Newspro and network connection

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minaret
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 12:31 am

Newspro and network connection

Post by minaret »

I've recently started experiencing a problem where, when using newspro 3.81, my network connection is completely killed after about 15 minutes of use. The network connection in WinXP (SP2) shows that the physical connection is active, so it's not a hwardware problem.

For example... I boot up my machine... and can browse the web, ping IP addresses, etc... If I leave the machine on overnight, the network connection still works properly in the morning... BUT, if I start newspro, and download articles for anywhere from 10-20 minutes, the network connection dies completely... cannot ping any IP addresses, no web access, nothing... As soon as I reboot the machine, network connection is back.

I've tried switching from DHCP to static, didn't change anything... Anyone else ever experience this, or know why a network connection in XP SP2 might suddenly be dying like this?

-min.
alex
Posts: 4514
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:57 pm

Post by alex »

do have a firewall or something third-party plugged into winsock?

probably a bug in the firewall, since it happens pretty fast, should be something on the surface.
minaret
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 12:31 am

Post by minaret »

Yes I'm using Kerio firewall. However, I was using Kerio the whole time, and had no problems. Soon after updating to XP SP2 the problem started. I doubt it's a firewall issue, since the machine and the internet connection have absolutely no problem until I open newspro. As I said, i can run the machine for hours with no problems. As soon as I start running newspro, the internet connection dies completely.

I'm going to try disabling the firewall and downloading with newspro to see if this problem still occurs.

-min.
alex
Posts: 4514
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:57 pm

Post by alex »

if it happens with disabled fireall, try to uninstall it completely, since while disabled its driver is still functioning.

winxp sp2 i guess could easily mess some firewalls (did you check for the firewall update, since the problem is so straightforward, if they are developming it they would fix it pretty fast, sp2 had been released a long time ago, if no firewall update, at least try to reinstall the firewall after installing sp2).
dengle
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:37 pm

Post by dengle »

Has this recently started? Was 3.81 running ok for a while and then started experiencing this problem?

If it seems to be within the last month and you've applied all of the Windows hotfixes, try uninstalling MS05-019. It's been causing some funky networking problems at work and could potentially be the cause of your issue as well. This is, of course, for troubleshooting. Remember to reapply it afterwards as I think there may be an exploit out in the wild for MS05-019.
minaret
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 12:31 am

Post by minaret »

Okay, I still don't think it has anything to do with the firewall. I uninstalled Kerio firewall, rebooted the machine, and downloaded close to 600Mb of mpg files from the NASA website using internet explorer. No problems whatsoever. I then loaded newspro, began to download a series of RAR files as a test, and within 10 minutes the internet connection was dead.

Again, Kerio was not causing any problems at all with the machine, and I seriously doubt it's the firewall causing this. The problem ONLY occurs when using newspro. No other networking operations cause any problems.

I'll try dengle's suggestion re MS05-019 as soon as I can, probably tomorrow after work.

[edit: actually, this MS05-019 is MS KB893066, right? The Add/Remove software panel states that this update cannot be removed. However, if this *were* the problem, wouldn't it be causing problems with the machine/network in general? The network problem I'm having is ONLY happening when newspro is running]

-min.
dengle
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:37 pm

Post by dengle »

Yes, that is the kb article. Check out:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893066

They have a lot of issues with MS05-019 it appears.

ALEX: Does Newspro send TCP packets or UDP packets over raw IP sockets? If so, it may stop working after you apply security update MS05-019 to a computer that is running Windows XP with Service Pack 1. Apparently SP2 by default does this as well, according to the link above.

If you think it is 3.81, you could also try an older version for troubleshooting.

At work, we have also had some very odd behavior with the SP2 firewall. Even though it is disabled, it is still actively blocking certain functions.

Try the following: Enable the firewall, add an exception for newspro and port 119 and then re-disable the firewall and see if that helps.
minaret
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 12:31 am

Post by minaret »

I tried adding newspro to the windows firewall (even though I have the windows firewall disabled) and still no go... I'm able to download for about 10-20 minutes and then the network connection is just gone...

-min.
alex
Posts: 4514
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:57 pm

Post by alex »

can you try to run it max. tasks in properties->tasks set to one, then gradually increase the number of tasks until the problem starts, with one task the same happens?
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