Wingate, connection dies requiring restart

[Nil Einne]

Hello all,

Been having this problem for years but have been unable to solve it.

My current setup for internet access is involves one way satellite (actually a parabolic dish pointed at a ground station) with a modem for the upstream (Ihug Ultra for the kiwis out there). This is on a Windows XP Pro PC with Wingate for sharing the connection with three other computers. I use a combination of the ENS/NAT and Winsock Redirector Service for sharing the connection. This works fine most of the time. But every so often (can be within minutes or can be hours) the connection dies. It's still connected but I'm unable to send out data (not so sure about receive). Reconnecting doesn't help only a restart.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with my ISP directly. Despite my complex set up, I should mention that if I disable (turn off) Wingate this still happens (if I recall), although less frequently (I think it's less frequent) so I'm not 100% sure if it is WinGate (although might as well try). I have however heard from someone else with a modem only setup that this happens with his connection too but doesn't if Wingate is disabled. Also, my ISP has a special account which I can use for a modem only connection and the connection still breaks if I use this. I've tried an external Diamond SupraExpress 56k and an internal ISA Diamond SupraExpress 56k both show the same problem. Changing modems while the connection is broken (still requires restart) doesn't help nor does resetting or turning off and on the external one.

If made a few interesting observations. The dying connection seems at least partially to do with network activity in the sense that if I copy files from or to the router PC, the connection dies faster/more often. It also appears possible I think that sometimes, when I turn on another PC, this kills the connection (although sometimes it dies by itself even with no other PCs I believe). Another thing which seems to make the connection die faster sometimes is downloading files (and browsing), especially with IE, on the router computer. This problem occured on Windows 2k and NT4 (quite a while back) but if I recall, did not occur on Windows 98 (all OSes were fresh installs). Wingate version has also varied from 4.5 or earlier in the past to 5.2.2 (know .3 is out but doubt it will help). I also believe that in the past, I found that GetRight on the router computer use to kill the connection quite fast sometimes but if I made it use the local socks proxy which WinGate provided, it did not.

BTW, I tried the suggestions someone made in the Wingate 5.2.2 thread but they didn't help (still needed to restart).

One more thing. After the connection dies, I've found I can't ping anything even the server/gateway the modem is connected to. But if I disconnect and reconnect, I can ping the server/gateway although a tracert to any other IP, doesn't even make it to the server computer.

Been away for a while and now that I'm back from a smooth, fairly reliable DSL connection, really at a wits end with this problem. So thanks for any help anyone can provide.

[Pascal]

I'd be interested in seeing your route table once the problem occurs. If you do a "route -print" when it fails, do you see a route that looks like:

192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.190 #200004 1

(Substitute applicable IPs)

[Nil Einne]

Well a route -print comes up with an error message but a route print is fine :-)

Anyway there is something strange. A normal route after connection is like this (you'll need to change font on browser to a fixed pitch one or copy to a text editor and change to a fixed pitch font e.g. courier) to see this properly.:

===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 90 bc 01 54 6e ...... SkyMedia-200D (SM200DPA) Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x3 ...00 50 ba 57 38 a6 ...... Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x20005 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
169.254.0.0 255.255.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
169.254.61.187 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
169.254.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
192.168.0.6 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
203.109.252.76 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
203.173.244.68 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50
203.173.244.255 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 50
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 1
Default Gateway: 203.173.244.68
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

After the connectiob 'breaks' but before I reconnect, everything still looks fine:
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 90 bc 01 54 6e ...... SkyMedia-200D (SM200DPA) Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x3 ...00 50 ba 57 38 a6 ...... Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x20005 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
169.254.0.0 255.255.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
169.254.61.187 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
169.254.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
192.168.0.6 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
203.109.252.76 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
203.173.244.68 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50
203.173.244.255 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 50
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 203.173.244.68 203.173.244.68 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 1
Default Gateway: 203.173.244.68
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

After I recon, things are a bit strange tho...

===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 90 bc 01 54 6e ...... SkyMedia-200D (SM200DPA) Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x3 ...00 50 ba 57 38 a6 ...... Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x20005 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
0x30005 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 203.173.244.20 203.173.244.20 1
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 203.173.244.20 20005 1
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
169.254.0.0 255.255.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
169.254.61.187 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
169.254.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
192.168.0.6 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
203.109.252.76 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.20 203.173.244.20 1
203.109.252.76 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.68 20005 1
203.173.244.20 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50
203.173.244.255 255.255.255.255 203.173.244.20 203.173.244.20 50
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 203.173.244.20 203.173.244.20 50
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 20005 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 1
Default Gateway: 203.173.244.20
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

It look's like the PPP connection has not properly be removed. I've tried route -f but it doesn't remove the broken connection and after I've done it once it sounds as if it thinks it's still there. I've tried route delete 203* and route delete 20005 but they don't help either.

[Nil Einne]

BTW, to help remove the 'unimportant' stuff, here's an example of a pre/postconnection route

===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 90 bc 01 54 6e ...... SkyMedia-200D (SM200DPA) Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x3 ...00 50 ba 57 38 a6 ...... Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
169.254.0.0 255.255.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
169.254.61.187 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
169.254.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
192.168.0.6 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 20
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 169.254.61.187 169.254.61.187 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.6 192.168.0.6 1
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

I forgot to get one of when I wasn't connected after a 'break' but I assume it's just the same as after it's broken before I disconnect.

[adrien]

Hi

Didn't realise you were in Auckland... we should come out and debug this for you.

Adrien