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I am so heartbroken for the last 3 months i have been unable to access the internet from my desktop PC running VISTA. At first i was connected to the internet via a usb adaptor which worked fine for about three months and then the web pages were not loading properly funnily enough google loaded fine but no other websites even wikipedia or ebay.
I then thought may be my usb adaptor was not connecting to my network properly so i connected my router to my computer and for about three days the internet worked fine and then the problem reappeared. So last week i system restored and againg things started to look okay and i had normal internet (could watch i player) for about a week and now my internet has gone again. I really don't know what the problem is? I have disabled my firewall and everything?
And does anyone know what "svchost.exe" is? my firewall has blocked it several hundered times (well 200) and i am not sure if it is a virus or not?
And a few days ago something called a global hook tried to access my computer and i accidentaly allowed it?
i know this is a long post but please could someone help?
The problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). So they created the svchost.exe to runn Windows dll(s).
I think you need to allow that access.
I am not sure what type of ISP you are using but it is possible that since you are paying someone for that service that they are willing to send a tech to do some hands on troubleshooting. I know my ISP does.
Try calling them and explain you are having issues and ask if they could send a tech to assist you.
which worked fine for about three months and then the web pages were not loading properly funnily enough google loaded fine but no other websites even wikipedia or ebay.
Welcome aboard ashkgbo, there are so many things this could be. When reading the above, the first thing that comes to mind is: What kind of anti-virus protection are you using, and are the updates current?
I agree, someone should look at this, and ISP support may second this recommendation after taking you through what troubleshooting they can, but there is one quick thing you can try:
I'm not sure how to access the command line from Vista, but on XP you will find Run... under the Start menu. So selecting Start->run brings a dialogue box; enter cmd or command and press enter. A black window will open with a blinking cursor, this is the legacy DOS window.
Try to browse some site that times out in your browser. If it fails to load, as in wikipedia, in the dos window type
ping wikipedia.com (press enter)
A ping is a small 32 byte sized bit of data sent to the site which, if responds, sends you a reply (some sites don't respond to ping, just tested and W.P. does.) You should see four "replies" and the time it takes to reply. If you see "timed out" or any indication of data loss, the problem is indeed something with your connection or how your system is connecting to the Internet.
If there is no data loss, the problem may simply be something in your browser settings. Have you tried different browsers?
Another command line test, if you are getting timeouts from ping, is
tracert wikipedia.com (press enter)
This traces the path from your computer to the target site. It's not unusual to see some timeouts as it traces the route, as this is the way the Internet works (if one path doesn't get through, it tries another.) If at any point it just "hangs" for more than a reasonable amount of time, this is your weak point. If you see "trace complete" and a list of hops, this verifies what I described in ping, your computer can get through, so it's "something else" with the first suspect to check being your browser settings.
BTW a "global hook" is generally a programming request, it may be something internal from a program running on your computer - but it may also be a virus attempting to do something. It's a technical explanation, but MS explains hooks here [msdn.microsoft.com]. Off hand, I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you have good AVG in place.
Thankyou so much for your help. I think im gona have a battle for my ISP talktalk to send someone round to help me but yeh im gona try !
The annoying thing is i have two other computers on my network and they work fine so the ISP always say that they do'nt deal with individual problems and theres nothing wrong on their side.
The wierd thing is I woke up at 6 am today morining and my internet is fine well actually its brilliant. And i did the PING thing and it was all good and a 0% loss. But i know that when i come home in the evening my internet will have gone again. That's why i am so confused why is my internet is so eratic ?
And I've got something called COMMODO internet security and AVG 8.0 i downloaded them from CNET.com and they seemed to recommend them highly so i don't think it is my firewall.
Anyway thankyou so much for your replies "Demaestro" and "rocknbil."
But i know that when i come home in the evening my internet will have gone again.
Not to point any fingers, but usually if the problem occurs around the same time of day it's due to the ISP overselling the bandwidth so the traffic gets backed up at peak hours of usage.
Are you on any sort of basic or economy plan? I know with my provider (satellite) the lower grade programs suffer greatly at peak times, the upper "pro" programs still slow down at peak times, just not as bad.
