more wireless fun : A nerd question.

Well it's not solely wireless it does it with my old modem, 2 PCs and
any combinations of those and USB/LAN/wireless conection, XP and Vista,
3 firewalls, 3 different antivirus programs (all tried individually not
together), Outlook and Thunderbird.
I can download, upload, browse, FTP and receive any and all forms of
email. I just can't *send* mails that are more than 1 or 2Kb - this
message is about as long as it can get. No attachments, nothing - it
just times out. My ISP says nothing's wrong with my settings but
something's screwed up.

Anyone?

 

change your MTU, all I can think could do it. You will need to google for the program to changeit its something like setmtu.

cya, Andrew...

 

Who's Reggy, and what makes you think he didit?

Theo

 

plug your PC directly into your internet link (bypass all firewalls,
routers etc) and see if you can send large emails. If you cant, then its
your PC. If you can, then its your network.

 

Try turning off your antivirus and firewall programs temporarily -
some of them are set up to block outgoing traffic on port 25

Do you have a local smtp server or are you using your ISP's ?

JL

 

Excellent. So since I can't with no firewall and directly connected to
either of my 2 modems .. where's the problem ? Outlook AND Thunderbird
have the same problem no matter how I do it.
The old PC that worked at the old address does it here too with the same
settings it used before.

MTU is set at 1492. I have also tried 1400, 2000, 1000, 750 and 500.
Same end result, all works barring sending mails.

 

Using my ISPs - however the problem occurs when sending to their SMTP or
NNTP server only. Receiving from same is hunky dory. I've tried
without any firewall or antivirus at all on XPSP1, XPSP2 and Vista,
using my DLink or Netcomm modem. Also if that were the problem, I'd be
able to send no mails, rather than ones under 2K. (which is why I tried
the MTUs). Could not send this without deleting all that you quoted.

 

Never let a chance go by!!

 

What Big Bird wanted you to do was bypass your router but by the sounds
of it at least one of your modems *is* a router, so may be you can't. Is
the other one a router-modem too?

" The old PC that worked at the old address ... ": you've physically
moved but stayed with the same ISP? Or you've changed ISP? Or you've
changed static IP for some reason?

MTU: 1492 is fine. Anything less should make no difference, unless
you're trying to communicate with somewhere with really ancient switches
(Boratstan may be?). In theory setting it to anything higher than 1500
might *create* your problem, but if it did it should affect FTP and HTTP
also.

Do you know anyone else with the same ISP so you can test your gear
(preferably the old gear that did work) at their place?

 

Nope. correct port <default>

 

I physically moved and remained with the same ISP and account. About a
week after moving the old account was connected at the new address.
The Netcomm is also a router but just 2 devices rather than 4. Both've
been reset to defaults and configured using the ISP's CD and firmware's
all up to date. I've also configured both manually.

 

You say you can FTP with no problems; does that mean you can upload large
files also, or only download?

Have you checked both computers for malware of any sort? Not talking viruses
here; malware's an entirely different kettle o' fish.

---
Bob Milutinovic
Cognicom - "Australia's Web Presence Specialists"
http://www.cognicom.net.au/
telephone (0417) 45-77-66
facsimile (02) 9824-2240

 

Is there an alarm system at this new address?

 

OK, so since they're both routers, we can't use packet sniffing software
to try and find out *where* the packets are being dropped. That might
not have worked anyway.

1. Confirm the problem is not specific to the telephone extension socket
you're using by plugging the last good configuration into another socket
and trying again.
2. Confirm the problem is specific to SMTP/NNTP as Bob Milutinovic has
suggested by uploading stuff via HTTP and FTP.

If you can't upload anything it may be a wiring problem beyond your
modem but if it's peculiar to SMTP/NNTP it's more likely to be
configuration.

 

Get a GMail account or other free account that you can send smtp
traffic to.

That will eliminate one step (the ISP), if upload to Gmail from your
box works then it's something the ISP has done.

If it doesn't, then you need to look to your end as more likely (it's
not impossible they could be blocking or limiting the traffic, but if
you can't successfully upload smtp to another server other than
theirs, it's probably not them.)

Most likely scenario is a virus or malware of some sort - could be a
program running in the background or a registry setting has been
changed.

BTW you SHOULD be running a local firewall and virus protection you
should NOT be relying on your ISP for this. You also want a copy of
spybot sd and ad aware to clean your box up if

Might want to have a dig on tucows or download.com for a network
analysis tool - there's probably something on there that can give you
an idea of what's happening to your smtp traffic. I wouldn't bother
until you've eliminated virus and mal/spyware though

JL

 

Yes my wife goes off every time I touch the computer

No, no alarms at all.

I'll have a fiddle and stop off topicing and see what I come up with.
I've had a computer since C64s were around so it's not often lately that
I get stuff that completely stumps me, as much due to experience as
anything. A number of good suggestions you've all made weren't things
I'd thought of trying.

 

Is it possable that the firmware in one or both your routers is
corrupted? Upsetting a setting somewhere. Even though your settings look
right, I beleive this could cause all types of problems.

Aido. >

 

Did you fix the problem?
What was it?