Strange and sudden connectivity issues

Question

Kind of at the end of the rope here so just fishing for help. I'm using a new xps 400. I have a DSL connection through a wired router. Never any problems untill recently. Several programs that connected with no problems in the past seem to no longer be able to connect. For example I have no problems at all running internet explorer or World of Warcraft. But programs like Mozilla Firefox, Battlefield 2, and pretty much any game from the steam cataloge that connects to an outside server will no longer work. I've tried re-installing the troubled programs as well as direct connection to the internet without the router and with all forms of internet security turned completely off and still experience the same problem. If anyone has any suggestions or would like more details I would be greatful.

jmwills · Answer

Have you chekced to see if a new driver for the NIC card was installed in the midst of some other updates?

jt371 · Answer

i am having the same problems......my internet is sooo slow and all other desktop functions are working.  my internet will not work at all, then all of a sudden it will be working fine for up to an hour, then the same thing. need some help......

tiberius1974 · Answer

Doesn't seem to be any recent updates to the NIC driver. I first noticed it with battlefield 2 after the recent 1.3 patch is when I started having problems with that one. Have been using firefox as my default browser and it updated itself and then was unable to ever connect again after that. Just noticed recently that I couldn't connect to any of the steam master servers or anything on gamespy either. So I don't know for sure if they started having problems in relation to any of the other programs. I am continuing my search through forums for answers.

tiberius1974 · Answer

Well, turns out all I had to do was completely uninstall Norton 2006. Which has been causing problems since I first turned on this machine. Even though it was disabled, it was still secretly blocking any programs that it thought were new. Pretty much anything that has recieved an update lately. Tough to get rid of as well. couldn't get it through add and remove programs list, had to use an uninstall option from the symantec suppurt site. Once it was all gone, everything worked just fine.

jmwills · Answer

Not surprising as I have seen a lot of similar posts on the four forums I frequent.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Strange and sudden connectivity issues

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