Glasgow proxy problem ?

Nor · 08-06-2004, 17:14

Lo fellas,

Had this problem for a month now. Every hour or so I'll lose the ability to view certain websites for about 5-10 minutes. Always the same websites. www.trickery.net , www.spv-guild.com (on i-websolutions boxes) for example.

The fella on the bb helpline gave me a proxy to use. Think it was the luton one. Anyway, this bypassed any issues there were and things were fine. Been using it for about 2-3 weeks but the problem still persists if I don't use the proxy. I don't really want to keep bypassing the problem as using a proxy is a wee bit slower, plus it usually messes up cookies and stuff and sites don't remember that I'm logged in.

Anyway, today on the phone another tech is inistant pstrip.exe which is entech powerstrip (so I can kill the TFT brightness at night) is the problem. He did a search on symantic and found adware.PStrip so believes its the same thing, despite nothing on symantic saying pstrip.exe is a problem file and it also says powerstrip technologies and not entech.

I've used powerstrip for a couple (perhaps 3) years now and everything has been fine. Its a completely legit program. Infact, when I got the tech to visit the website http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/index.shtm he said it was full of dodgy pop up and he couldn't go any futher. I honestly think he's got spyware or something on his system as the site is completely fine for me, even with my zone alarm off. Something he said sir that is really unadvisable visiting that site without a firewall.

Anyway, I'm writing this while I'm on hold. I can't speak to his manager as he's 'away for a cigarette'.

I really do dispair.

Nor · 08-06-2004, 17:52

hmm this site has died then

in the days of nthellworld there would have been about 20 replies by now.

Chris W · 08-06-2004, 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nor

Lo fellas,

Had this problem for a month now. Every hour or so I'll lose the ability to view certain websites for about 5-10 minutes. Always the same websites. www.trickery.net , www.spv-guild.com (on i-websolutions boxes) for example.

It is strange that the connection to the sites drops some of the time, if it was a proxy issue then i would expect you to never be able to access the sites.

Quote:

The fella on the bb helpline gave me a proxy to use. Think it was the luton one. Anyway, this bypassed any issues there were and things were fine. Been using it for about 2-3 weeks but the problem still persists if I don't use the proxy. I don't really want to keep bypassing the problem as using a proxy is a wee bit slower, plus it usually messes up cookies and stuff and sites don't remember that I'm logged in.

Do you know which proxy it is that is causing the problem? try specifying each of the proxy servers in the glasgow area, and see which one allows you to get to the sites, and which don't. Post back with the results.

Specifying a proxy would not prevent cookies from working properly... I am currently at work with a proxy, and have no problems, and also at home i use proxies from time to time and have never had an issue. Regardless of which proxy you are connecting through, the cookies will be saved onto your computer, not the proxy.

Quote:

Anyway, today on the phone another tech is inistant pstrip.exe which is entech powerstrip (so I can kill the TFT brightness at night) is the problem. He did a search on symantic and found adware.PStrip so believes its the same thing, despite nothing on symantic saying pstrip.exe is a problem file and it also says powerstrip technologies and not entech.

I've used powerstrip for a couple (perhaps 3) years now and everything has been fine. Its a completely legit program.

have to agree with you here...

Quote:

Originally Posted by symantec database

Results for: pstrip.exe

No results were found for your search.
Try changing some of the words in your query.

Quote:

Infact, when I got the tech to visit the website http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/index.shtm he said it was full of dodgy pop up and he couldn't go any futher. I honestly think he's got spyware or something on his system as the site is completely fine for me, even with my zone alarm off. Something he said sir that is really unadvisable visiting that site without a firewall.

that site has no popups on when i try it... looks legit to me.

Quote:

Anyway, I'm writing this while I'm on hold. I can't speak to his manager as he's 'away for a cigarette'.

I really do dispair.

Any news after speaking to a manager?

Nor · 08-06-2004, 18:01

Just waiting to speak to the manager, 1hr 31m so far

Thanks for the info about the cookies. I don't know what Glasgow proxy is giving me errors though.

Chris W · 08-06-2004, 18:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nor

hmm this site has died then

in the days of nthellworld there would have been about 20 replies by now.

No it hasn't... check out the thread in website discussion about the problems the site has had today- that is why a lot of people are offline at the moment, and why it took me a long time to get the reply to actually work!

/

paulyoung666 · 08-06-2004, 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

No it hasn't... check out the thread in website discussion about the problems the site has had today- that is why a lot of people are offline at the moment, and why it took me a long time to get the reply to actually work!

/

to be fair maybe he hadnt thought about that , at least give the benefit of the doubt in the first instance

Nor · 08-06-2004, 18:38

Okay fair enough, I'm very pleased to be wrong, believe me

Anyway I didn't get through to the manager in the end, was given a website to check my proxy details though.

In fairness to the tech (prolly not right to name him) he did try to help. It was pretty impossible for him to do much though as the intermittent problem wasn't present while I was on the phone, so all the diagnostics came back fine.

I just got abit annoyed at his inistance the problem was software and due to me having a virus ridden computer. Quite comical when it was his computer that was spouting loads of pop ups when he visited a legit site with no popups. Don't think he believed me when I suggested he may have spyware, but its the only reason I can think of for him getting loads of pop ups on a site without them. Mastercard popup was one incidently. I think he just got it into his head pstrip.exe was bad and took it from there, just didn't want to believe its a legit program.

