[brownboy66]

Originally Posted by Nick-H

I use something on my own machine, it might be called treewalk... I forget .

hmmm...very interesting (just did a google search and it might be the answer.....thanks Nick )

Originally Posted by Dilliwala

On rare occasions I physically disconnect my USB 'modem' (remember? we've discussed it extensively before) by pulling the cable out from it.

oh yes....I remember it well - I explained the physics behind the term "modem" in relation to analogue/digital signal conversion - and it didn't make one hoot of difference....

The only reason I ask is that if the connection device was still powered on then it will retain its routing information (in some models even powering off doesn't change this as the information is stored in internal ram)- hence I had a problem as my router was powered off, and when I turned it on it couldn't find Mumbai - whereas if yours was still on - it didn't need the mumbai DNS as it already had all the routing info it needed.

Like you - I don't like the thought of leaving it on and connected to the PC (which is why I have a desktop short cut that lets me power off the ethernet card with a single click)- but there are occasion where leaving the router on can be an advantage (like if the authentication server goes down - and you're still connected then you will probably be unaffected, whereas anyone else trying to connect wont be able to).

but I reformatted the HD last week and the problem persists. Then again, there were other 'acting-ups' happening which have reappeared (lotsa blue-screens) after reformat, so I'm just not sure.....

And I can never browse instantly anymore, always have to wait 1 or 2 minutes before the data-flow actually commences.....

Maybe a faulty USB broadband thingy is too sensitive to work with the slightest fault...

hmmm....sounds like you've got multiple problems there Dilli. First off the blue screen problem even after format means you've got some sort of major conflict going on between the OS and your PC. Does it give you an error number and memory location? If its microsoft there will be some sort of long winded number - you can look it up on the microsoft knowledge base and it may give you an answer. At the very least it may narrow it down to a piece of hardware on the PC that is not playing nice - but it certainly sounds like a hardware conflict.

Secondly - with the whole 1-2 minutes to browse thing, either the connection will be active and something is using all the bandwidth so the browser is waiting for it to end - or the connection is not active which means something is happening on the PC and your browser is waiting for that to finish before it launches. What sort of firewall do you use - and does it monitor programmes trying to access the internet? Also - if you have windows and run task manager (hit ctrl - alt - delete and choose task manager)- there should be a tab there that says - processes. Run that before launching the browser and then find out which application is hogging all the CPU.

Thirdly - yes, chances are your USB device needs to be replaced. I think as nick mentioned when we last had this discussion - connection devices where the logon script is located on the PC, instead of in the device, are fairly elderly. They first came out about 9 years ago? Even if the device has been manufactured recently - its still based on a very old design. Added to that - USB is slower than ethernet so at the very least a device that plugs into an ethernet port on your PC is just going to be faster.

Anyway - some food for thought. Hope some of it helps.

[Aishah]

Can't understand (as usual ) most of the stuff here, but i do know with my very slow GPRS Airtel it never fails to open IM quite quickly every time!! So I don't seem to have the problems Broadband MTNL folks are having - at any time. Having said that, the jinx might have been put and next time I try, who knows!!

[Nick-H]

I don't understand it either.

I suspect that someone who sets up their PC as its own DNS server* and can't properly remember what it is or how it works defines a non-techie! *That's what the treewalk thingie does.

I do recall that I used to have a lot of trouble with name resolution timing out, or being unable to resolve. Had big problems for a while with the BBC news site, and also IndiaMike. At one point I was putting some of these IPs in my hosts file.

As soon as I started with treewalk these problem mostly went away.

[brownboy66]

sshhhh....you're giving away all our secrets! Your suppose to sound authoritative, use big words, and shake your head in a all knowing manner when asked a question! Beside - who doesn't have software on their machine that they can't explain.

Just did another traceroute - now the link to IM out of Delhi is going via Reliance in Mumbai, then Flag Telecom (a Reliance company), before being handed off to NTT US! Big jump in latency between the hand off from Reliance Mumbai to Flag (goes from 50ms to over 300ms in one hop).

[Nick-H]

Yes, I remember the last time I played with that seeing that there is one bottleneck where everything gets held up.

Recent pings to IM have, for me, improved from over 300ms to 280. I have, on bad days in the past seen pings >1 second! Hmmm... 275 just now.

[Nick-H]

I've also watched tracerts that appear to show traffic crossing the Atlantic three times before reaching its USA destination!

I don't know if that is for real, or something to do with the packets getting out of order.

[machadinha]

Originally Posted by brownboy66

Re VSNL - from what I can gather from traceroute information - the route goes Delhi, Mumbai (VSNL), then Teleglobe (Canadian originally but owned by VSNL/Tata - is there anything they don't do)- then hand off to Global Crossing (US), then Softlayer (US) and home of IM!

I've seen that stuff pinging around the globe three times yes, don't ask me about it, I'm not very into it. There seems to be one common line that goes Britain-Egypt-then landing up in some totally unlikely place.

Don't you guys have an on/off button on your modems?

[Nick-H]

Oddly, no! my latest modem router can only be switched off by pulling the plug. But I never turn it off anyway, unless I need to restart it in case of a potential problem. If turned off at all, it's because I've remembered, for once, to turn off the UPS.

[brownboy66]

same here - the router I use the most doesn't have a power button (some of them are simply designed to stay on permanently). Another one I use as backup does have a switch.

and the location information you get from trace routes is unreliable. If I remember rightly it simply uses whois information from the address range - which might simply be the address of the IP holders head office, as opposed to their location.

