Date: 04/28/05 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: virus, web, linux

Windows XP box. Latest service patches etc etc etc. Connected through linux gateway and firewall + nat ADSL to the net.

Network connectivity from windows to external addresses is flakey. Ok ish for web browsing (occasional "could not reach" / dns errors), but terminal connections drop out after about 30 seconds.

Local connections solid as a rock. Connections from any other machine to the internet (windows laptop and linux gateway) all ok. Maintaining any form of persistent external connectivity from the machine is impossible, but sessions have lasted for days from other machines (both linux and windows).

Thoughts?

I don't think it can be the network card because local connections are fine. I don't think it can be the gateway because connections to the outside from the gateway and from other machines are fine.

Virus? But I hardly use the machine, its behind two firewalls and not directly addressable. I only browse through firefox and don't download any dodgy stuff. I have virus scanned with AVG and found no problems, and I can't see any other obvious signs of infection - hosts file unmodified, nothing unexpected trying to estabish a network connection, spybot reports no malware, no porn links magically appearing on my desktop or anything.

Anyone got any ideas? I'm tempted to do a re-install to be safe, but I would really like to isolate the problem if I can.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/672448.html