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About two weeks ago I started having connectivity issues on my Windows 10 machine. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Steam will fail to connect to a site in nine out of ten attempts. Tor Browser has no issues, and downloads have no issue once they begin.

Right away I thought "DNS problem", so I switched to a different DNS server. Did not help. Since then I have tried everything I can find -- deleted McAfee using their tool, ran a multitude of netsh and ipconfig commands, made sure all proxies are disabled, sacrificed a lamb to the TCP/IP gods on the third full moon... nothing has helped.

Just for clarity, I have no issues with any other device on my network. Tor Browser functions just fine (it runs on a proxy). If I repeatedly attempt to access a site using the affected browsers, once in a while it will actually load the site, but there is no consistency and it takes forever.

Any assistance at all on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

he77kat_
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  • Do you have a proxy defined in Internet Options or in netsh interface portproxy show all? – harrymc Oct 13 '18 at 17:03
  • @harrymc no, but I just double checked anyway. No proxy in Internet Options and that netsh command gives no output. – he77kat_ Oct 13 '18 at 17:16

2 Answers2

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So out of desperation and a lack of other options, I changed the Windows default settings for the IPv6 DNS to Google's DNS. Magically, all of the sudden everything works. Interestingly, one of Microsoft's troubleshooting points for these types of issues (since the October update) is to make sure IPv6 is enabled for your adapter in the first place (mine was).

So for anyone else suffering this problem: manually change your IPv6 DNS server to one that you'd like to use. Don't let Windows do it for you. The IP for Google DNS are the following:

2001:4860:4860::8888

2001:4860:4860::8844

he77kat_
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  • Why are you using IPv6 in an internal network? Using it might have been the cause of the problem. – harrymc Oct 13 '18 at 19:57
  • I'm curious about this. You talk about The Windows Default Settings. If I assume you are running with DHCP then the default settings is 'Obtain DNS server address automatically', in which case it's not Windows who gives you the DNS but the DHCP Server, right? How are your settings? – reben Oct 14 '18 at 16:28
  • @reben Yes that's what I mean, should have been more clear. It was indeed 'Obtain DNS server address automatically'. For whatever reason, that DHCP server was failing to lookup URLs an extremely high proportion of the time. I chose the option for manual settings and input Google's DNS service, I have had no problems since – he77kat_ Oct 15 '18 at 12:47
  • This might not make any difference for you now, but the DHCP server should have given you the addresses to some DNS servers that you might have wanted to look into. Glad it worked out for you and thanks for the response. – reben Oct 15 '18 at 12:55
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The problem might be with your anti-virus, but I do not advise running without it.

I don't know how Tor managed to louse up your network settings, but it might also have trafficked with your router. Accessing dangerous websites through Tor is also not recommended, as you are only somewhat protected against sniffing and not against malware. Tor is based usually on an older browser version and does not have the latest security patches.

I would suggest to reset your router as first step. As second step reset your browser settings (avoid if you might lose too much stuff). If this does not solve the problem, uninstall Tor and see if this helps. If it does not help and this happened pretty recently, go back to a system restore point dating from before the problem.

In another post on our site, the problem was only solved by a repair installation (or in-place upgrade) of Windows to itself. I hope that it will not be necessary in your case.

harrymc
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  • The Tor browser does stay up to date with the latest release and security updates. – Steve Oct 14 '18 at 16:43
  • @Steve: yes, but with a delay. – harrymc Oct 14 '18 at 16:45
  • @harrymc The problem was DNS-related, not Tor-related. Tor uses proxy settings by default, including a different DNS server, which allowed it to function properly when other browsers were not. Changing to a manually-set DNS server address fixed the issue – he77kat_ Oct 15 '18 at 12:50