I also got abit annoyed when he said the problem was also probably due to my router. Despite me using it for 9 months and having zero problems until the last month.

Anyway, I'll just use the net without a proxy and monitor exactly when I lose contact with the various websites.,

My thinking is that it may be a router crashing ? Cos it takes down certain parts of the net for me and usually lasts about 5-10 minutes, enough time for it to reboot ? Kinda clutching at straws there I guess.

Chris W · 08-06-2004, 18:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nor

My thinking is that it may be a router crashing ? Cos it takes down certain parts of the net for me and usually lasts about 5-10 minutes, enough time for it to reboot ? Kinda clutching at straws there I guess.

It is possible that the router is causing problems, just to rule this out is worth making sure that you have the latest firmware installed.

When you lose the browsing, do you lose everything (ie msn signs out etc)? Is it all websites that stop working or just the ones that you mentioned in the first post? when you cannot browse to site, can you ping it or trace to it? (bear in mind that not all sites are pingable, so try it when you can reach it as well).

Quote:

to be fair maybe he hadnt thought about that , at least give the benefit of the doubt in the first instance

sorry Paul!! benefit of doubt given

Nor · 08-06-2004, 19:02

I lose contact with the same sites. www.trickery.net which is hosted on the UK2 servers and www.spv-guild.com which is hosted on the I-websolution servers. Iirc Wireplay.co.uk also falls over, but overclockers.co.uk works perfectly as does bbc.co.uk. I don't have MSN installed so not aware if I lose access to it when things fall over. I have tried pinging the addresses when the website wont open and it can't ping em. Haven't tried tracert'ing them though, I'll try that when it happens again.

Off the top of my head I'd say I get cannot find site on just over 50% of the sites I try when I'm experiencing the disturbance in the force.

I really don't think it could be the router, as its been fine for 9 months. However, I unplugged it earlier and I'll see if the problem still occurs.

Nor · 08-06-2004, 22:24

Just an update. Since this afternoon my PC has been directly connected to the modem, no proxy specified in IE and no firewall. At 19:20 - 19:30 the problem resurfaced. For most of that time I was again unable to view about 50%+ of websites. I was able to get to bbc.co.uk and http://tamb.ipbhost.com (tartan army website).

Was unable to get to trickery.net, wireplay.co.uk, overclockers uk and here (although this may have been down anyway at the time not sure). In each case the browser would go looking for the site then come back with webpage not found.

I'm confident its not my router as the problem occured when it wasn't being used. I'm confident its not my firewall. I'm confident its not any virii or software glitches. Its impossible though to get through to NTL BB tech support in time. As by the time I've waited in the queue the problem has resolved itself. It just seems that something in the renfrew ubr is having an intermittent fault and taking 5-10 minutes to rectify itself, reboot or whatever. No idea what it could be.

It just seems I'm destined to have this problem forever as nobody is able to check anything it seems and short of using my DV Cam to show the problem I'm not sure anyone is actually going to see it in action.

Chris W · 08-06-2004, 23:02

hmm....

if it was a ubr issue then you would lose everything. I know it sounds obvious but have you checked that the pages you are seeing are not caches on your pc?

It does sound like a proxy issue. If you specify one, can you browse normally without the problem?

**Paul** · 08-06-2004, 23:31

Nor - according to the IP logs on your posts - you have not been routing via an NTL proxy at all today. What does this page show you ?

http://romulas.zmnt.co.uk/forum/vars.asp

Nor · 09-06-2004, 00:24

It says I'm directly connected, not using a proxy. Its correct, I'm not using a proxy at all. If I use this proxy 61.254.32.7:8080 then it bypasses the problems I get.

However, when I don't use a proxy I get sporadic problems. Last one was at 7:20 this evening and lasted for about 10 minutes. I'm doing nothing different on my computer at all and if I was, I don't see how using a proxy to bypass renfrew would remove any software problems ?

Anyway, thanks for all the replies, appreciate the help.

Chris W · 09-06-2004, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pem

Nor - according to the IP logs on your posts - you have not been routing via an NTL proxy at all today. What does this page show you ?

http://romulas.zmnt.co.uk/forum/vars.asp

that site doesn't detect the ntl proxy i am using... it is one of the transparent caches....

Chris W · 09-06-2004, 00:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nor

It says I'm directly connected, not using a proxy. Its correct, I'm not using a proxy at all. If I use this proxy 61.254.32.7:8080 then it bypasses the problems I get.

However, when I don't use a proxy I get sporadic problems. Last one was at 7:20 this evening and lasted for about 10 minutes. I'm doing nothing different on my computer at all and if I was, I don't see how using a proxy to bypass renfrew would remove any software problems ?

Anyway, thanks for all the replies, appreciate the help.

It wouldn't. I think the stuff that you were fed by someone at t/s early was all poo. Proxy issue... leave it specified for a while and give it a try without every so often to see if the situation improves.

ps are you sure the proxy address is 61 not 62? if it is 62 then it is a belfast proxy, try specifying one closer to you. I will update with the list from robin walkers page shortly if you haven't got it.

MB

EDIT: here it is: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...cache.html#ntl