Severe "can ping, can't browse" internet problem

[Andy3142]

I have a severe problem where I can ping websites by name, eg "ping
www.microsoft.com" but cannot browse the same sites in IE8, Firefox, or
Safari.

I'm using Win XP Pro SP3, hard-cabled to a netgear router.

The fault comes and goes. Some random combination of resetting the router
and the computer, doing ipconfig /renew, resetting TCP/IP and Winsock with
netsh sometimes fix it, though never any one clear fix.

Last week nothing fixed it, so I formatted the HD and reinstalled Windows.
It was OK for a few days - thankfully long enough to finish my income tax
online, due the end of this month - and then again today, can ping by name
but can't browse. After 3 or 4 hours of stuffing around, suddenly OK again.

The router seems OK per Netgear tech support, and has the latest firmware.
The HOSTS file is plain vanilla. It makes no difference whether the DNS is
automatic or specified, nor what DNS is used.

I don't have another computer around to try at the same time on the same
router, though that would be very diagnostic. I will try to arrange that, but
in the meanwhile, please does anyone have an understanding this?

Thanks for you input

Andy

 

[Jack [MVP-Networking]]

Hi
Try this process it mighty solve the problem.
http://www.ezlan.net/clean.html#refreshnet
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).