slightly OT: strange problem logging onto sites

Hi all

I built a PC for the mother-in-law recently, setup her Broadband and all
has been well until Friday. She can browse the web no problem but can't
log into Hotmail, nor can she log into Talk Talk to check her account
details. She presses "Sign In" after entering her details and then
nothing happens and I think it eventually times out. Trying to assist
over the phone I got her to log in as a different user (admin) - no
change. Got her to try it using IE (she uses FF by default) - no change.
I got her to put the domain in question in her trusted sites in IE and
retry - no change. I got her to start up in Safe Mode with Networking
and it worked, but as soon as she started up normally it didn't. I also
repaired/reset Winsock and a Google search led me to get her to
(re)register a whole bunch of DLLs but all with no success.

I'm getting the PC back to look at but I'm not sure what to do next.
Seems like lots of people have had this problem but I haven't found any
successful solutions yet.

Any help appreciated
Iain

Iain wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I built a PC for the mother-in-law recently, setup her Broadband and
> all has been well until Friday. She can browse the web no problem but
> can't log into Hotmail, nor can she log into Talk Talk to check her
> account details. She presses "Sign In" after entering her details and
> then nothing happens and I think it eventually times out. Trying to
> assist over the phone I got her to log in as a different user (admin)
> - no change. Got her to try it using IE (she uses FF by default) - no
> change. I got her to put the domain in question in her trusted sites
> in IE and retry - no change. I got her to start up in Safe Mode with
> Networking and it worked, but as soon as she started up normally it
> didn't. I also repaired/reset Winsock and a Google search led me to
> get her to (re)register a whole bunch of DLLs but all with no success.
>
> I'm getting the PC back to look at but I'm not sure what to do next.
> Seems like lots of people have had this problem but I haven't found
> any successful solutions yet.
>
> Any help appreciated
> Iain

hotmail and talktalk in the same post, MTU is the problem, change to 1472,
should be sorted!
BTW, the setting is in the modem/router....

tony h wrote:
> Iain wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> I built a PC for the mother-in-law recently, setup her Broadband and
>> all has been well until Friday. She can browse the web no problem but
>> can't log into Hotmail, nor can she log into Talk Talk to check her
>> account details. She presses "Sign In" after entering her details and
>> then nothing happens and I think it eventually times out. Trying to
>> assist over the phone I got her to log in as a different user (admin)
>> - no change. Got her to try it using IE (she uses FF by default) - no
>> change. I got her to put the domain in question in her trusted sites
>> in IE and retry - no change. I got her to start up in Safe Mode with
>> Networking and it worked, but as soon as she started up normally it
>> didn't. I also repaired/reset Winsock and a Google search led me to
>> get her to (re)register a whole bunch of DLLs but all with no success.
>>
>> I'm getting the PC back to look at but I'm not sure what to do next.
>> Seems like lots of people have had this problem but I haven't found
>> any successful solutions yet.
>>
>> Any help appreciated
>> Iain
>
> hotmail and talktalk in the same post, MTU is the problem, change to 1472,
> should be sorted!
> BTW, the setting is in the modem/router....
>
>

Hi Tony, thanks for your reply. I've got her PC here now and was having
the same result here. I tied the MTU you suggested on my router and also
on her PC, but no luck. After reading your post I went to the Talk Talk
website and they recommended 1432 & 1431 - they didn't work either.

Any more ideas?

"Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4814fd8f$0$32058$(E-Mail Removed)...
> tony h wrote:
>> Iain wrote:
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> I built a PC for the mother-in-law recently, setup her Broadband and
>>> all has been well until Friday. She can browse the web no problem but
>>> can't log into Hotmail, nor can she log into Talk Talk to check her
>>> account details. She presses "Sign In" after entering her details and
>>> then nothing happens and I think it eventually times out. Trying to
>>> assist over the phone I got her to log in as a different user (admin)
>>> - no change. Got her to try it using IE (she uses FF by default) - no
>>> change. I got her to put the domain in question in her trusted sites
>>> in IE and retry - no change. I got her to start up in Safe Mode with
>>> Networking and it worked, but as soon as she started up normally it
>>> didn't. I also repaired/reset Winsock and a Google search led me to
>>> get her to (re)register a whole bunch of DLLs but all with no success.
>>>
>>> I'm getting the PC back to look at but I'm not sure what to do next.
>>> Seems like lots of people have had this problem but I haven't found
>>> any successful solutions yet.
>>>
>>> Any help appreciated
>>> Iain
>>
>> hotmail and talktalk in the same post, MTU is the problem, change to
>> 1472, should be sorted!
>> BTW, the setting is in the modem/router....
>
> Hi Tony, thanks for your reply. I've got her PC here now and was having
> the same result here. I tied the MTU you suggested on my router and also
> on her PC, but no luck. After reading your post I went to the Talk Talk
> website and they recommended 1432 & 1431 - they didn't work either.
>
> Any more ideas?
>

Have you checked the date and time settings?

> > Any more ideas?
>
> Have you checked the date and time settings?

