We get broadband Internet connection in the office. It is a PPPoE connection. Everyone has a unique login name and password. The network administrator is a little quirky. He shuts down an account if the user does not change his default password to a new one. There are other quirks too. For example he changed to Windows 2003 server suddenly (long ago, but it still rankles) so that all our systems stopped getting Internet connection. We took two months to work out that the server did not support our operating system (Windows 98 at that time). We spent a lot of money to upgrade our systems just so as to be able to connect to the Internet. So anything goes wrong with our network, we presume it is the network administrator's doing until proved otherwise.
This time my Internet connection started going off every 6 to 10 minutes, so that I had to log in again and again. That happened if I was not actively browsing. I called the service engineer who logged in himself, and was promptly cut off like I was. So it proved that I was not singled out for this punishment as I had suspected. We both recalled that the Network Administrator had revealed a plan to log off a user if inactive for more than 5 minutes. Perhaps he had done that. He changed the patch cord, but it did not achieve anything. He advised me to try another PC or laptop on the same connection and went away. I did that and found out that the connection was maintained on it. So the problem was with the PC, not the network. I went home with that knowledge.
The next day I had a shock. The desktop looked alien when I booted the PC. All my files, folders and shortcuts on the desktop had gone. The logging in problem was persistent. I called computer service engineer, who found my files and folders in another location, while the desktop remained clean. He could not solve the logging in problem too. He advised me to call the authorized service agency, which I did. The agency promised to send someone whenever someone would be in our area. That was not very encouraging. I checked the PC for viruses and malware. There was no virus. Seven malware threats were found and removed. But the problems persisted. In fact, now I could not log in at all. Then I had an idea. I checked the device manager. Under the network adapters, I found seven corrupt drivers above the standard one of the PC. They all were for ISATAP adapter, with different multidigit serial numbers. They had never been there before. They were for IPV6 protocol, which is not yet implemented.. I deleted them one by one, and suddenly the Internet connected and kept working smoothly. I then rebooted the system, and they reappeared. Finally I had to disable the IPV6 protocol, and then they did not reappear after rebooting.
So it was probably some malware which had created a new desktop location for my PC and put seven corrupt drivers for ISATAP network adapter by enabling IPV6 protocol, when none was required. The new drivers were preventing the PC from connecting to Internet using the actual Ethernet adapter.
Update: 12-06-2014
I found out that all this did not solve the problem. The computer engineers found this problem on all PCs in my department, and with different persons logged in. It turned out to be the network administrator's itch to trouble us, by switching off a user if he did not show activity for a few minutes. My previous internet service provider (ISP) at home used to do that, to stop us from putting a file for download at night and going to sleep. Once we were logged off, the internet usage would be zero, and ISP would save money (we having an unlimited plan). I used a trick that time to overcome this problem. I used the same trick on our network administrator and now I remain logged on, even if I do not browse the net. I won't write about that trick here, because this fellow might read it and do something else to trouble me. In case you are interested in finding out what it is, please email me.
This time my Internet connection started going off every 6 to 10 minutes, so that I had to log in again and again. That happened if I was not actively browsing. I called the service engineer who logged in himself, and was promptly cut off like I was. So it proved that I was not singled out for this punishment as I had suspected. We both recalled that the Network Administrator had revealed a plan to log off a user if inactive for more than 5 minutes. Perhaps he had done that. He changed the patch cord, but it did not achieve anything. He advised me to try another PC or laptop on the same connection and went away. I did that and found out that the connection was maintained on it. So the problem was with the PC, not the network. I went home with that knowledge.
The next day I had a shock. The desktop looked alien when I booted the PC. All my files, folders and shortcuts on the desktop had gone. The logging in problem was persistent. I called computer service engineer, who found my files and folders in another location, while the desktop remained clean. He could not solve the logging in problem too. He advised me to call the authorized service agency, which I did. The agency promised to send someone whenever someone would be in our area. That was not very encouraging. I checked the PC for viruses and malware. There was no virus. Seven malware threats were found and removed. But the problems persisted. In fact, now I could not log in at all. Then I had an idea. I checked the device manager. Under the network adapters, I found seven corrupt drivers above the standard one of the PC. They all were for ISATAP adapter, with different multidigit serial numbers. They had never been there before. They were for IPV6 protocol, which is not yet implemented.. I deleted them one by one, and suddenly the Internet connected and kept working smoothly. I then rebooted the system, and they reappeared. Finally I had to disable the IPV6 protocol, and then they did not reappear after rebooting.
So it was probably some malware which had created a new desktop location for my PC and put seven corrupt drivers for ISATAP network adapter by enabling IPV6 protocol, when none was required. The new drivers were preventing the PC from connecting to Internet using the actual Ethernet adapter.
Update: 12-06-2014
I found out that all this did not solve the problem. The computer engineers found this problem on all PCs in my department, and with different persons logged in. It turned out to be the network administrator's itch to trouble us, by switching off a user if he did not show activity for a few minutes. My previous internet service provider (ISP) at home used to do that, to stop us from putting a file for download at night and going to sleep. Once we were logged off, the internet usage would be zero, and ISP would save money (we having an unlimited plan). I used a trick that time to overcome this problem. I used the same trick on our network administrator and now I remain logged on, even if I do not browse the net. I won't write about that trick here, because this fellow might read it and do something else to trouble me. In case you are interested in finding out what it is, please email me.
