Cannot access certain sites

[Bahumat]

had this problem for a few weeks now, at first i thought maybe the website was to blame but i tried these at work the other day and i could connect fine.

The problem i get is "Page Cannot be Displayed"
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings. Also my guild uses Ventrilo and i do not appear to be able to connect.

I have BT adsl with a wired connection, i have cleared my internet history but to no avail

The sites which i am sure work are...
http://daoc.catacombs.com/cbuilder.cfm
www.firstgroup.com

 

[popa]

lol i got that to
and cant update antivirus


i just call the isp and after 3 days waz fixed

 

[Bahumat]

there was talk about BT and their 1458 rate (fuck knows what that is) said something abot when its too busy and the packets and some other shit

 

[georgie]

Sounds like your DNS is a little fudged. Usually only a temporary thing tho, a feww weeks seems a tad long.

 

[Bahumat]

its a pain cause i find websites with the brief part of the answer...but then i cant load teh page lol.

 

[Bahumat]

This is a problem with BT, im not sure how or why but it is, the answer is to make your pc run off a proxy server.

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39166
Look at thomkat's response, he says about this link.

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/html/res...xies.html#find
I used this proxy and it worked
cache.btinternet.com
port 8080

 

[Bahumat]

hmm when i load catacombs i get a "Error 308" message, it appears to be installing some sort of small update with a trebuchet or ballista file when i get the error.

TOA works fine...

 

[Ethild]

Running off a proxy server will only fix your HTTP requests, it will not fix anything else (you may not use anything else, so this could be irrelivant).

It simply sounds like your MTU is set too high for your DSL connection. You could try dropping the MTU of your machine to a lower value, you have mentioned 1458, which is in the expected range for a typical DSL connection. In theory MTU path discovery should be automatic, but it doesn't work for a wide range of PPPoE connections (PPPoE is commonly used for ADSL, and im pretty sure BT use it).

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314053

The link explains all the options Windows supports for changing TCP parameters. If you are familliar with regedit then you should be fine. The 'MTU' key is the one in particular you should try out. Make sure you enter 1458 in DECIMAL, not hex, when adding the key value.

 

[Bahumat]

Running off a proxy server will only fix your HTTP requests, it will not fix anything else (you may not use anything else, so this could be irrelivant).

It simply sounds like your MTU is set too high for your DSL connection. You could try dropping the MTU of your machine to a lower value, you have mentioned 1458, which is in the expected range for a typical DSL connection. In theory MTU path discovery should be automatic, but it doesn't work for a wide range of PPPoE connections (PPPoE is commonly used for ADSL, and im pretty sure BT use it).

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314053

The link explains all the options Windows supports for changing TCP parameters. If you are familliar with regedit then you should be fine. The 'MTU' key is the one in particular you should try out. Make sure you enter 1458 in DECIMAL, not hex, when adding the key value.

yeah this is what i read about, i wanted to try it but i could not get the sites to load lol (can now access all sites). Im a little unsure of what this MTU is or how to do it, i'll have a look tonight

just out of interest you said "1458 DECIMAL not Hex"....what do you mean?

 

[Bahumat]

hmm i looked at the link but there is alot of information, am i supposed to be doing this part?

EnablePMTUBHDetect
Key: Tcpip\Parameters
Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
Default: 0 (False)
Description: If you set this parameter to 1 (True), TCP tries to detect "Black Hole" routers while doing Path MTU Discovery. A "Black Hole" router does not return ICMP Destination Unreachable messages when it must fragment an IP datagram with the Don't Fragment bit set. TCP must receive these messages to perform Path MTU Discovery. With this feature enabled, TCP will try to send segments without the Don't Fragment bit set if several retransmissions of a segment are unacknowledged. If the segment is acknowledged, the MSS will be decreased and the Don't Fragment bit will be set in future packets on the connection. Enabling black hole detection increases the maximum number of retransmissions that are performed for a particular segment.
EnablePMTUDiscovery
Key: Tcpip\Parameters
Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
Default: 1 (True)
Description: If you set this parameter to 1 (True), TCP tries to discover the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU or largest packet size) over the path to a remote host. By discovering the Path MTU and limiting TCP segments to this size, TCP can eliminate fragmentation at routers along the path that connect networks with different MTUs. Fragmentation adversely affects TCP throughput and causes network congestion. If you set this parameter to 0, an MTU of 576 bytes is used for all connections that are not to computers on the local subnet

I had a look around and i think this is all correct, just hoped you could confirm

Change the MTU Settings for PPP Connections
To change the MTU settings for PPP connections, add the ProtocolType DWORD value, the PPPProtocolType DWORD value, and the ProtocolMTU DWORD value to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Ndiswan\Parameters\Protocols\0
To do so, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following subkey in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NdisWan\Parameters
3. Add a Protocols subkey (if it does not already exist). To do so:a. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
b. Type Protocols, and then press ENTER.

4. Add a 0 (zero) subkey to the Protocols subkey. To do so: a. Click the Protocols subkey that you created step 3.
b. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
c. Type 0 (zero), and then press ENTER.

5. Click the 0 subkey that you created in step 4.
6. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
7. In the Value data box, type ProtocolType, and then click OK.
8. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
9. In the Value data box, type 800, make sure Hexadecimal is selected under Base, and then click OK.
10. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
11. Type PPPProtocolType, and then press ENTER.
12. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
13. In the Value data box, type 21, make sure Hexadecimal is selected under Base, and then click OK.
14. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
15. Type ProtocolMTU, and then press ENTER.
16. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
17. Under Base, click Decimal, type the MTU size that you want in the Value data box, and then click OK.
18. Quit Registry Editor.
19. Restart your computer.

 

[Bahumat]

http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTU_(networking)

just pasting so i have the url

 

[Bahumat]

http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/kb/article.php?id=271

 

[Ethild]

hmm i looked at the link but there is alot of information, am i supposed to be doing this part?

Sorry, I probably should have been a bit clearer. You say your network is wired, so I am assuming you are connecting:

YourMachine -> ADSL Router -> Internet

If this is not how you connect to the internet, you will need to change a different interface, so ignore what I'm about to write.

If it is the case, then you want to edit the MTU value on your local network adaptor interface. You only want to set the setting called 'MTU' the other MTU related settings are already configured correctly.

You want to change it for your LAN card, so on Windows XP the registry key would be:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{myInterfaceHere}]

You may have multiple interfaces (represented by the long GUID numbers), so you may have to browse through to find which one is your network adaptor. Fast way is to just find out your current local network IP address, and find an interface with a matching IPAddress key.

Its this interface you want to add the MTU key to. New -> DWORD Value. Then select DECIMAL from the box that appears, and type in your new value of 1458. Give it a reboot, and see if that allows you correct inernet connectivity without using the proxy server.

 

[Bahumat]

ok thanks, i've just made the changes and im about to reboot...god i hope this works lol

EDIT:- ok it appears to have worked i still cant get catacombs to load but as posted above i have a few things i can try.

 

[Vell]

I think I am having a similar problem, but I'm not really sure because I don't get all this computer stuff - I press the on button and stuff happens, that's pretty much my understanding of it all.

I've printed the thread out and will give it to my housemate to have a look over, hopefully it will make sense to him...

Bahumat, when you got the 'Page cannot be displayed' messages, was it bringing them up immediately, or was it sat there 'thinking' for ages first before deciding that it couldn't display it? If yours was thinking about it first, then hopefully it's the same problem...it does sound like it might be, because my problems started when we went out and bought a new router from PC world.

It's tres annoying, since I can't access any MSN sites at all, including messenger etc. And it doesn't seem to want to connect to the patch servers for DR either. Grrrr