MIRC, MSN Messenger

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MikeJ

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I cannot stay on IRC or MSN for more than a few minutes at a time without being disconnected (even ZA irc servers). If I dial up on analogue, i don't have this problem at all, and I never had it on ISDN either. But ever since I switched to ADSL its been a problem. Any suggestions?

When I have to follow something important on IRC, I often used to leave my analogue line on all night and read the logs in the morning. But with ADSL, it cuts off minutes after I set it up. Tearing my hair out!

I am using WinXP, and the Telkom supplied POTS router.
 
Is your dialup connection possibly set to disconnect after x secs of no activity?
(If you're using a dialup connection)

Then - you will be disconnected once a day, no matter what you do.
To overcome that problem I use a SOCKS 5 proxy. The proxy just waits till the connection is reestabilshed, but does not tell the client that the connection was lost.

The SOCKS 5 proxy built into 602Lansuite seems to be really good.

Otherwise, I use a dialup-PPOE connection, an I don't suffer from that, except for the once a day disconnections of course.
But - like I said, using the socks 5 sorted out the 1ca a day disconnection thingy no probs.

Otherwise - maybee your modem/router is buggered.

Gewd Luck.
 
I think you totally misunderstood my problem, or I wasn't clear. I have no problems with staying connected to the Internet either on my dial-up or ADSL lines. The problem is when I connect to an IRC server or to MSN, I keep getting disconnected from the IRC server or the MSN conversation, so I cannot be in any chat room or MSN conversation for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

This only happens on ADSL. For e.g., I connect to an IRC server, and within minutes of joining any channel, i get disconnected from the IRC server and have to log in again. Same on MSN.

When I use my dial-up connection, I can connect to any IRC server and chat for ages, and even log chat sessions for an entire night. For some reason though the moment I use ADSL, my IRC and MSN experience is ruined.
 
I have just installed Trillian (in place of MSN). Will post later on whether it is works better than MSN.
 
602 Lansuite looks really nice, and there is a free version for less that 5 users.
 
k, I used Triallian for a couple days, and had exactly the same problems as with MSN. Installed Jabber Africa a few hrs ago and its been working great all that time. Not once was i booted out of a conversation or conference so far.

I am still getting used to it, not sure I like it, but it is stable and has solved my immediate problems.

I think the trick is that it connects to a LOCAL server, which then bridges you onto MSN and handles all the peer-to-peer, so effectively you don't get screwed by telkom's shaping or throttling or whatever they do.

EDIT: Thanks doekvoet!
 
Another thing you could try is to lower your MTU rating on the router, not sure where this is on the telkom router (I have a netgear, which has a MTU setting). I had the same issues with mirc and msn with my work connection - lowered the mtu to about 1458 and it worked liked a charm. The standard is normally 1492.

But if Jabber works, then that's also fine :)
 
The reason why I use Jabber is mainly because it works on a capped account for both yahoo and msn messenger
 
Might be your router or perhaps you are using ICS, NAT and so forth? Ring any bells?
 
MTU? ICS? NAT? WTF?

I have no idea what you talking about :o

jabber seems to work fine, in that it doesn't kick me out of conversations every few minutes. But now that I have been using it for a few days it is also popping up with a lot of script errors, and sometimes it doesn't invite me into MSN conversations, and instead spams me with dozens of tabbed windows for all the participants, rather than one groupchat window if you know what i mean.
 
Mike, is it possible that you're capped? Cos that's why you'd be kicked off the servers. Is the MIRC server that you're connecting to international?
 
lol, considering this is the first week of the month, would be something of a record if I am capped. Also, I have two ADSL subscriptions (1 with m-web and 1 with telkom) and have the same problem on both. Neither is capped.

If I dial-up on either account, I do NOT have the problem.

I haven't tried fiddlign with the MTU and am not sure how to do that. I am using the Telkom supplied POTS router, if that helps. And no, I cannot afford to just replace the router unless I know for sure that is where the problem is.

I would be happy with Jabber (because its very stable), but it bombards me with script errors every time somebody gets invited to a conversation.
 
Is there not some virus or any other malicious piece of software on your PC which downloaded and installed without you being aware of it?
 
k, update. I finally fixed my problem.

I started with the basics,

- made sure my windows was up to date, it was.
- did some research and found a lot of references to networking problems with Win XP SP2
- Made sure I had the right internet settings, protocols, connection types etc. Everything was perfect.

Then I started experimenting with different settings, and lo and behold I FOUND THE MALICIOUS SOFTWARE causing my problems. Windows Firewall.

Comprehensive testing with my two connections have shown me that when I use the windows firewall then MSN/IRC/Trill/etc all become unstable, and cannot maintain a connection to any chat. The moment I disable the windows firewall, everything is perfect. I never had the problem with my dial-up accounts because I didn't use a firewall, lol. But with DSL, I am online for long periods at a time, and often leave me connection open when I am away, so I have become more security conscious. Well, windows = winblows.

I have now switched to an alternate security solution, sygate personal firewall and All-in-one secretmaker (to block banners/popups/worms etc). No problems.
 
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Interesting. Have you tried setting the Windows Firewall exception list before switching to new solution? Would be good to know for reference sake. One would think that Windows Firewall would have native support for letting MSN through...

Thanks for the feedback MikeJ...

Cheers
Antowan
 
1. I did check the exceptions tab in the windows firewall, and MSN was supposed to be cleared. In fact it allowed MSN to connect, but as I said it kept logging me out of MSN every few minutes.

2. I have been using MSN 7.0 for a while now, and had hoped that it would sort the problem out. It didn't. Its definitely the windows firewall.
 
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