Random Disconnections on IRC

[JoesphG]

Hi.

This started happening weeks ago when I updated my IRC client to chat with friends, and play games. Whenever I try to connect to IRC, it keeps disconnecting me for no apparent reason whatsoever. At one point, I had to leave the server because it was getting to a point where the disconnects were very frequent, the ping/pongs were tedious, and the overall connection kept doing the same thing for at least 3 hours. At first I thought to update my drivers, clean my registry for errors and do a virus scan, but it still kept doing it. When I'm not talking in any channels however, it doesn't seem to disonnect, but since I don't want to do that, this made me resort to other clients I can use to hopefully solve the problem. Nothing helped.

Now I think it's my internet connection which seems to be the suspect in this. I checked my router and there's nothing wrong with it: IE nor any of the games that I've played have never encountered this problem as much as IRC has. So am I doing something wrong on my part?

Thanks in advance.

[dslr595148]

#1 What is the brand and model of your modem?

#2 What is the brand and model of your router?

#3 What software firewall is on your computer?

[JoesphG]

My modem is a Conexant D850 PCI V.92, and my router is a Westell Model 6100F. I have checked and I do not have to install any new driver software. And I also use Mcafee's firewall to prevent any viruses from infecting my computer.

[dslr595148]

Log into the Westell at http://192.168.1.1/ from any PC and then do the following, based on what you see.

1: If you see a Red and Black Verizon page with a bunch of information on it, click on the System Monitoring at the top navigation and then choose Advanced Monitors on the Left hand side Navigation. Press Yes past the prompt if any appears, and then choose Trasceiver Statistics.

2: If you see a Blue and White Westell page, select Troubleshooting, DSL, and then choose DSL/Transceiver Statistics.

Provide the Information you see there by copying and pasting it. It will contain information such as Attenuation, Margin, Power Level, and show the modem speed.

Should you be asked for a login, try the following:

admin/password

admin/password1

admin/admin

admin/admin1

Your Verizon Username and Password

The information I'm asking for here will let me see how your line is running. If the physical loop is OK, we'll have to check into other things. In the past, Verizon tech support agents used to ask for this information over the phone to verify how a line was operating, even though they could probably pull it up from the equipment on their end. Lately it seems that many of the agents no longer ask for this information for whatever reason (either they cannot see it, or are not trained to do so) but it's often a great place to start when slow speeds and disconnects are occurring.

[dslr595148]

Log into the Westell at http://192.168.1.1/ from any PC and then do the following, based on what you see.

1: If you see a Red and Black Verizon page with a bunch of information on it, click on the System Monitoring at the top navigation and then choose Advanced Monitors on the Left hand side Navigation. Press Yes past the prompt if any appears, and then choose Trasceiver Statistics.

2: If you see a Blue and White Westell page, select Troubleshooting, DSL, and then choose DSL/Transceiver Statistics.

Provide the Information you see there by copying and pasting it. It will contain information such as Attenuation, Margin, Power Level, and show the modem speed.

Should you be asked for a login, try the following:

admin/password

admin/password1

admin/admin

admin/admin1

Your Verizon Username and Password

The information I'm asking for here will let me see how your line is running. If the physical loop is OK, we'll have to check into other things. In the past, Verizon tech support agents used to ask for this information over the phone to verify how a line was operating, even though they could probably pull it up from the equipment on their end. Lately it seems that many of the agents no longer ask for this information for whatever reason (either they cannot see it, or are not trained to do so) but it's often a great place to start when slow speeds and disconnects are occurring.

[JoesphG]

If I copy and paste it, it would look a bit weird. So instead, here's a picture of what it looks like:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/196/kj54ds56.png/

[smith6612]

Note down the times in which you notice IRC disconnecting, and from there, go back to the same "Advanced Monitoring" page that dslr pointed out above, however instead of going to the Transceiver Statistics, go to the System Monitoring section and open the log from the "Connection" category. Your statistics aren't the greatest so I have a feeling you might be dropping on the physical connection instead of just timing out from the IRC server. You can paste up the log either in a forum post via Copy and Paste, or you can paste the log to http://www.pastebin.com/ if you get an error stating the post is too lengthy. If you go the Pastebin route, please provide the URL to your post.

[JoesphG]

Here you go:

http://pastebin.com/fDhPR5dT

[smith6612]

There does seem to be an interesting amount of DNS errors in your modem's log. Do the times in the log seem to correlate with the times your IRC client experiences disconnects?

[JoesphG]

Whenever I got disconnected from irc, the times that were on the errors did seem to match. Moreover, the disconnects can also happenen via Internet Explorer when I'm doing something like watching YouTube videos or anything that can put pressure on my network. Though, I've never had this problem months ago.

[smith6612]

It's interesting how it does time up with the DNS errors, yet I don't see mention of the connection itself dropping.

Try setting up your PC to use some different DNS servers. Go to your Network Connections options in the Control Panel, and locate the network adapter you use to connect to the modem. From there, right click the adapter, and choose Properties from the drop down list. In the properties window, you'll see something that says either "TCP/IP Version 4" or "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)." Click that option and then choose Properties. Be sure you do NOT uncheck that option or it will remove the ability of your PC to reach the Internet.

Once in the TCP/IP settings, change the option to automatically obtain DNS servers to the Manual option. For the two boxes, fill in these IP addresses.

8.8.4.4

8.8.8.8

Press OK to save the changes, and then close the Network Connections. From there, see if your disconnects still occur or if they are lesser in extent, or no longer exist.

In the process, I would also suggest running a Malware scan using programs such as SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Just to be sure this problem isn't being caused by something installed that shouldn't be is always a good check.