[machadinha]

Originally Posted by brownboy66

same here - the router I use the most doesn't have a power button (some of them are simply designed to stay on permanently).

Hm, that's funny. My last otherwise perfectly functioning modem gave up because the on/off button gave out. I guess the designers hadn't thought of it actually being used. Took me quite some explaining with the help desk too. "But why not leave it on, sir?" Er, because it comes with a feature that doesn't force me to? Ever heard of houses burning down because of all that stuff we have running on stand-by by default?

and the location information you get from trace routes is unreliable. If I remember rightly it simply uses whois information from the address range - which might simply be the address of the IP holders head office, as opposed to their location.

Yes, I actually never get a definitive result I think. The end of the line always seems to be some server that doesn't respond. If I were running one I wouldn't either.

[brownboy66]

some of the rack mounted kit is designed to be hardwired directly into a power source/ UPS - hence no need for a power switch (although there is usually a reset button somewhere - hopefully). In some cases you might have a router, QoS ethernet switch, UPS, etc - all in a rack and not a single power switch in sight!

[nyraghu]

Originally Posted by brownboy66

on you get from trace routes is unreliable. If I remember rightly it simply uses whois information from the address range - which might simply be the address of the IP holders head office, as opposed to their location.

I don't know about Windows, but `traceroute' on Unix uses a DNS lookup to determine the hostname of each router in the path. Indeed, to avoid this default behaviour one uses the `-n' option to the program, which, as its documentation says, makes it "print hop addresses numerically rather than symbolically and numerically (saves a nameserver address-to-name lookup for each gateway found on the path)."

Originally Posted by Nick-H

I've also watched tracerts that appear to show traffic crossing the Atlantic three times before reaching its USA destination!

If the source packets are from a host located in India, I wouldn't be surprised. Indian ISPs have been known to follow fairly brain-dead routing policies. For instance, traffic between two addresses located in India is often routed through networks abroad. I was once involved in a discussion on this. At that time I contacted someone in India who has written extensively on ISP routing policies and such; he said that these policies are often determined by political and other considerations, rather than by technical ones.

Raghu.

[Nick-H]

Raghu's a Unix Man!



Interetsing and curious: imagine if planes were routed like that. Absurd!

[Dilliwala]

Does it give you an error number and memory location? If its microsoft there will be some sort of long winded number - you can look it up on the microsoft knowledge base and it may give you an answer. At the very least it may narrow it down to a piece of hardware on the PC that is not playing nice - but it certainly sounds like a hardware conflict.

Yes, sometimes errors are attributed directly to hardware, and some 'unknown' (just numbers), but I don't believe it's becos of the hardware, which has been around earlier without probs. Obviously hardware can go faulty any time, but sometimes in years gone by when something similar has occurred, a second re-format has often cured it, so that's what I'm thinking of doing. Just a quickie: I did it with Quick Format last time, wud a Full Format be better?
One blue-screen that pops up attributes the error to "usbuhci.sys". Now what happens on restart is: The modem driver can't 'find' the modem, altho it's connected. This is quickly solved by pulling the USB cable out and reinserting it.
It might look like a hardware fault, but what I know of M/s. Microsoft to date , I'm more inclined to blame them! Anyway, I'll try another re-format before I replace the modem.

Secondly - with the whole 1-2 minutes to browse thing, either the connection will be active and something is using all the bandwidth so the browser is waiting for it to end - or the connection is not active which means something is happening on the PC and your browser is waiting for that to finish before it launches. What sort of firewall do you use - and does it monitor programmes trying to access the internet? Also - if you have windows and run task manager (hit ctrl - alt - delete and choose task manager)- there should be a tab there that says - processes. Run that before launching the browser and then find out which application is hogging all the CPU.

If another program is hogging the bandwidth and/or the CPU, the 'traffic' icon (2 linked computers thingy in the system tray) will still be constantly 'lit up', and the browser will d/l, even if VERY slowly. We are talking of a no-lights situation for the first 1-2 min, connection very much active.
To put it simply, this is the case even when no other progs are running. Nope, it's an MTNL thing, very frequent in the good old days of dial-up.
There have been no changes to my PC, since this problem started. It's most of the time, not all the time. That also rules out the hardware.

Added to that - USB is slower than ethernet so at the very least a device that plugs into an ethernet port on your PC is just going to be faster.

So I've been told by others, including MTNL, but frankly at 256 kbps officially and less in reality (I understand some folks call this fraudband ), I haven't noticed the difference.
(But on a slight tangent, I might need to go for a router anyway. I want to hook the PC up to a laptop permanently. I might even let u come over and do the setting up, as a Christmas present . Seriously, I'll pick your brain another time for what wud be better/cheaper/efficienter re router/hub-wise, i.e. want to keep the PC off, instead of acting as a host, when the laptop is on, but want to do this cheaply. If I'm not wrong a D-link 502T or MTNL-supplied one (Utell?) shud do the job).

[Dilliwala]

In my case, PC off means DSL device off. Nothing simpler.

And I never leave the UPS on - voltage changes (not down, but up - at night!) will drain the battery unnecessarily.

Originally Posted by Nick-H

...
Interetsing and curious: imagine if planes were routed like that. Absurd!

Well, air cargo certainly does.
Example: U want to send a shipment today with some urgency from Zurich to Delhi. Just by sheer coincidence, there's a daily non-stop flight from Zurich to Delhi. So what happens? Perfectly logical - it gets sent to Basel tomorrow, where it will sit for 2 days, before it gets sent to Paris, to be put on board a non-stop (of course) flight to Delhi the next day.