming you cpu can cope. it has everything on it

a little daunting/ different at first but i have had no problems with it at all.

unlike virtually everyone else on the board, i am not a computer pro..i just know it works for me.

[westy]

My ISP does issue dynamic IP address each time I log in and I do not have any set DNS primary and secondary for them.

errmm..you must have!  did you go to the advanced box on the winipcfg program?  

If you have got a friend who doesnt mind looking at it that would be the best bet it saves a lot of time in the long run!

[steppenwolf]

errmm..you must have!  did you go to the advanced box on the winipcfg program?  

I have indeed seen the advanced screen but I have never entered in any DNS numbers. On another network that I manage where there is an ISDN router, I have specifically set up primary and secondary DNS numbers supplied by the ISP but on my own 'private' dial up system, I have not had to set up anything like this, just telephone number, account name and password - I assume that everything else is dynamic?

To save you asking, I have set this up exactly the same as last time (and I have set up tens of dial-up systems in the past! - the only difference that I can currently see is that I am using I.E. 5.50 update version 0 from the Freeserve disk whereas last time I downloaded v5.5 service pack 2 from the Microsoft web site.

[westy]

hhmm you should get them assigned from the dhcp server when you first connect on the dial up server though for some reason they are not being displayed...the joys of win 9x!

I vote we burn it

You can certainly try the service pack to see if you have one of the buguettes that fixes.  Software vendors are very generous they always give inconsistency for free