Computer question. Internet issue

[Kevin Palmer]

My brothers laptop cannot access the internet. He thought he had a Wireless issue. I tried it harwire and he still has the issue. It finds the signal and proxy settings with no problem.



No browser works.(Explorer, Netscape or Mozilla).



Since he gets the signal and it displays his ISP number what do you think the issue is.



He tried it at the neighbors house as well and it does not work their either.



My laptop works perfect at his home.



So the issue is within his computer.



Any advice is appreciated...

 

[Frank Marano]

if the network he is trying to access is encrypted with a password, he will still show a signal but wont be able to access the internet....

 

[Michael Lyons]

Does he use Norton? AOL subscribers were locked out of accessing the internet after the latest "update". It made AOL look like a virus and refused AOL users access to the internet.



Just one thought,

Mike

 

[Kevin Palmer]

No encysted issues as far as passwords goes. I can use my computer every where he can't. The issue lies within his computer.



He does use Norton. He "Tells" me he has disabled it trying to see what is up. He is fairly smart with computers so he probably has disabled it and still has the issues.



He is NOT an AOL Subscriber...

 

[Keith McElroy]

Go through the internet setup wizard.



I have a work laptop that does the same thing because they set it up to access the internet through a domain server. If I plug mine into my home network (cable broadband), the computer connects, shows me an IP address, but will not allow the browser to connect.



If it doesn't connect after the wizard, you probably have a virus/worm that has corrupted one of the DLLs. I would have to look in my past notes (which I don't currently have with me) to remember which one, but I think I found the cure by looking up the problem on the web.

 

[Todd Z]

Also can try taking off the automatically detect settings.

Todd Z

 

[Jeffrey Travis]

Was he able to connect prior to this problem?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Travis,



Has for for many months to maybe more than a year just fine...



In the last 3 weeks he has had this issue. I just found out about it today..

 

[Todd Cloutier]

First question, can he ping anything on the internet? Have him open a command window and type in: ping www.dell.com or some other web address, and see if a response comes back.



It should look like:

C:\Documents and Settings\tcloutier>ping www.dell.com



Pinging www.ins.dell.com [143.166.224.178] with 32 bytes of data:



Reply from 143.166.224.178: bytes=32 time=1637ms TTL=242

Reply from 143.166.224.178: bytes=32 time=1000ms TTL=242

Reply from 143.166.224.178: bytes=32 time=1739ms TTL=242

Reply from 143.166.224.178: bytes=32 time=1519ms TTL=242



Ping statistics for 143.166.224.178:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 1000ms, Maximum = 1739ms, Average = 1473ms



-edit-

His ping times should look better though. Stupid Direcway

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Is the laptop set to acquire an IP address via DHCP?

Or it has a static address?



From the command line try:



C:\>ipconfig /showclassid /all

and search for

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes



There's a chance he needs DHCP enabled and has a fixed IP address set....

 

[Donnie Tutt]

If XP, goto start, run, type CMD then hit ok. At command prompt type: ipconfig then hit enter. Then at next prompt type: ipconfig/renew then hit enter. You will either get an error message, or an IP configuration file with an IP address. If you get a socket error, at the command prompt type: netsh winsock reset then hit enter. Make sure you put spaces between the words. It should prompt you to restart computer.



If you get an IP address beginning with 192... then you are pulling an IP from the router and it is either a security software issue or spyware. If you get a 169... IP, then you probably have a bad NIC.



Post your findings and I will assist as much as possible.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Thanks for the info all. He will be in another town tonight at a hotel. I will call him and go thru the steps and see what we get.



Thanks again...

 

[Dale Carlson]

Another possibility, which you can't really check, except by eliminating the other possibilities, is that his operating system's Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack is corrupt. Unfortunately, there's no really good or reliable way to repair the stack in XP (in 95/98/2K you could uninstall it, and then reinstall it, not so in XP). It may take an XP "repair" installation, or even a clean installation to fix it.



I take that back about checking. There is a way to check the hardware if you want to go to the trouble. You can run another operating system on his computer from CD. You might try downloading a version of Linux (like Knoppix - knoppix.net), or Windows XP (BartPE - www.nu2.nu/pebuilder), burn'em to CD, and reboot his machine to run from the CD drive. These "Live" CDs will automatically run the operating systems from RAM (not his harddrive), including network drivers and protocols.