Windows XP Cannot Browse Internet Even though Connection OK!

[Jay Adam]

Hi,

Hope I'm posting in right section.

My Brother has got windows XP and he connects to the internet via a USB stick on his PC to a Router, which belongs to another family member who has a wireless laptop. The router is a Netgear one for sky.

My Brother has been able to connect and browse the internet fine with his USB stick. Recently, he turned PC on as usual to browse the internet but he couldn't go online.

I have looked at it and the connection is fine and you can clearly see on his PC that the connection is ok and the signal strength is good.

He has Kaspersky Internet 2010 on his PC and I thought may be that could be blocking his internet connection/browsing capability. I both Disabled and later Removed Kaspersky from his PC (risky I know), but the same problem remains.

Same messages are displayed on Mozilla Firefox (Server not found) Internet Explorer (I Explorer cannot display web page)

I have ran scans with Kaspersky (when it was installed) and SuperAntiSpyware to see if there were any viruses that may be causing this, they identified nothing.

I reinstalled the USB Netgear Software for the router connection as well, but no difference.........PC still shows that connection is fine but he is unable to go online and connect to the internet.

I tried using the same USB stick on a different PC in a room above my brother's room (Wireless Router is on the same floor as his room just outside) and it connected to the internet fine........so the USB stick is fine as is the connection, the issue clearly is with his PC.

A friend of mine who knows about computers but is more of a hardware specialist took a look at it without being able to fix the problem, he says that it may be a software issue with his PC and he would probably just reinstall Windows XP.

I'm sure there are people on here who are familiar with this and the solution is probably a simple one?

Please advice.

Thank you.

Jay

 

[berty]

I don't see any answer to this message/problem.
As I am encountering the exact same problem, I would like to know how it was solved?

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Reinstall Windows as a last resort.

That being said. Try to see if you can ping websites from a command line. Start>run>cmd

A black box will pop up. type ping www.google.com and press enter. you should see some information identifying www.L.google.com with an IP address. Then, some replies. If you get this, you are connected and talking. Try clearing your temporary internet files.

If that doesn't work, at the same command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns
This command will cause the machine to release all of the information it has stored about visited websites. It is common to see issues with what is known as a stale DNS record. Basically, it's like having the address of your friend and mailing him something and he doesn't get it b/c he moved and didn't tell you.

You can use ipconfig /all to determine if your wireless connection is getting an IP address from your router. Type this command at the prompt as well and the system will list a long posting of information about network connections. Look for Wireless connections and verify that you have an IP address of ANYTHING but a 169.254.X.X address. 169.254 means that you cannot obtain an IP address from the router.

If you have a 192.168.X.X type of address, and still cannot get online, check this against another machine on the network. As long as the numbers kind of match, you should be able to get on. For example: 192.168.1.120 could be an address given to you. But, if the other machine looks like 10.25.68.124, then you have a whole other issue to deal with.

Try some of this and see what happens.

 

[berty]

Thk Silverhazesurfer

my friend's computer was running Vista.

Windows Mail was receiving - and sending - emails.

Yesterday, I did the upgrade to Windows 7 hopping that would solve the problem. It did not. But in the process, he lost Windows Mail...

Right now, I am home but this afternoon I will go visit him and will try your suggestions. Thank you for your help.

berty

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

ooooooh. upgrading while problems exist, never a good thing.

Either way, the commands are the same. You may not have the run option on the start menu, but if you do it in the search box, you should see command prompt pop up in the list. select that, and follow the rest. If that won't work, we'll have to enable run in the start menu properties.

Sending and recieving mail is good. that proves a whole host of things. Windows mail probably stopped after the upgrade due to lost settings.

I don't do a lot of upgrades like that, but I can imagine that it would have kept all of the temporary stuff. Upgrades are wierd like that. **note: Windows 7 64 bit and IE8 are not compatible and have known issues. try Firefox or some other browser.

 

[berty]

I was told by the ISP to change from Vista to Windows 7 as the problem was maybe caused by Vista...
I cannot try any other browser... as I cannot download any!
Chrome was on the machine but some nice tech people got rid of it!
Windows Mail does not work anymore as it is not part of the Windows 7 package...
The machine runs Windows 7 32 bits

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Changing the OS rarely fixes anything, unless you cannot boot to the desktop. In that case, yeah, it can.

As I said, run those commands on the questionable machine (ideally if it's a laptop/desktop scenario, run the laptop right next to the desktop with simultaneous connections), Compare the settings. If you are connecting both machines to the same router, you should end up with the similar numbers for an IP address.

 

[berty]

thank you for your advices and suggestion
There is no router. The house is lost in the middle of nowhere and the only internet connection available is via a USB stick. Only one machine at a time.
I am going to run your suggestion in a few hours ( I have to get to the place)
thks again

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

ok. well, that certainly complicates things a bit.

In that case, you're looking for an address probably with a two digit starter. For example, 10.124.6.75 could be your IP address. Basically, it could be any number between 10 and 99. But, as long as you get an IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and DNS server information, you should be able to get on without an issue. Definitely try the ping command.

 

[berty]

Here I am at my friend's place:

with the same USB Internet Stick, my laptop navigate the internet w/o problem when his does not (but ping is okay, so there is connectivity).

The Windows / IE Internet check says that there is no problem...

When I do ipconfig on both machine, I see discrepancies.

I don't have a Physical adress on his machine for the stick when I have one on mine

I called th ISP but they says that it is not their problem as internet connection is provided.

Any idea or suggestion?

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

in internet explorer, go to tools, internet options, connections tab, lan settings button at the bottom. check to make sure that a proxy is not set. there should be no check marks here.

another thing to check is Windows Firewall. You may be being blocked by something. Go to start>control panel>windows firewall. you will want to change advanced settings. there should be a link on the left side for it. turn everything off.

see if that helps.

