Techie Help Please Please Please!!!!

[Lilith]

I installed the service pack 2 and now I can't get in to chat period, not through mIRC not through java, nada, zilch, zippo. Even when I disable the firewall it won't connect to the server. Anyone have any ideas????

[scotzoidman]

Ok, now I know it's not just me...I don't think I've done an update recently, and I was unable to get in a couple of nights ago..."unable to resolve IRC server"

[maddy]

I feel your pain Lilith, unfortunately I only have empathy to offer... But I'm anxious to hear replies as this was one of many problems I had on my initial install, and am still waiting to have my second go round at it.

[scotzoidman]

After letting mIrc have umteen retries, I got a prompt from the help menu, which told me this:
Unable to resolve IRC Server
If you try to connect to a server and see this message, the problem could be:

Your Internet Provider's DNS isn't working
This happens occasionally and is a temporary problem with your Internet Provider. This problem would also result in your being unable to connect to other internet services such as web sites. You should try again later.

An Invalid or Non-working IRC Server address
You might be trying to connect to an IRC Server that is currently not working, or perhaps is an old address and doesn't exist anymore. You should try another IRC Server.

Trying to use the 32bit mIRC with a 16bit winsock
Try the 16bit mIRC to see if that solves the problem.

[PantyFanatic]

I have not heard any bad things with SP-2. We had some of our own (that KNOW what they are doing) give it ^5. I’m not sure I’d throw rocks at it yet. I'm very twitchy about things like that, but it's been good for me. I hope Cobalt, MT, ScareCrow, or the like gets here for you Lil.

[dicksbro]

I just put on SP-2 the other day and I'm having the same problem as Lilith. Arrrg!

[speedy]

When i downloaded service pack 2 i had same problem.Thru trial and error more error i found it activated a pop up blocker i didnt know i had preventing any java type pop ups from coming thru.Might not be the problem but then again its microsoft so who knows.Wish ya luck and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

[Sharni]

I have Service pack 2 and the pop up blocker that goes with it.....i have no probs with mIRC...i do have the occassional java problem (Pixies chat works)....but i've always had that

The pop up blocker executes a sound and a small warning message (Pop up blocked. To see this pop up or additional options click here....) under the address bar of my browser.....i just click the message and choose either temporarly allow pop ups, Always allow pop ups from this site, Settings or Information bar help

[Belial]

I presume by your ability to post that you are able to browse the web without problems? If so, it is unlikely to be your ISP's DNS server (the one acting as your local nameserver) at fault as it is responsible for the resolution of all hostnames, webservers, IRC servers, etc.

I cannot resolve irc.dynastynet.net from my home machine, nor from a remote shell on one of the machines at uni. Connections to dynastynet.net's DNS servers are timing out which would seem to indicate that the problem is theirs and the poor bastard who's the on-call sysadmin on Christmas day has probably had his cellphone ringing like crazy (in our company I am that poor bastard, thankfully nothing has (nor will :) ) happen).

Are you able to connect to other IRC servers like say...pacific.nsw.au.austnet.org ? This is one I know is up (at least at the time of posting), obviously it's on a different network, but it'll at least tell you if your settings are allowing IRC connections out of your machine and into the Internet.

[Lilith]

I think it's the dynastynet server because I can't run java or mIRC and the stats page is not available either. I have my sytem configged to allow mIRC and java applets.

[Lilith]

Their website is down as well.

[Lilith]

was in fact them not me :D YAY I am not totally fucked :D

[gekkogecko]

I am not totally fucked :D

But would you ike to be?

When I installed Noton IS 2005 on my desktop, somehow it refused to allow mIRC-I had thought the problem was also on my end, I checked the settings to allow IRC specifically, also to allow java with cerain aps. Nothing. Temporarily disabled the firewall, still wasn't able to get into IRC, although it allowed the Java chatroom.

This has been going on for about a month and a half, so I'm still not convinced that it's necessarily dynastynets problem, although they may also be having problems on top of the problems I have connecting with them.

Hm...

[Sharni]

It is dynastynet that has the problem for me.....i was able to connect through mIRC but cant now

[scotzoidman]

:line:

Just got in thru mIRC

:line:

No Jupe either

[Shadow_Kitty]

Well, SP2 is pretty much a hazard. Oh, and DynastyNet is T-O-A-S-T. I would NEVER be dumb enough to install SP2 though, and I can call that my professional opinion. :)

[Lilith]

Well I would never be rude enough to insult the many sound technical minded people who have already installed it.

[Cobalt]

SP2 can and will totally screw up some pc's, I have it installed on my pc and no problems, I have tried to install it on other pc's and it crashed it(was lucky I FINALLY save it with out redueing it), it is not the total answer that Microsoft thought it would be. I think it depends on what software you have installed on your pc, wether it will work OK or not.

