Help with internet connection Virginmedia?

Question

Hi everyone, Hope I can get some help here.
I've been having this problem for about 2-3 months now. Virgin broadband 2meg connection. Here's the story so far. I get up in the morning, startup pc, no internet connection. In network connections it say's "connected" but still no internet, and using run/cmd to ping www.bbc.co.uk etc. Produces nothing Click repair, works 2 out of 20 times. Disable connection then re-enable then click repair works 2 out of 20 times. Rebooting pc & modem does not help. I’ve updated & ran AVG, Spybot, Adaware and other system tools and all A1.
So, boot into safe mode internet is ok and all works fine. I then reboot into normal mode (without doing anything else i.e. repair etc.) internet still works, it will work all day, can reboot and still ok, even if firewall is enabled. Wake up in morning and have to go through the same sorry kafuffle lol. Virgin said it was xp firewall. (Don’t think so as I’ve never had problems with the firewall until now, and had the firewall disabled even as I was speaking to them) so they sent out an engineer who said everything was fine with their end, but fitted a new modem anyway. I've fitted new d-link pci network card, full format of hard drive, fresh install of XP and Virgin's broadband setup... still the same. Please help before I resort to attacking nice people exiting Virginmedia office buildings, haha. Have a lovely Sunday. Kind regards Charlie.

If my memory serves me, at the begining it would say "cannot renew IP address" so may be something to do with that. I have set to automatically detect setting though this has made no difference.
kind regards
Charlie.

Hi there, I've been leaving the modem plugged in at night, but usually unplug the pc.
I will try leaving the pc plugged in and just "shut down" tonight. Thankyou.
kind regards
Charlie

no router, just straight into pc. Since this started I have spoken with Virgin help on quite a few occasions....firewall, unscrew cable from modem, reboot pc, reboot modem. They say "if my modem lights are on i.e. power/sync/ready then their end is ok and it must be my puter.
kind regards
Charlie

hi, as for antivirus... just AVG... I tried with no antivirus, just a new install of xp and the virgin network adapter driver thing.

Hi there, I will try this, I have a nthell techie engineer's handbook somewhere and I remember it give's the numbers/address for the modems etc. Thankyou
kind regards
Charlie.

Hi again. In event viewer there are a lot of yellow exclamation marks and red X errors....
Red errors say: The IP address lease 81.96.177.18 for the Network Card with network address 0050BAF4C314 has been denied by the DHCP server 0.0.0.0 (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message).
Yellow one's say: Warning Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0050BAF4C314. The following error occurred:
The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.
Hope this helps.......Arrrrgh!
kind regards & still smiling
Charlie

Hi Paul, Thanks for the advice (everyone else too) I thought this was down to virgin, (but trying to convince them is difficult)
My memory is not too great, but I'm sure it happens with a completely diff pc (one I have upstairs) and I did tell virgin this. I think I will bring it down tonight and try it in the morning should this one fail to connect. It's ready to connect, just needs plugged in as I've already installed the virgin disc.
Now, if it happens with both pc's, surely it must be virgin?.
kind regards
Charlie.

Hi again. Okay, So woke this morning and turned on pc...same thing again...couldnt even get on the internet in safemode. Turned off pc and plugged in spare pc... same thing still. Plugged main pc back in booted to safemode and still nothing...eventually clicking repair sorted it, rebooted into normal mode and internet is on..I notice when I do get online it's very slow to open web pages but eventually speeds up. Below is what event viewer tells me:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Dhcp
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1007
Date: 05/11/2007
Time: 15:05:41
User: N/A
Computer: TECHIE-F404AAE9
Description:
Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network Card with network address 0050BAF4C314.
The IP address being used is 81.96.177.18.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00

Event Type: Error
Event Source: W32Time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 17
Date: 05/11/2007
Time: 15:05:48
User: N/A
Computer: TECHIE-F404AAE9
Description:
Time Provider NtpClient: An error occurred during DNS lookup of the
the DNS lookup again in 15 minutes. The error was: A socket operation
was attempted to an unreachable host. (0x80072751)

For more
information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Event Type: Error
Event Source: W32Time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 29
Date: 05/11/2007
Time: 15:05:48
User: N/A
Computer: TECHIE-F404AAE9
Description:
The time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources,
however none of the sources are currently accessible. No attempt to contact a source will
be made for 14 minutes. NtpClient has no source of accurate time.

