XP woes

MossRoad · Dec 28, 2001

OOOOOOooooooo. Sounds like a great site. I'm waiting. Thanks in advance.

 MossRoad

Charlie_Iliff · Dec 28, 2001

One such site is
Driverguide.com
Chuck may be referring to a different one.

Charlie Iliff

Bird · Dec 28, 2001

Do you have problems with e-mail as well as the internet connections

No problem once connected and communicating, but when it shows connected but nothing happening, then e-mail wouldn't work either.

what browser are you using

I only use Internet Explorer and Outlook Express for browser and e-mail.

what version

Until this afternoon, 5.50.4133.2400 (had been waiting for the XP upgrade to arrive before updating the browser), but on your recommendation, I just updated to 6.0.2600.0000. Took a little less than 2 hours for it to download./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

try clearing out the cache (TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS). consider deleting the cookies

I did that (wiped them all out before calling my ISP), then they had me do it again while I was on the phone with them; no help.

Now, this time when I dialed in, it connected properly the first time (but of course, it's been doing that anyway about 25% of the time, so I don't know whether there'll be any change or not). And I still cannot get iwon.com/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.

However . . ., I probably needed to update to the latest version of Internet Explorer anyway, and I do appreciate your efforts, Roy.

Chuck52 · Dec 28, 2001

MossRoad,

Charlie's right. It was Driverguide.com. As I recall, I joined and either found the drivers I needed at that site or got directions for the appropriate site. Did you say something about a Twain driver? I've got a little Agfa digital camera that uses a Twain driver and I got that working, but I don't remember having to get a new one. I seem to have several TWAIN_32.DLL files from Adobe Photoshop and other software. As usual, if I have multiple copies of things, I also have no idea which I am using. Computers....gotta love 'em.

Chuck

RPM · Dec 28, 2001

Bird,

You have two separate issues. Both are problems with your ISP - not you.

The problem you get when dialing up and the connection doesn't fully establish is a problem with their servers. It's a classic symptom of poorly implemented software on their end.

The problem with not getting to iwon.com is also an ISP problem. I suspect that you are either seeing:

1) Poor domain name resolution - try typing "ping iwon.com" from the command line and see what happens. If you get the IP address 208.45.133.x (x could be a few different numbers) then this is not the problem.

2) There could be too many routers between you and iwon.com. The internet is just a patchwork of providers - and if there are too many hops between you and the destination your packets of data sometimes won't make it. This is sometimes a problem with small ISPs as they are too far down the feeding chain in terms of the routing network. Try a larger ISP.

I would wait a month or so before worrying about the problem with iwon.com though. They just bought the guts of the excite.com website and are deep in the process of re-implementing it on their servers. The knock-on from this is that the internet will probably give problematic service to the excite.com or iwon.com addresses until their new deployment stabilizes.

If you're still having problems, switch ISP.

Patrick

Bird · Dec 29, 2001

Patrick, these computin' machines never cease to amaze and confuse me.

try typing "ping iwon.com"

OK, I tried it, and what I got was We can't find "ping iwon.com".

if there are too many hops between you and the destination 

Sounds like a likely possibility.

Try a larger ISP

No way! I'm so far out in the boondocks that I'd have to pay for long distance phone calls every time if I used a larger ISP; only 3 little ones that have "local" phone numbers.

switch ISP

That's one I considered, except I know people who have the other 2 available ones and they have even more problems than I do./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Another interesting thing is that my ISP gave me another URL of <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.iwon.com/user_registration/manual_login/process_sign_in/1,11627>http://www.iwon.com/user_registration/manual_login/process_sign_in/1,11627</A> and using that, I can get into iwon, with the header at the top of the page and a lot of other stuff, including "Sorry! We couldn't find the page you requested.
While you're here, why not check out these other great areas of iWon!"

wait a month or so

That's what I'm gonna do all right./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

GlueGuy · Dec 29, 2001

Mike,

If it's any consolation, <A target="_blank" HREF=http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20011228/tc/why_your_windows_should_be_xp_1.html>here's a few arguments</A> about why you should be using windows XP. Grain of salt: Ziff Davis is a major shill for all of the hardware and software vendors.

billboe · Dec 29, 2001

Hey Bird,

OK, I tried it, and what I got was We can't find "ping iwon.com".

I don't want to tell you something you don't already know, but, you need to open a "Command Prompt" and type "ping iwon.com"... You can also try "nslookup iwon.com"... In fact, I would probably make that:

ping www.iwon.com

and

nslookup www.iwon.com

The ping command will tell you two things... First, it will see if your ISP's servers (DNS) can translate the "www.iwon.com" into an IP address and then, if that works, it will see if you can send and receive information to and from that address.

The NSLookup command will just see if the address resolution part works...

Sounds like a strange problem! Good Luck!!

Anonymous Poster · Dec 29, 2001

Bird,
When I click the link you gave I get the same error message 'Sorry, we could not find....' and the other links there, but when I type www.iwon.com in my browser I get automatically redirected to this URL <A target="_blank" HREF=http://home.iwon.com/index_gen.html>http://home.iwon.com/index_gen.html</A> and the site displays normally. Could it be they have changed their url address? BTW, when I ping www.iwon.com or home.iwon.com they both timeout. Go figure /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif.

MikePA · Dec 29, 2001

Web sites/servers can be set up to not respond to pings since there's no sense wasting server resources responding to pings that could be used to serve up web pages.

Bird · Dec 29, 2001

I don't want to tell you something you don't already know

Hmmm . . ., is there something wrong with that sentence?/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif At any rate, I'm as dense as this computer; we both require very specific instructions..

you need to open a "Command Prompt"

Now I remember Command Prompts in DOS on an old computer that used basic language programming, but where's a command prompt on this contraption?

