Strange Networking Issue Under Windows 10

[Ghozer 112]

Ethernet works fine, then that would tell me it's specific to the wireless or some setting-with it.... fair enough

The WiFi signal strength is a consideration, as is the channel and such, hence why I said to check those... but you said it's the same next to the router, so that would generally eliminate those...

have you tried specifying the DNS servers via your PC's settings, or did you do it via your router it's-self?

Also, you're using VPN, it could be that the VPN or whatever plugin/app it uses etc has affected your settings someway, that it's causing issues with DNS..

maybe, if you're not connected to VPN, your PC may think it still wants to use whatever DNS it was using previously, which may only work with the VPN connection, hence timing out otherwise... (just a thought, as I have known similar before)

again, purely for diagnostic reasons, uninstall anything to do with the VPN (making sure to save/note any settings/usernames and passwords etc you may need) - then reset your Windows network settings AFTER..

then try it, see if you still have any DNS issues, or any others etc....

Edited November 2, 2019 by Ghozer

[Temuchin 13]

I've tried setting DNS servers both on the NIC and defaulting to router settings, but it makes no difference.

 

The VPN I use is ExpressVPN. If it's not connected, then the NIC shows the DNS servers that I would expect (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 at the moment). I have already posted a query to them regarding a possible stream of SSL connections to the bare NIC address (i.e. 192.168.1.10) from 45.56.130.124 (which I do not recognise), but that may be one of their servers so I'll have to wait till they respond; I  can then try to push this issue on to them to see if they have any ideas before I try reinstalling the VPN (I don't want to risk losing my only way of connecting just yet!).

[Temuchin 13]

Just an additional thought...  I'm running Windows 10 1803. The issue seems to have started occuring around the time of update KB4023814, which is the nag to upgrade to 1903 (and which keeps failing with Error 0xc1900223...). Of course, this update does not show in the list of uninstallable updates because it's not considered installed until 1903 installs succesfully... But it can be uninstalled manually it seems, so I'll have to give that a try.

 

Grasping at straws on this, though, because I can't see any reports of that screwing up a NIC!

[Ghozer 112]

I don't mean using the Router as DNS or google, I mean, leaving the router as default on your NIC, going into the Router settings and specifying the DNS servers there, so all devices going through router, it will use those DNS servers instead.... instead of your ISP default (which your router will default to)

Ironically, the error with update 1903 (Error 0xc1900223) is a problem downloading, which could be related to your DNS issue...

Also another thought, (if you haven't already tried) - get the IP's for common websites you use (use another device if you have to) and when you have a DNS issue, use the IP directly, (to check if it is just DNS error/timeout)

[Temuchin 13]

Yes, I've tried setting different DNS servers on the router, but no joy.

 

This 1903 thing... I'm not sure whether or not that's getting sidetracked on a separate issue. I'd like to back out of it, but the manual uninstall instructions refer to components that do not exist on this PC (e.g. there is no
C:\Windows10Upgrade\ folder) so I'll have to tread carefully over that. For now, I've just renamed the c:\windows\UpdateAssistant folder which was created by KB4023814 (I think!)...

 

Yes, I've thought about getting a list of IP addresses - but keep forgetting to do so! Now done and I'll give it a go once I'm out of the VPN.

[Temuchin 13]

I seem to be getting a mixture of weirdness if I try to connect to websites using IP address. The first one I tried (from Chrome) was to 184.72.104.138 (duckduckgo). This seemed to do a reverse DNS lookup to get the hostname, and then tried to resolve that to an IP address! Which timed out, of course... Yet, other IP addresses seemed not to trigger a reverse DNS lookup, just gave "site can't be reached, took too long to respond".

 

I'm even having trouble connecting to the router: the web interface is hit and miss; sometimes, ping and tracert are instantaneous, other times they just time out...

 

This is all becoming far too tedious, and I think I need to wait for inspiration to arrive. Just have to accept that I need to use a VPN on this machine.

 

 

[Ghozer 112]

2 hours ago, Temuchin said:

I seem to be getting a mixture of weirdness if I try to connect to websites using IP address. The first one I tried (from Chrome) was to 184.72.104.138 (duckduckgo). This seemed to do a reverse DNS lookup to get the hostname, and then tried to resolve that to an IP address! Which timed out, of course... Yet, other IP addresses seemed not to trigger a reverse DNS lookup, just gave "site can't be reached, took too long to respond".

 

I'm even having trouble connecting to the router: the web interface is hit and miss; sometimes, ping and tracert are instantaneous, other times they just time out...

 

This is all becoming far too tedious, and I think I need to wait for inspiration to arrive. Just have to accept that I need to use a VPN on this machine.

 

 

Honestly, this sounds like what I suspected, the VPN software is interfering with something when you're not using the VPN, causing normal/standard connections to fail/fall over etc..

By the fact you said that when using an IP, it still gave "site can't be reached, took too long to respond" - this tells me that there's some other/deeper issue, and that it's not JUST a DNS issue...

[Temuchin 13]

52 minutes ago, Ghozer said:

Honestly, this sounds like what I suspected, the VPN software is interfering with something when you're not using the VPN, causing normal/standard connections to fail/fall over etc..

By the fact you said that when using an IP, it still gave "site can't be reached, took too long to respond" - this tells me that there's some other/deeper issue, and that it's not JUST a DNS issue...

I came across the concept of "malformed LSPs" today. This is a new one on me, but symptoms certainly match mine and it's obviously not an area that I've considered. The fix is to do a "netsh winsock reset", but there are reports of this screwing up internet connectivity altogether, so I'm leaving this as a last resort (i.e. until even the VPN stops working).

[Ghozer 112]

Can I ask why you are using a VPN?

Unless it's for work purposes, or to bypass geo-locks on websites, there should be no need or reason to use a VPN!

[Temuchin 13]

12 hours ago, Ghozer said:

Can I ask why you are using a VPN?

Unless it's for work purposes, or to bypass geo-locks on websites, there should be no need or reason to use a VPN!

Oh... OK... The flippant answer would be because it's the only way I can get a stable connection! But there's more to it than that...

 

I originally started using a VPN several years ago. I do a fair bit of travelling out east (China, Philippines, Singapore), and felt the need to have something on my phone that provided privacy/security and obviated geoblocking, so a VPN was the obvious answer. I tried two or three before plumping for ExpressVPN - not cheap, but seems to be the best regarding logging, DNS leaks, and WebRTC leaks.

 

My main use for it has always been phone - also useful on public w-fi networks here. But it does come with a Windows client. There's mostly been no need to use that, but it has proved a godsend more than once. I have a (personal) website and on two occasions I have been unable to access it or its cPanel via my ISP. The first was a routing black hole several hops outside my ISP: VPN fixed that while I went through long and painful discussions with my ISP to accept it and negotiate with the offenders (Call27) to sort it.  Then, more recently, my webhost was blocking access from this PC because the shared address that my ISP assigns appeared on several blacklists: VPN was the temporary solution, fixed IP the permanent. And now this latest issue.

 

So, in the past, generally no need or reason to use a VPN on the PC: but it was always there for emergencies, and now it's a necessity.