[Shadow_Kitty]

I've seen it screw computers with no actual symptoms of them being screwed, too. Sometimes it'll be all nice and fine then suddenly decide your legitimate version of XP is pirated and your computer gets fragged. I've just seen too much to trust these things anymore. I'm learning the ins and outs of Linux and use it for a lot of things now...word of warning though, SuSE is a box of bugs right now. Not sure what ISN'T but I've heard a lot of good about Gentoo.

[Sharni]

I would NEVER be dumb enough to install SP2 though, and I can call that my professional opinion. :)

I find that to be an extremely offensive comment....

[Casperr]

I find that to be an extremely offensive comment....
Me too, but I thought Lilith's response was great.

I've installed SP2 on three computers (two of mine and one of a friend's) and had no dramas at all.... I love it.

CasperTG

[Belial]

I've seen it screw computers with no actual symptoms of them being screwed, too. Sometimes it'll be all nice and fine then suddenly decide your legitimate version of XP is pirated and your computer gets fragged. I've just seen too much to trust these things anymore. I'm learning the ins and outs of Linux and use it for a lot of things now...word of warning though, SuSE is a box of bugs right now. Not sure what ISN'T but I've heard a lot of good about Gentoo.

Not installing service packs is also an excellent way to induce an inexplicable "fragging" of your Windows installation. It's a case-by-case thing and I can give you professional opinions from the systems building and repair techs I work a few feet from to back that up. SP2 may cause some problems to some people but I'd hardly advocate avoiding it as a general rule nor call people stupid for installing it. At least they're getting the message that software should be updated, an awareness that was hardly common not all that long ago.

As for Gentoo, consider it if you've got a stable and fast Internet connection (something I don't have right at this very moment) and have no problems configuring your system by editing text files, writing your own init scripts, etc. I think MilkToast runs it. Personally I run Slackware at home.

[Aqua]

I am not totally fucked :D

Such a pity...

We should correct this at once! ;)

[Sher]

Well I know myself that i wouldn't install sp2, i work for an isp tech support and we get nothing but complaints about it, dunno maybe i'll install it one day.

but there's a FREE tech support line that microsoft has set up for sp2 related crap

it's 1-888-SP2-HELP

[Sharni]

....i work for an isp tech support and we get nothing but complaints about it,
Errrrr isnt the whole point of tech support to recieve complaints....those that have it successfully installed are hardly going to need to ring for help are they *LOL*

[WildIrish]

^^^ :confused: lmfao

[MilkToast]

re:
I've seen it screw computers with no actual symptoms of them being screwed, too. Sometimes it'll be all nice and fine then suddenly decide your legitimate version of XP is pirated and your computer gets fragged. I've just seen too much to trust these things anymore. I'm learning the ins and outs of Linux and use it for a lot of things now...word of warning though, SuSE is a box of bugs right now. Not sure what ISN'T but I've heard a lot of good about Gentoo.andNot installing service packs is also an excellent way to induce an inexplicable "fragging" of your Windows installation. It's a case-by-case thing and I can give you professional opinions from the systems building and repair techs I work a few feet from to back that up. SP2 may cause some problems to some people but I'd hardly advocate avoiding it as a general rule nor call people stupid for installing it. At least they're getting the message that software should be updated, an awareness that was hardly common not all that long ago.

As for Gentoo, consider it if you've got a stable and fast Internet connection (something I don't have right at this very moment) and have no problems configuring your system by editing text files, writing your own init scripts, etc. I think MilkToast runs it. Personally I run Slackware at home.

While not an IT professional I am related to one (my father) whom works with all the wonders of Microsoft and variants. Until a few weeks ago they would not install SP2 on their machines because of some incompatabilities with some specialized networking tools that they use. In any case, the reason for the problem was not actually Microsoft (Gasp!) but the fact that the tools exploited a hole that MS had left. Now that it was closed some stuff stopped working. It took a while but the tools were patched and now will work with SP2. They are deploying it to a few thousand PCs as I type this.

In any case, at home I am very happy with SP2 running on my two primary machines. I have also installed it at work with no more issues than getting the connections sorted out. At this time if folks ask me if I would recommend it, my answer is "yes." The pop-up blocker in IE is reason enough in my opinion (of course I use Firefox so that did not affect my reasoning for installing it on my PCs).

As for Linux. We run, and I also have a PC with that in my office, a few flavors at work. By far the best of the recent batch I have seen is Gentoo. The only catch is that it really likes to have a good high speed internet connection to keep itself updated. You can install from the precompiled binaries and CD images, but the idea behind it is how it updates and works so not allowing that really means you may want to look at other installations. As for Gentoo we run that on a whole bunch of machines with no issues (even on a Virtual Machine running on a Win 2k server, which has an uptime of >1 year!). The most recent success was with the 64bit version on some new Athlon64s we are deploying.

OK... enough out of me for now.