Do a search for a file called hosts, it should be
openable with a text editor such as notepad.
Make sure that there are no suspicious entries
that you are unsure about.
You should be able to either comment out such
entries or create a copy of the file then delete entries.
With a copy you can always revert to the original.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>> Any more ideas?
>> Have you checked the date and time settings?
>
> Do a search for a file called hosts, it should be
> openable with a text editor such as notepad.
> Make sure that there are no suspicious entries
> that you are unsure about.
> You should be able to either comment out such
> entries or create a copy of the file then delete entries.
> With a copy you can always revert to the original.

Time and date are fine and there is nothing in the hosts files. I can't
work out why it is okay in safe mode but not in normal mode.

> Time and date are fine and there is nothing in the hosts files. I can't
> work out why it is okay in safe mode but not in normal mode.

A long shot MTU but that should be the same in both
Safe and Admin/User mode. There a number of free
utils to change/determine the optimum MTU setting.

Harry wrote:
> "Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4814fd8f$0$32058$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> tony h wrote:
>>> Iain wrote:
>>>> Hi all
>>>>
>>>> I built a PC for the mother-in-law recently, setup her Broadband and
>>>> all has been well until Friday. She can browse the web no problem but
>>>> can't log into Hotmail, nor can she log into Talk Talk to check her
>>>> account details. She presses "Sign In" after entering her details and
>>>> then nothing happens and I think it eventually times out. Trying to
>>>> assist over the phone I got her to log in as a different user (admin)
>>>> - no change. Got her to try it using IE (she uses FF by default) - no
>>>> change. I got her to put the domain in question in her trusted sites
>>>> in IE and retry - no change. I got her to start up in Safe Mode with
>>>> Networking and it worked, but as soon as she started up normally it
>>>> didn't. I also repaired/reset Winsock and a Google search led me to
>>>> get her to (re)register a whole bunch of DLLs but all with no success.
>>>>
>>>> I'm getting the PC back to look at but I'm not sure what to do next.
>>>> Seems like lots of people have had this problem but I haven't found
>>>> any successful solutions yet.
>>>>
>>>> Any help appreciated
>>>> Iain
>>> hotmail and talktalk in the same post, MTU is the problem, change to
>>> 1472, should be sorted!
>>> BTW, the setting is in the modem/router....
>> Hi Tony, thanks for your reply. I've got her PC here now and was having
>> the same result here. I tied the MTU you suggested on my router and also
>> on her PC, but no luck. After reading your post I went to the Talk Talk
>> website and they recommended 1432 & 1431 - they didn't work either.
>>
>> Any more ideas?
>>
>
> Have you checked the date and time settings?
>
>
>

Yes, they're fine.

> . I tied the MTU you suggested on my router and also
> >> on her PC, but no luck. After reading your post I went to the Talk Talk
> >> website and they recommended 1432 & 1431 - they didn't work either.
> >>
> >> Any more ideas?

Maybe for your PC the MTU change needs a reboot before it works?
I'd go back to basics and Run pathping to the sites you can't reach.,
both in safe mode when they can be reached, and in normal
startup. Compare results.
Pathping should show how far fhe attempt to connect gets, and whether
it is a local or remote problem.
Things like fail to resolve address indicate DNS problems and are
usually local, so with these try connecting to the dotted quad
IP address which doesn't involve DNS lookup.
If pathping gets an IP address and there are several entries for
your ISP, it's probably remote from your PC.
I suspect that as you can access in safe mode it's local.
So look to any firewall, often part of anti virus, config.
I'd suspect in safe mode any firewall anti virus isn't started
so it works.
Not using Norton by any chance?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> . I tied the MTU you suggested on my router and also
>>>> on her PC, but no luck. After reading your post I went to the Talk Talk
>>>> website and they recommended 1432 & 1431 - they didn't work either.
>>>>
>>>> Any more ideas?
>
> Maybe for your PC the MTU change needs a reboot before it works?
> I'd go back to basics and Run pathping to the sites you can't reach.,
> both in safe mode when they can be reached, and in normal
> startup. Compare results.
> Pathping should show how far fhe attempt to connect gets, and whether
> it is a local or remote problem.
> Things like fail to resolve address indicate DNS problems and are
> usually local, so with these try connecting to the dotted quad
> IP address which doesn't involve DNS lookup.
> If pathping gets an IP address and there are several entries for
> your ISP, it's probably remote from your PC.
> I suspect that as you can access in safe mode it's local.
> So look to any firewall, often part of anti virus, config.
> I'd suspect in safe mode any firewall anti virus isn't started
> so it works.
> Not using Norton by any chance?

Hi. I did the reboot after changing the MTU. Before I saw your latest
post I gave up and reinstalled the PC (there was nothing that had to be
kept so was becoming the easier option). Didn't know about Pathping -
thanks, that looks useful.

After reinstalling I realised that maybe the problem was staring me in
the face all along. I installed Sygate Firewall for her use and noticed
it wasn't running when I got the PC back. I didn't think too much about
it, in fact I even tried to start it up, via the start menu. It never
actually started, making me think that it was sort of running anyway but
was having problems. In safe mode it probably wasn't running, like you
said, hence the problem disappeared. Wish I'd realised that before I
reinstalled the bloody thing.

thanks for all your time,
Iain