*edit: What do you see as a discrepancy?

 

[berty]

I did everything.

Proxy box was unchecked

All protections are off

IE cannot display websites...

but Windows just did 49 up dates...

What I mean by discrepancies (on ipconfig) is that I would assume Default Gateway should not be null on my friend's computer and also Physical address should have a value (it has one on my laptop). But I don't know how to set thses values...

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

what kind of discrepancies do you see between the two? if you could post those numbers, I could probably tell you.

*edit: i apologize for the late reply. I had typed out one before, but apparently did not send before the machine shut down.

 

[berty]

on the laptop (everything ok)
connection specific DNS suffix:
Description: WAN PPP/SLIP Interface
Physical Address: 00-53-45-00-00-00
dhcp enable:no
Ip Adress: 25.63.207.239
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway: 25.63.207.239
DNS Server: 64.71.255.19
64.71.255.253
Primary Wins Server: 10.11.12.13
Secondary Wins Server: 10.11.12.14
NetBIOS over Tcpip: Disabled

Config on Desktop (where we have the problem)

DNS Suffix:
Description: Rogers Internet
Physical Address:
dhcp: no
IPv4: 25.63.197.221
SbMask: 255.255.255.255
Gateway: 0.0.0.0.
DNS Server: 64.71.255.198
64.71.255.253
Wins Principal: 10.11.12.13
Wins secondary: 10.11.12.13
NetBIOS: activated

thank you so much for your help!!

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

on the laptop (everything ok)
connection specific DNS suffix:
Description: WAN PPP/SLIP Interface
Physical Address: 00-53-45-00-00-00
dhcp enable:no
Ip Adress: 25.63.207.239
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway: 25.63.207.239
DNS Server: 64.71.255.19
64.71.255.253
Primary Wins Server: 10.11.12.13
Secondary Wins Server: 10.11.12.14
NetBIOS over Tcpip: Disabled

Config on Desktop (where we have the problem)

DNS Suffix:
Description: Rogers Internet
Physical Address:
dhcp: no
IPv4: 25.63.197.221
SbMask: 255.255.255.255
Gateway: 0.0.0.0.
DNS Server: 64.71.255.198
64.71.255.253
Wins Principal: 10.11.12.13
Wins secondary: 10.11.12.13
NetBIOS: activated

thank you so much for your help!!

Yes, the physical address is an issue. There is also no gateway. Without that, you don't get off the network and never see the internets.

Let's check the properties of the device. Start>right click computer>properties>device manager link on left.

From here, you can see all of the hardware installed. Take it to the functional machine and do this. You should look for network adapters, click the plus. If you see exclamation points, then it isn't installed properly for some reason. Double clicking the device will bring up its properties. On the first tab, you should see statements like this device is working properly. If you see anything else, post it. Click cancel to this window. Right click the device and disable it. Some stuff will happen. Click ok. Once it is disabled, do the same and re-enable it.

also, go to a command prompt. start>search box cmd> type this:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

This will reset the TCP/IP stack for the network connections. If you get errors, therein lies an issue.

 

[berty]

thank you very much!
I shall try to do that tonight, if not tomorrow morning and shall let you know the outcome ;-)
berty

 

[berty]

Yes, the physical address is an issue. There is also no gateway. Without that, you don't get off the network and never see the internets.

Let's check the properties of the device. Start>right click computer>properties>device manager link on left.

From here, you can see all of the hardware installed. Take it to the functional machine and do this. You should look for network adapters, click the plus. If you see exclamation points, then it isn't installed properly for some reason. Double clicking the device will bring up its properties. On the first tab, you should see statements like this device is working properly. If you see anything else, post it. Click cancel to this window. Right click the device and disable it. Some stuff will happen. Click ok. Once it is disabled, do the same and re-enable it.

also, go to a command prompt. start>search box cmd> type this:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

This will reset the TCP/IP stack for the network connections. If you get errors, therein lies an issue.

Did everything... no sucess.

System said that everything is fine with the hardware.
I ran the netsh command with success

The situation is still the same.

Ipconfig still shows no Gateway and no Physical Address. How can I change that?

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

hrm. interesting

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/no-networking-and-missing-internet-gateway-t72187.html

The general point is firewall. Is there any other firewall or security software installed on the machine? The posts reference removal of the software.

Another would be to try and repair the connection. Is there an installation software package for the device? Removal and reinstallation should force the adapter to be recognized and attach the proper information to it.

Bring up device manager. Start>right click computer>properties>device manager>network adapters>plus next to n.a.>right click the adapter and uninstall. Reinstall with the installation software. If it is auto detected, even better. Restart the machine between removal and installation. Then, check all of the previous points again and try surfing.

 

[berty]

thank you.
I shall do that tomorrow morning and let you know.
berty

 

[berty]

hrm. interesting

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/no-networking-and-missing-internet-gateway-t72187.html

The general point is firewall. Is there any other firewall or security software installed on the machine? The posts reference removal of the software.

Another would be to try and repair the connection. Is there an installation software package for the device? Removal and reinstallation should force the adapter to be recognized and attach the proper information to it.

Bring up device manager. Start>right click computer>properties>device manager>network adapters>plus next to n.a.>right click the adapter and uninstall. Reinstall with the installation software. If it is auto detected, even better. Restart the machine between removal and installation. Then, check all of the previous points again and try surfing.

I am sorry to have not giving you any sign of life... you did help me a lot. I was not able to continue to help my friend on the said day, I had an accident. But now all is fine.

I have followed your advices and everything works again!

Thank you very much for your assitance,
berty