Problems after installing SP2...

[Eclipze]

After installing service pack 2 yesterday (I didn't even bother till my friend asked me to for another reason), I find that my internet connection is affectly greatly, although I'm not sure if its related.

ISP - Singnet.

-BitSpirit downloads really slowly (If at all) even on newer torrents, hardly anything more than 1/2 seed/peer is seen for any torrent (Before - 4~60, depending on torrent, average 11 seed/peers)
-I get the "Cannot connect to server" message very frequently (Most of the time needing to restart the computer to be able to surf the web again)
-When I attempt to restart the broadband network for the wireless modem now, I keep getting the "page not found" error that has never appeared till now (they're the ISP related page-not-found errors instead of regular ones)
-When I did a diagnostic test on the broadbank link, I get this:

DSL Synchronization: UP
G.DMT ATM Signal: UP
PVC Connection: Could not find an ATM circuit
PPPoE Service: -
PPP Authentication: -
IP Connection: An Internet address could not be obtained
DNS Communication: Unable to contact the Domain Name Server

or

DSL Synchronization: No DSL signal was found
G.DMT ATM Signal: No DSL signal was found
PVC Connection: -
PPPoE Service: -
PPP Authentication: -
IP Connection: -
DNS Communication: -

Although my brother uses the wireless connection provided by the same modem, he has not faced any connection issues, so it has to be a problem with this PC. Any suggestions as to what might be causing the weakened internet connection?

[SeijiSensei]

Check the Windows firewall.

[Eclipze]

Windows Firewall, Virus Protection, and Automatic updates have already been disabled/turned off ever since I installed SP2 (Instructions given by my friend). I have no additional firewall installed, and avast! was there even before I installed SP2, so I doubt that would be the cause for the weakened connection.

[Jinto]

Hm, thats strange can your reinstall your WLAN drivers (possibly with a SP2 driver?). How exactly did you upgrade to SP2?
Is your WLAN device USB related?

[bayoab]

Either a bad driver that isn't compatible with SP2 or you need to install the TCP/IP hack is my guess. Check your event log for "Maximum number of connection reached" errors.

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

Hm, thats strange can your reinstall your WLAN drivers (possibly with a SP2 driver?). How exactly did you upgrade to SP2?
Is your WLAN device USB related?

Well, the WLAN device is plug-and-play, so I don't think there are drivers to install (At least I'm not aware of any installation CDs that were given). I went from IE->tools->Windows Update to first get SP1, followed by SP2. Not too sure about the USB part.

Originally Posted by bayoab

Either a bad driver that isn't compatible with SP2 or you need to install the TCP/IP hack is my guess.

TCP/IP hack = ???

Originally Posted by Error log

[bayoab]

Err... check the windows error log: (Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Log) for that error.
Information here: http://www.lvllord.de/

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by bayoab

Err... check the windows error log: (Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Log) for that error.
Information here: http://www.lvllord.de/

The Event Viewer (same as Event Log?) doesn't seem to list any connection errors.

Originally Posted by Event Viewer

[Jinto]

I'ld say, the system view might be more interesting than the application view.

So there were no drivers for the WLAN device, does the manufacturer say something about the devices compatibility with Windows XP SP2?
Well anyway, do you have a tool that can show connection quality of the WLAN device? (often its indicated in colors... red=bad, yellow=not so bad, green=okay)

[Eclipze]

Any idea where the system view might be found?

Also, I do not know about the compatibility issues surrounding the WLAN device, but considering that it did work pre-SP2, I'd say that compatibility with XP would be a yes. And no, I do not have tools that allows me to see the connection quality of the modem.

Any other solutions? If not, I'll just perform a system recovery to reinstall the initial settings of the PC, in hopes that it would solve the problem.

[Jinto]

Ah its in the same event viewer you have there. When you look at it on the left side, you will see, that it is switched to the application view. You can click on system to activate the system view (there are different messages then).

Btw. your modem seems to be okay, since your brother has no problems. Your WLAN device isn't a modem however. It is a independent networkdevice communicating with your modem. So if it has bad connection to the modem for some reason, the result can appear to be the same as if the modem was the culprit. But in that case, the modem would actually send all the required data, your WLAN device just is not good enough to get all the signals (I assume your modem is more specifically a router). Maybe the send/receive capabilities of your WLAN device got altered after installing SP2, thatswhy I was asking about it. You could also try to situate the WLAN device closer to the modem/router, and see if the connection becomes better/stable or not.

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

Ah its in the same event viewer you have there. When you look at it on the left side, you will see, that it is switched to the application view. You can click on system to activate the system view (there are different messages then).

Ah ok, thanks alot.

