Connection to the internet successful - unable to load any website

[florianhaag]

Hi,
a PC with Windows XP Home has been showing the following behavior for
a short time:

When the owner tries to connect to the internet via modem (ISP
www.freenet.de , according to their instructions by the phone
hotline), the modem sound is audible and the status display says that
the connection had been successfully established (the blinking icon in
the tray notification area is visible as well).

However, if you type a URL (e.g. http://www.google.com) into the
address bar of MSIE or Opera and hit enter, a dialog box pops up
asking which "network connection" to use. That window lists all items
from the "network and dial-up connections" folder.
After selecting one of them, the "Establish Internet Connection"
dialog box is shown again, where the user has to click "Dial"
(although there already _is_ an internet connection, isn't there???).
Now, that the dialog has been closed as described, nothing is loaded
(MSIE says "Server"/"Search page not found."; Opera says "Network
problem.").

The connection settings seem to be the same as on other PCs which
don't have any problems dialing-up to the internet (miscellaneous IP
addresses are assigned by the server automatically etc.), neither does
the host file contain any odd stuff (i.e. it defines only the
localhost as 127.0.0.1).

The PC doesn't have anything like a firewall running; in former times,
AOL was installed, but their internet software has been deleted with
the appropriate removal tool.
The problem must be caused by the computer itself, as it's possible to
surf on the internet with an older PC plugged into the very same
telephone socket.

Does anyone have any clues how to solve that (if possible, without
formatting the hard disk and reinstalling Windows)?

Thanks in advance
-- Florian Haag

 

[Malke]

Hi,
a PC with Windows XP Home has been showing the following behavior for
a short time:

When the owner tries to connect to the internet via modem (ISP
www.freenet.de , according to their instructions by the phone
hotline), the modem sound is audible and the status display says that
the connection had been successfully established (the blinking icon in
the tray notification area is visible as well).

However, if you type a URL (e.g. http://www.google.com) into the
address bar of MSIE or Opera and hit enter, a dialog box pops up
asking which "network connection" to use. That window lists all items
from the "network and dial-up connections" folder.
After selecting one of them, the "Establish Internet Connection"
dialog box is shown again, where the user has to click "Dial"
(although there already _is_ an internet connection, isn't there???).
Now, that the dialog has been closed as described, nothing is loaded
(MSIE says "Server"/"Search page not found."; Opera says "Network
problem.").

The connection settings seem to be the same as on other PCs which
don't have any problems dialing-up to the internet (miscellaneous IP
addresses are assigned by the server automatically etc.), neither does
the host file contain any odd stuff (i.e. it defines only the
localhost as 127.0.0.1).

The PC doesn't have anything like a firewall running; in former times,
AOL was installed, but their internet software has been deleted with
the appropriate removal tool.
The problem must be caused by the computer itself, as it's possible to
surf on the internet with an older PC plugged into the very same
telephone socket.

Does anyone have any clues how to solve that (if possible, without
formatting the hard disk and reinstalling Windows)?

Thanks in advance
-- Florian Haag

Hi, Florian. Have you scanned for viruses and spyware in Safe Mode on
the affected computer? Can you successfully make a connection to a
telephone, like your cell phone, with the modem using HyperTerminal? If
you can't make a connection doing the latter, then the modem may be bad
and you should try a different modem. I assume that you used the same
flat ribbon cable to the phone jack when you tested with the older PC.
If not, change out the cable. You are quite sure the dns settings are
identical to computers that successfully connect? What changed between
the time the computer could connect and the time it couldn't? I look
forward to your reply.

Malke

 

[Alex Nichol]

When the owner tries to connect to the internet via modem (ISP
www.freenet.de , according to their instructions by the phone
hotline), the modem sound is audible and the status display says that
the connection had been successfully established (the blinking icon in
the tray notification area is visible as well).

However, if you type a URL (e.g. http://www.google.com) into the
address bar of MSIE or Opera and hit enter, a dialog box pops up
asking which "network connection" to use. That window lists all items
from the "network and dial-up connections" folder.
After selecting one of them, the "Establish Internet Connection"
dialog box is shown again, where the user has to click "Dial"
(although there already _is_ an internet connection, isn't there???).
Now, that the dialog has been closed as described, nothing is loaded
(MSIE says "Server"/"Search page not found."; Opera says "Network
problem.").

Two things to check:
In Control Panel - Internet Options - Connection, have the connection
concerned selected as the Default one, and also 'Dial whenever a network
connection is not present' selected.

Second, in Control Panel - Network Connections, r-click this
connection, Properties, Networking page. Highlight TCP/IP and click
Properties and be sure that 'Obtain an IP Address automatically' and
especially 'Obtain DNS Server address automatically' are selected: that
is the setting I suspect is wrong

Then, to check, go to All Programs - Accessories - Command prompt and
try the command
ping www.aumha.org
which should say it is pinging [66.39.115.252]
and give some response times - from England I get around 100 mS on that

If it does not give the number, an
ipconfig /all
should list the DNS servers

 

[florianhaag]

Hi, thanks for your answers.
The owner (it's not my computer) doesn't know what changes occurred
when the internet connection stopped working; DNS addresses are all
obtained automatically ... anyway, the connection can be established
now - after a firewall has been installed and activated.

Regards,
-- Florian Haag