10054 Socket Error, DNS Logging, Help!

Jesse James Hall

Reputable
May 8, 2015
2
0
4,510
Hey everyone,

Newbie here, I've been encountering issues with a Windows 8 PC. The issue revolves around a 10054 Socket error, which after a bit of research is a connection lost/or cut off from a peer.

Now, I don't know the cause but I do know it is affecting several applications from running properly, (AOL Desktop for one). I'll post a couple pictures with some ideas. Here are a couple facts

-DNS Logging errors appear when computer is in use.
-Creates multiple DNS Logging erros within that time span.
-Crashes AOL, also note that the error has the same time stamp with the DNS Logging error.
-Router WAN IP is dynamic ans well as DNS.
-Pings are solid with the Computer>Router(192.168.1.1), and Computer>Internet(Google.com)


I'm still looking searching for ideas, but most just explain the situation and none resolve it. If anyone has any ideas or experience with this problem let me know please! Here are a couple screenshots



http://i.imgur.com/FAF33UM.png

http://imgur.com/McLxk6P

http://imgur.com/OSeznsa




 
10054 is a winsock error code indicating that the connection has been reset. There can be many reasons for this but if your app is up to date and does not have a simple programming bug. The most likely cause would be your network driver is incorrectly assembling TCP/IP transport packets, detecting a error then requesting the packet to be resent. It does this until the server side gives up and resets your connection.

First thing I would do would be to update your network driver (most likely cause that you can actually fix) I would also remove any network packet injectors, any game cheat software that modifies network packets to gain advantage against other gamers.
(kind of common now that it comes with many motherboards)

also, anything in your network path can cause corruption of the network packet. You can update router firmware or test with a new router.

That is the most common fixes for these types of problems. If you continue to have problems the only real way to find the cause would be to do a network sniff of the packets as they come to and from your machine. I use microsofts network monitor for this, I can look at the packets and the parser detects malformed packets and I can see if they are coming to the machine or from the machine. Most likely the source will be your machine or maybe your router.

here is a link to network monitor. it is kind of a specialized tool.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4865
 

Jesse James Hall

Reputable
May 8, 2015
2
0
4,510



Fantastic! I'll try it out. It's mainly a workstation computer with minor games on it (No cheats, but that's an interesting fact).

Btw, is it possible for malware to cause this? (My guess is yes, but is it likely?)
 
yes, malware can install windivert.sys which is a network packet injector. People use it to delay their position packets while playing first person shooters so they are hard to hit in a game. Malware can install it to redirect webpages so to get usernames and passwords.

most often it will be just a old network driver with a bug that goes away with a driver update. I think the last one I looked at was on an asus laptop that had windows 7 installed and used the default wirless ethernet driver that came with windows 7. The one from the asus worked fine, and so did the one from the wireless card vendor. (both were newer versions)