Very strange problem with Vista and Sympatico DSL - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

grog · 2007-09-10, 01:15 PM

Hi everyone,

I've encountered a very strange issue with Vista and Sympatico DSL and I'm stumped as to what the problem could be. Hopefully someone has seen this before or can think of what the problem might be. I recently bought a new PC for my mother. Dell had a good deal on a basic system and her current one was getting really long in the tooth so it made sense to upgrade. The new PC came with Vista and that's where the fun begins.

I set it up with a PPPoE broadband connection and it connected fine using her Sympatico username and password. However, for some strange reason she cannot get to certain websites, particularly msn.com and sympatico.ca. The browser status says connected and is waiting for a reply but it eventually just times out. We tested all kinds of other sites and everything else seems to be working fine. I even established a remote desktop session to her PC but I still couldn't access those particular sites. I pinged msn.com from a command prompt and it resolved the IP address so it's not a DNS issue. I also tried disabling antivirus temporarily (I installed Avast on it), turned off the Windows firewall, and also dropped the Internet Explorer security level. None of those made a difference.

At this point I'm stumped. I have no idea why every other site I can think of works just fine but those particular sites don't work. The one thing I haven't tried yet but will is installing Firefox to see if it's able to go to those sites. At least that way I'll know if it's an IE issue or a general Internet issue.

Any ideas on what the problem could be?

Thanks

Walter Dnes · 2007-09-10, 09:11 PM

This is probably a PPPOE issue rather than an OS issue. One thing you have to watch for with any ADSL PPPOE provider is that ethernet MTU cannot exceed 1492. There are arguments for using 1452 (which I use) or 1454. But do *NOT* exceed 1492, or you will get stuff like this. Another symptom is if you try to send a large email (3 kbytes or more), it'll only get partially uploaded.

I'm a linux user at home. It's been years since I did major Windows registry hacking, and that was Win98SE, Ask on the Windows forum here, or on some other Windows forum, how to change MTU in Vista.

vmpv · 2007-09-10, 09:17 PM

That is a strange one but all I can offer is to make sure all the Vista patches are up to date (and there has been a lot). I doubt if the version matters but for what it's worth I'm running Home Pro with Avast on Sympatico and have no problems on both laptop and desktop.

grog · 2007-09-10, 10:51 PM

The other thing I forgot to mention is I tested this myself and couldn't recreate the problem. My work laptop has Vista on it and I have DSL at home so I tried connecting from my laptop via PPPoE using my mother's Sympatico account and those sites worked fine. Very strange.

Anyway, that's an interesting suggestion about the MTU. That's one thing I hadn't thought of. I'll have to do some searching to see if I can find out how to set it in Vista.

hugh · 2007-09-10, 11:04 PM

I notice its MSN.com and Sympatico.ca which goes to http://sympatico.msn.ca/

Are the other sites Microsoft related sites?

blackdog61 · 2007-09-11, 09:11 PM

I have a somewhat similar problem with Vista Home Pro and Symapatico DSL with Security Manager. Periodically there is a lag in performance. Connecting to any website takes awhile or eventually times out. You can see it trying to connect. I also have an issue with Fraud protection server going down. Once this happens, performance suffers (basically I can't do anything) until the sever is back up. I use Firefox as my browser.

Sympatico support says there are no issues and even say that the Fraud server going down time to time is normal. This was not an issue on an older PC running XP.

I am using a wireless modem and have no problem with a wireless laptop running XP.

I'm not sure if it's Vista, Sympatico, or something else.

grog · 2007-10-04, 03:36 PM

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd provide an update since I've managed to resolve the issue (sort-of). First of all, I got some more feedback from my mother and it turns out there were a number of other sites that weren't working either so it was just coincidence that the first couple that had problems happened to be Microsoft sites. Also, there was one other thing about her setup that I had forgotten - she has DSL from Sympatico but she has the "lite" version so now I'm thinking it may somehow be related to that.

Regardless, I still wasn't able to figure out why the heck some sites wouldn't load. I did a lot of searching on the Internet for people with similar problems and I found a few posts here and there that sounded very similar but none of them had solutions. Then a few days later I saw a pretty good deal for a wireless router - under $40 including taxes and shipping - so I ordered one for her for the heck of it. I figured it would be a lot easier to play around with things like MTU, etc. with a router in the mix.

So, after installing the router everything started working just fine. She is now able to browse all sites, login to Messenger, etc. My gut feel is the problem was MTU related and likely has something to do with how they throttle the speed on the DSL lite. I had also done some searching to see if there was a way to adjust the MTU for a PPPoE connection in Vista but I couldn't find a way to do it so I'll never know for sure if that is what the problem was. I'm just happy I managed to get it working so it was worth the 40 bucks for the router.

Thanks everyone for the tips.

