Vista Client on a home network can't access certain websites

Earlier in the year, I setup ICS on our home computers. It was a pain, but it got done and all was well (as well as it gets on dial-up at any rate). After returning home from a 5 week trip to Japan (yippy!), I find that my laptop (the client) can not access certain websites (Primary ones are myspace, hotmail and windows update).

Well, I didn't mess with the issue, since the desktop could do everything and I had other things to worry about.

However, the other day we managed to get broadband, so I've been redoing the network, but that problem still persists, and I've run out of ideas to try.

Server [Static IP, acting as DNS server]:
Desktop
XP Pro SP 3.
Zonealarm Free 7.0.483 (Set to Medium to enable ICS)
Firefox 2.0.011
IE 6
AVG Free 7.5

ISP/Modem:
Spring Mobile Broadband, Seirra Wireless Compass 957 EVDO (USB)

Router:
Belkin Wireless G Router F5D7230-4.
Wired to the Server, Wireless to the Client.

Client [Dynamic IP]:
Laptop
Gateway M-1615, built-in wireless
Vista Home Premium SP 1
Zonealarm Free 7.1.254
Firefox 2.0.015
IE 7
AVG Free 8


On the server, I can access any website with no problems. On the client, via ICS, I only have issues with some sites, and the ones that have issues are constant (IE, it's always the same site I can and can't get to).

When I try to get to one of the sites (either IE or Firefox) it takes 5-10 minutes before I get an error. on Firefox it's a request time out, on IE it's a server not found.

Also, I am able to Ping the websites on the client with no issues. Host files on both machines are clean as well.

I've run the full cleaning suite posted in the Malware forum, but they only found 1 virus on the server, the client came up clean.

If I pull the modem out of the desktop and plug it into the laptop I can directly connect to the sites with no issues at all.

Also, I was once able to get myspace to load on the client, but only once and it was a the exact same time I was loading it on the server. I haven't been able to repeat the process.

The only thing I can even think of it being ATM is an issue with the DNS server XP uses for ICS, but I've reset that as best I can and nothing changed.

 

Not sure why you're using ICS when you have a router? Not sure why you have static IP's assigned with it either? Have you tried disabling ICS & set the PCs to DHCP? Is the router set to give DHCP?

 

Hrm.

I'll take a look at that, but, IIRC, it's set up that way due to the fact that the modem (USB) has to plug into the desktop rather than the router.

Eventually I'll get a router I can do that with, but they run $150+, so that's not really an option at present.

 

Well, I've got it working, though not by fixing the problem.

Installed the AnalogX Proxy Server and set the clients up to proxy and it all works.

Still, it's going to bug me till I figure out why it was having issues to being with, but this keeps things working in the mean time.

 

Not sure what was going on, but does you're modem not have an ethernet port AT ALL?

So wait... I'm just trying to understand you're setup. Let me know if I got this right.

You have the internet coming in through the modem, obviously. You have a USB cable connecting the server to the modem, the server now has internet. Then, you have a router connected to the server, getting internet from the server. You then have another computer connecting wirelessly to the router.

So you have modem-->server-->router-->client.

If it's possible you'd probably have less problems and a faster connection if you were able to change things around so that you have the router connected to the modem and both computers connected to the router. Well, they're both connected to the router now, but you know what I mean.

.........................../-->server
modem-->router--<
...........................\-->client


Excuse the bad artwork. It's late and I'm tired...

 

modem-->server-->router-->client is correct.

The modem is a USB device (this is a cell based broadband, which is built for laptops so comes in either USB or slot-cards), so it has no way to connect to a standard router.

They do make a router that it can plug into, but they run in the $150+ range, which is well outside of my budget for the time being (ie, I'm broke and jobless). Defiantly the better setup would be to do so (that's what routers are designed for), but it's just not an option for me for the foreseeable future.

Plus, it still bugs me that the problem is only with certain websites, and this setup didn't originally have any such issues, so something changed to cause it, and my geek pride demands I figure it out.