Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[Aivars1234]

Ok so I don't know if this is the right forum to post but I'll give it a shot...if anybody can help me or point me in the right direction that would be great.

I am currently in a hotel and using their wired internet connection.....a few days ago I began having problems with it..

1) It would not connect or if it did connect it would drop off after 10 or so minutes...I would pull the cable out or enable/disable my network adapter and then it would come on and stay on for another couple of minutes or so then drop off again...I would repeat above steps and it would work, then drop off...so on and so forth.

2) Sometimes IE would stop working but my MSN messanger and Yahoo messanger would work till I logged out of them but when I tried logging on they would not work until I  performed the steps above...the other day I had World of Warcraft, MSN and Yahoo all working but IE would connect on and off intermittently...it would connect for 5 minutes..then stop, then connect again like 10 minutes later...then stop

I had the hotel people come and look, they reset the switch in the server room but it didnt change anything...internet worked for 5 minutes then stopped and went back to the above scenarios..

Strangely enough the wireless works fine...just don't know what's wrong with the wired access

I have looked up the history logs in NIS and found nothing abnormal...it would say that the IP address would disappear and then appear again although when I was running MSN and Yahoo it didn't mention anything about me not being able to get on IE except to say that IE was trying to connect.....How would I check to see it was a problem on my end...NIS firewall or some other program interrupting my wired internet access?

I am running Win7 64 bit with NIS 2012...

Any help would be greatly appreciated....thanks

[Aivars1234]

So..it happened again right after I posted the message...had to pull the cable out of my laptop, disable the connection and reenable it again....funny thing though...I could still run NIS Liveupdate but could not run Malwarebytes update when it happened....

It seems that whatever program I am in (except for IE) continues to run but stops once I log off and I can't get back on it till I do the whole reset thing....

[DaveH]

If other programs still work then it sounds like a DNS problem.  A DNS server is used to translate names like Yahoo into IP addresses of the webserver.

I would suspect the hotels router is not configured correctly or they are using poor equiptment.

Next time it happens, open a command prompt and type:

ping yahoo.com

then try

ping 209.191.122.70

Both go to the same place, if you get a reply on the numbers but not the word then it's a DNS issue.

You can follow this page to manually specify a free DNS server till you get home.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15037-dns-addressing-how-change-windows-7-a.html

Thats shows you how to use "open dns", another free one is google dns 8.8.8.8

Best of luck

Dave

[Aivars1234]

hi there :) thanks...I tried it and sure enough..nothing on the words.....

do u know why it seems to come and go though? also how i can access ceertain things but not others?

[Aivars1234]

btw...i tried the ping yahoo.com and it gave me an ip address of 72.30.38.140 instead of 209.191.122.70...i am assuming that they are both yahoo addresses?

is there something I can ask the hotel to do? I will be here for awhile....

[peterweb Super Worm Eliminator]

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Aivars1234 wrote:

btw...i tried the ping yahoo.com and it gave me an ip address of 72.30.38.140 instead of 209.191.122.70...i am assuming that they are both yahoo addresses?

is there something I can ask the hotel to do? I will be here for awhile....

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As Dave suggested, it sounds like the hotel's router is set to a DNS server that is a bit flakey.

The best suggestion is to set your own DNS settings as suggested in Dave's post. It is not a bad idea to use your own settings all the time. That way if you travel with your computer, you will never run into this issue.

[DaveH]

Your getting a different IP for yahoo because of your location, they have many servers and your getting directed to one closer to you.  I'm in southern California and forgot that it may be different for you.

But yes, I agree with Peter.

Just change the settings on your computer and see if that works.

When you get home you can always change it back by clicking the option to "obtain dns server automatically".

That would be the safest thing to do, the only other option would be to change the windows network setting from "public" to something else and that would open up a security risk.

Dave

[Aivars1234]

Ok thanks....just want to make sure befre I do anything to my computer, cahnging the DNS will not open up a security risk or mess with the computer will it?

Additionally, I guess some other guest have the same problem...if I were to take it to the management, what do I tell them?  Or how would I explain what is happening and how they can fix it?

[peterweb Super Worm Eliminator]

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Aivars1234 wrote:

Ok thanks....just want to make sure befre I do anything to my computer, cahnging the DNS will not open up a security risk or mess with the computer will it?

Additionally, I guess some other guest have the same problem...if I were to take it to the management, what do I tell them?  Or how would I explain what is happening and how they can fix it?

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Using a different DNS should not open any security issues. If you use the suggestion Dave gave you, there should be no problems. I have been using the OpenDNS for years with no problem.

Without trying to give a specific solution to the hotel, just suggest they get they have the IT support people look into their DNS settings. Don't bother giving any specifics. That's why they get the big bucks 

[DaveH]

Setting aside Norton, on a "regular" windows 7 system, every time you join a new network for internet access windows asks you to specify a "network location"  You choose between Home, Work, or Public.

Each of those locations have a different level of security.

When guests go to a hotel or public wifi, they usually correctly choose "Public" to protect the system better.

The people working at the hotel are most likely using "Work" or Home so they can share files and guest information between the systems.

Thats how they can say it works fine for them.  They are not using it at the same security level the guests are.

Chances are all they need to do is manually assign a DNS server to the router, just like you have assigned on to your computer.

I suspect they have the router set to automatically obtain a DNS and the problem everyone is having is due to the DNS information having to pass through the router from the internet to each system, back and forth in both directions.

Those connections are being dropped or the router is unable to correctly forward the information and thats causing the problem.

Tell them they owe me a free room for that.

Dave