Bird · Dec 29, 2001

Yep, Rick when I type the www.iwon.com, it automatically directs to the same URL you're getting, except all I get is blank screen. The communication just stops at that point, and I haven't the foggiest notion why.

I'll just wait until I get the XP upgrade from Dell and see what happens. I ordered it on 12/12/01 and their "order status" has shown "Not Shipped" until today. Today it shows "Shipped." So if it comes in a few days, and I install it, and you never hear from me again, you'll know why./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

billboe · Dec 29, 2001

Now I remember Command Prompts in DOS on an old computer that used basic language programming, but where's a command prompt on this contraption?

No problem Bird! You can find the command prompt by clicking on "Start", "Programs", and then "Command Prompt". On Windows 2K (and perhaps some other newer MS OSes), after "Programs", you need to click on "Accessories" and then "Command Prompt"...

Are you having fun yet???

Anonymous Poster · Dec 29, 2001

Dang Bird, you got me. All the other good comments about clearing cache & cookies still apply. I hope the XP upgrade takes care of it. Now.... So if it comes in a few days, and I install it, and you never hear from me again,... You KNOW that won't happen! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Bird · Dec 29, 2001

Thanks, Billboe, I found it, except mine is "Accessories" then "MS-DOS Prompt" (I'd plumb forgotten about that being there it's been so long since I used it). And the results I got were "destination no reachable" and "timed out"./w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

I think I'm wasting everyone's time until I get that XP upgrade and see if it changes anything./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Alan L. · Dec 30, 2001

Wow, the beauty of a T-1 line. I just received 7 Dell Optiplex machines with XP Pro. I downloaded the XP security fixes in about 10 seconds and Acrobat Reader 5.0 (about 8 MB) in just a few seconds. Did this 7 times.

XP was (is) new to me and I was VERY frustrated with it. Because of all the animation and crap these 1.8 GH machines seemed hardly faster than the P2-333s they are replacing, at least in terms of moving around in windows. Some operations cause the machiine to "go to sleep" for several seconds when it shouldn't be doing anything.

It was mainly the excessive security on the XP that gave me the most trouble. Setting them up to hook up to our 2K domain was a problem at first. I was very confused about security in the domain vs security on the XP machine. I wasted a whole day figuring this out and had to pay Dell $180 for help from their "Enterprise" division. The problem was, I would set up a user that could log into the domain but didn't have administrative rights on the XP machine. Once, I couldn't access user setup because I wasn't the administrator when I CLEARLY WAS the administrator. I muddled around and finally fixed that problem.

By the way, I found that you can clone and XP machine using Norton Ghost, with no activation code, but I couldn't figure out how to reinstate the clone to its own XP activation, and when I tried joining the domain it wouldn't work until I gave up, reinstalled XP (very easy by the way) and set it and the other 6 up from scratch.

The CD burners worked just fine - the drive is a combo CD/CD writer/DVD reader drive. Seems a little slow as a CD but did a great job burning CDs. I made an image of a machine - about 3GB - in 30 minutes, and it restored to the other machine in about 20 mintures.

Right now the problem is that it takes about 2 minutes to log into the domain!! This is a 10-node network with one fileserver (domain controller). I don't see how this could take so long. The old slow Win 98 machines logged in immediately, so I guess this is "progress".

Once windows is up and we are using the real applications such as tax preparation and other stuff the machines work very fast and easy with XP. And no lockups, blue screens or other problems so far.

We also got some Dell 17" LCD monitors and they are AWESOME. You get the whole 17" on these babies, not the 15" or so you get with a regular 17" CRT.

This makes probably 35 Dell computers I've bought in 3 years. I have never had any problem with their equipment out of the box, very little problems through the years at all.

As for XP, the jury is out. The security to me seems to be way overkill for the average user, even the average business user. It doesn't seem right to have to be a server expert just to get a workstation up and running as a client.

The reason I bought these faster machines is to run full time virus protection software. I loaded Norton Antivirus and find that with real-time scanning I am disappointed in how much speed the AV software robs. I will still disable it and use nightly scans and realtime email scans only, plus the firewall.

On the network, to look up Peachtree companies - about 100 of them, with AV software it takes 30 seconds for the list to come up. Without AV software it takes about 8 seconds. This is typical of the performance hit the AV makes, when the network is involved.

Bird · Dec 30, 2001

Roy, for your information, my dial up connection has connected properly every time since I updated to IE 6. Wonder why my ISP never thought about that? They asked which operating system (ME), but maybe they just assumed that I'd had sense enough to update the browser./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thanks for your help.

RoyJackson · Dec 30, 2001

Mostly, I was thinking about a conflict between IE and XP (no, Microsoft software is not always totally compatable), especially in versions of .dll files and the other files that integrate the OS and browser.

That kind of thing has bitten me a time or two.

Another thing to watch out for is drivers (video drivers, especially). Conflicts here can really screw your system up! I've had to format my system twice (about two years ago) because of the video drivers I installed (FYI, they were Voodoo II for a Monster 3D II card).

Just part of that really cool stuff that happens with computers!

Happy Holidays!

Bird · Dec 31, 2001

Got an e-mail this morning from Dell about my XP Upgrade. It says, "Your order has been shipped via USPS Media Mail. Please allow 3-4 weeks for your upgrade to reach you."

Now I've heard of "snail mail"; never heard of "Media Mail" before; is that a crippled snail?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

GlueGuy · Dec 31, 2001

3-4 weeks!?!?

Sounds like bulk mail to me. I'd sure be curious about why it takes so long to package/ship/deliver a CD in the mail. Something smells fishy, and I don't think you're getting the whole story.