2007-09-10, 01:15 PM	#1
grog Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Streetsville, ON Posts: 823	Very strange problem with Vista and Sympatico DSL Hi everyone, I've encountered a very strange issue with Vista and Sympatico DSL and I'm stumped as to what the problem could be. Hopefully someone has seen this before or can think of what the problem might be. I recently bought a new PC for my mother. Dell had a good deal on a basic system and her current one was getting really long in the tooth so it made sense to upgrade. The new PC came with Vista and that's where the fun begins. I set it up with a PPPoE broadband connection and it connected fine using her Sympatico username and password. However, for some strange reason she cannot get to certain websites, particularly msn.com and sympatico.ca. The browser status says connected and is waiting for a reply but it eventually just times out. We tested all kinds of other sites and everything else seems to be working fine. I even established a remote desktop session to her PC but I still couldn't access those particular sites. I pinged msn.com from a command prompt and it resolved the IP address so it's not a DNS issue. I also tried disabling antivirus temporarily (I installed Avast on it), turned off the Windows firewall, and also dropped the Internet Explorer security level. None of those made a difference. At this point I'm stumped. I have no idea why every other site I can think of works just fine but those particular sites don't work. The one thing I haven't tried yet but will is installing Firefox to see if it's able to go to those sites. At least that way I'll know if it's an IE issue or a general Internet issue. Any ideas on what the problem could be? Thanks

2007-09-10, 11:04 PM	#5
hugh Member #1 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 47,492	I notice its MSN.com and Sympatico.ca which goes to http://sympatico.msn.ca/ Are the other sites Microsoft related sites? __________________ As of January 2012, I am no longer the owner of the Digital Home website. If you have questions about the operation of the site, please contact VSAdmin. For personal inquiries contact me at the Hugh Thompson website.

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2007-09-10, 09:11 PM	#2
Walter Dnes Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Vaughan, Ontario (near Dufferin and Steeles) Posts: 1,894	This is probably a PPPOE issue rather than an OS issue. One thing you have to watch for with any ADSL PPPOE provider is that ethernet MTU cannot exceed 1492. There are arguments for using 1452 (which I use) or 1454. But do NOT exceed 1492, or you will get stuff like this. Another symptom is if you try to send a large email (3 kbytes or more), it'll only get partially uploaded. I'm a linux user at home. It's been years since I did major Windows registry hacking, and that was Win98SE, Ask on the Windows forum here, or on some other Windows forum, how to change MTU in Vista.

2007-09-10, 09:17 PM	#3
vmpv Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Whitby, Ont. Posts: 755	That is a strange one but all I can offer is to make sure all the Vista patches are up to date (and there has been a lot). I doubt if the version matters but for what it's worth I'm running Home Pro with Avast on Sympatico and have no problems on both laptop and desktop.

2007-09-10, 10:51 PM	#4
grog Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Streetsville, ON Posts: 823	The other thing I forgot to mention is I tested this myself and couldn't recreate the problem. My work laptop has Vista on it and I have DSL at home so I tried connecting from my laptop via PPPoE using my mother's Sympatico account and those sites worked fine. Very strange. Anyway, that's an interesting suggestion about the MTU. That's one thing I hadn't thought of. I'll have to do some searching to see if I can find out how to set it in Vista.

2007-09-11, 09:11 PM	#6
blackdog61 Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: GTA Posts: 15	I have a somewhat similar problem with Vista Home Pro and Symapatico DSL with Security Manager. Periodically there is a lag in performance. Connecting to any website takes awhile or eventually times out. You can see it trying to connect. I also have an issue with Fraud protection server going down. Once this happens, performance suffers (basically I can't do anything) until the sever is back up. I use Firefox as my browser. Sympatico support says there are no issues and even say that the Fraud server going down time to time is normal. This was not an issue on an older PC running XP. I am using a wireless modem and have no problem with a wireless laptop running XP. I'm not sure if it's Vista, Sympatico, or something else.

2007-10-04, 03:36 PM	#7
grog Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Streetsville, ON Posts: 823	Hi everyone, I thought I'd provide an update since I've managed to resolve the issue (sort-of). First of all, I got some more feedback from my mother and it turns out there were a number of other sites that weren't working either so it was just coincidence that the first couple that had problems happened to be Microsoft sites. Also, there was one other thing about her setup that I had forgotten - she has DSL from Sympatico but she has the "lite" version so now I'm thinking it may somehow be related to that. Regardless, I still wasn't able to figure out why the heck some sites wouldn't load. I did a lot of searching on the Internet for people with similar problems and I found a few posts here and there that sounded very similar but none of them had solutions. Then a few days later I saw a pretty good deal for a wireless router - under $40 including taxes and shipping - so I ordered one for her for the heck of it. I figured it would be a lot easier to play around with things like MTU, etc. with a router in the mix. So, after installing the router everything started working just fine. She is now able to browse all sites, login to Messenger, etc. My gut feel is the problem was MTU related and likely has something to do with how they throttle the speed on the DSL lite. I had also done some searching to see if there was a way to adjust the MTU for a PPPoE connection in Vista but I couldn't find a way to do it so I'll never know for sure if that is what the problem was. I'm just happy I managed to get it working so it was worth the 40 bucks for the router. Thanks everyone for the tips.