For more information,
see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Okay, same prob today. I phoned Virgin, went through all the reboots, release/renew ip etc etc. I told them it apeared to be a dhcp server fault or highjacked mac address. They said this couldnt happen, so, after I stopped laughing, thay said they are sending a new modem. I said I recieved a new modem last week, but they still wanna send another. I will update as I go. Thanks for all your advice so far.
kind regards
Charlie.

Hi again. Got new modem delivered today. Phoned virgin to register modem, only to be told they can'd do it at this time due to a server error. Well, I just give up. Thanks to everyone for their help.
kind regards
Charlie

Answer 1

this is definitely a fault with the DHCP server which is virgins responsiblity..another option could be someone has "cloned" ur mac address which is very easily done. where u live will be split into segments called UBR's and someone has run the program which can "sniff"out offers from local DHCP servers and can clone an offer to a legitimate mac to a hacked modem which will have onboard firmware that can change its own mac easily..this reults in someone trying to boot up the hacked modem when ur online+then failing cos ur pc is online (no 2 identical macs can b online in the same UBR segment at the same time+vice versa if u try 2 boot up when the hacked modem is online)..dont worry too much about that, if someone does clone a mac, chances are its for someone who lives a few miles away with a "dodgy" modem, who can then get free broadband in another UBR segment..id get onto virgin and tell em THEY are responsible for maintaining their own DHCP servers..oh and ur windows firewall wont stop an incoming connection without messing around with its own settings, it only monitors wot comes in+out that connection and can alert you if necessary, its crap tho, ive ALWAYS got mine turned off+use Zone Alarm Free as my firewall, never had any probs with it yet!!..and wot someone commented about virgin over selling their ips, thats rubbish cos they use Fibre cables which give near unlimited bandwith+all the local area networks(LAN's) are Subnetted through our neighbourhoods so there is no need to turn to IPv6 IP addresses..yet...

Answer 2

It's about a 90% chance you are losing the lease on your IP address from Virgin
Here's how it works
1. Virgin has leased a block of IP addresses (say 10,000)
2. They have oversold their service and now have 20,000 subscribers.
3. In order to make an extra buck, they do not get extra connections. They monitor how busy each connection is. If it is not being used, they "terminate your lease" and give the IP address to a machine that is requesting one.
4. When you try to access the Internet, your IP address is gone. You have to force your modem to obtain a new address from Virgin. Depending on network loading, this can be really fast, or it can be really frustrating.

If you can, access the setup pages for your modem. You should have a "status" page that allows you to see the status of you WAN connection. There should also be the option to select how long you "lease" and IP address and give you the ability to "cancel" or "renew" your lease.
Next time you go on line and cannot connect, go to your modem and see what the status is. If your DHCP connection is "disconnected", then try "renewing" you lease from there. Once it reports "DHCP Connected" and gives you your IP address, you should be good to go.

Answer 3

Hello Charlie,

Although I cannot help you with an answer to your question as such I am a Virgin Boradband subscriber and they are one of the very few if not the only UK based server which provides free online live help during the weedays.

They start at 0800 and I believe they are online untill 2000.

Simply go to the Virgin homepage, click 'Contact Us' at the bottom, sign in to your account, click on the 'Virgin Media Remote Assistance' and follow the prompts.

Sometimes you cannot get in right away as they are busy, but keep trying and eventually it will open

With your permission they can even login to your PC and look and try to solve the problem.

Good luck.

Poseidon

Since reading the addendums to your original question I must admit that I believe your best course of action would be to get live help from Virgin.

Give them permission to enter your PC and with a little luck they will be able to diagnose and hopefully fix the problem(s).

Its free and saves a lot of expense ringing them.

Poseidon

Answer 4

It certainly sounds like a network problem to me and cannot believe that a PC problem would cause this symptom... however, do you switch it all off at night?.... what happens if you leave it all on.... try leaving the modem switched on... etc.. hence isolating each component.
It sounds like it is having problems syncing up after being off.

If you can show that NOT switching off the modem helps then you can show that switching it off is causing the problems... and hence Virgin's problem.

Answer 5

A friend of mine had a similar problem, and after a lot of messing around it came about he had 2 anti virus programs running on his computer, un installing 1 solved the problem------ Do you have 2 running????

Answer 6

Are you using a router or a modem to connect to the internet?