Heres all the errors listed under system view:

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

Btw. your modem seems to be okay, since your brother has no problems. Your WLAN device isn't a modem however. It is a independent networkdevice communicating with your modem. So if it has bad connection to the modem for some reason, the result can appear to be the same as if the modem was the culprit. But in that case, the modem would actually send all the required data, your WLAN device just is not good enough to get all the signals (I assume your modem is more specifically a router). Maybe the send/receive capabilities of your WLAN device got altered after installing SP2, thatswhy I was asking about it. You could also try to situate the WLAN device closer to the modem/router, and see if the connection becomes better/stable or not.

Ok, thats kinda strange...
I only have a single device that determinds the connection for both my brother's laptop and this desktop PC. The device is directly is directly connected to the desktop Pc, which was why I assummed that its the modem. This is the device with wireless capabilities. Perhaps its not a WLAN device afterall

[bayoab]

You probably should install the patch anyway. That will probably help the BT problem a little bit. I don't know if it will help other things. It fixes all those warnings for event 4226 by increasing the TCP limit. You don't need to increase the number above 20 or 50.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Eclipze

Ah ok, thanks alot.

Heres all the errors listed under system view:

Huh, I am sure I answered this post already. Seems like it wasn't send

The TCPIP warnings, can you double click them to get a more detailed message?
I suppose you lost connection there.

Originally Posted by Eclipze

Ok, thats kinda strange...
I only have a single device that determinds the connection for both my brother's laptop and this desktop PC. The device is directly is directly connected to the desktop Pc, which was why I assummed that its the modem. This is the device with wireless capabilities. Perhaps its not a WLAN device afterall

I am not sure there are several options:

1) You have the WLAN device and some other device, like a little Box that is connected to phone/power/cable-TV line

2) You have a special transceiver that connects you wireless to a local ISP (similar to a cell-phone)

3) You have a WLAN hotspot with Internet access nearby (thats often used in university/residential school dormitories).

If you can clarify the type of device, maybe better help can be offered. Though if we cannot help on the matter, and you are going to rollback the SP2 update, your system will be rather unprotected/vulnerable to certain attacks.

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

Huh, I am sure I answered this post already. Seems like it wasn't send

The TCPIP warnings, can you double click them to get a more detailed message?
I suppose you lost connection there.

Here:

Now that I've installed the patched that bayoab linked (Thanks alot!), torrents are finally working again (And the cannot find server errors are alot less now, from what I can tell.

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

I am not sure there are several options:

1) You have the WLAN device and some other device, like a little Box that is connected to phone/power/cable-TV line

2) You have a special transceiver that connects you wireless to a local ISP (similar to a cell-phone)

3) You have a WLAN hotspot with Internet access nearby (thats often used in university/residential school dormitories).

If you can clarify the type of device, maybe better help can be offered. Though if we cannot help on the matter, and you are going to rollback the SP2 update, your system will be rather unprotected/vulnerable to certain attacks.

I would say 2).

[Jinto]

See, this security message is exactly what bayoab was speaking about. If it is not working well enough, do it like bayoab was suggesting, increase the limit of half open connection attemps.

[Eclipze]

Although unrelated to the SP2 thing, theres something that has happened with my PC...

This message keeps popping up right after the PC finishes loading, and no matter what option I choose, it kept appearing.


Things that have happened prior to this event:
-On another seperate issue, many people from the insitute that I study in got hit with a worm that affects the tumbdrive by hiding the main folders stored on them.
-Due to this concern, I scanned the PC with avast! and it decided that it was safer to conduct the scanning during start up.
-A virus/worm/whatever was found in something called Windows32.exe or something (Cant remember the exact name), and I decided to delete the item (infection).
-After scanning was completed, that message started to show.
-Nothing else seems affected - internet connection seems stable (Although there seem to be some sort of slow down in torrent dling, but it may just be me), programs work just fine.

My question: Any idea what might had happened, and if there is something I should fix? Should I perform a system recovery?

PS: I reinstalled the event 4226 patch, so it might have been what avast! detected, though I really doubt so.

[Jinto]

According to Microsoft, the root cause is, that a removable media device is mounted with the drive letter C: (though I think thats not quite a good description for the problem, since it is only right in the context of a system starting-up)

I will reformulate it, if you have software that tries to scan devices which it believes to be non-removable media devices, than it will throw this error when there is no media in the device. So to prevent that, you can either deactivate the removable device (which is not quite a good idea) or change its drive-letter. Or disable that crappy piece of software, that assumes a removable media device is a static media device (and tries to read on it/scan it).

Anyway, here is the MS-link for reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330137

[Ledgem]

Is it possible that he set Avast to scan on startup while the thumbdrive was mounted on his computer, and now it always expects it to be there?

Eclipze, try to disable your scan on startup in Avast. Close the menu, and then go back into the options and re-enable it. Reboot. Does the problem still exist?

[Jinto]

This is very likely the case here!