HELP! Wierd network behavior has ME stumped.

[Jacques Schett]

We recently purchased and setup two IDENTICAL notebook PC's running
Windows Vista Home Premium. We configured wireless internet access and
performed the latest Microsoft updates on both. Added Kaspersky
Antivirus and updated the defs.

Upon delivery, one unit works great, can connect to the wireless,
access the internet and runs all applications.

The other unit can run the apps and connect to the wireless but CANNOT
access the internet (via DNS anyway.) Both get their IP settings from
DHCP on the WAP.

When I ping GOOGLE.COM I get an address and the rest times out.
Pinging any other EXTERNAL address/name produces the same results. If
I open a browser and type in the IP of Google, the page shows up!
TraceRt and PathPing fail to produce results (all time out).

I can do an NSLOOKUP just fine. I can telnet to an IP address but not
a DNS address.

Just tonight I connected to an FTP site and downloaded Firefox. That
works! So this might be related to IE7 and a subsystem maybe?

The firewalls on the machine (Windows and Kaspersky IS 7.0) are off
for now.

The Vista Diagnose & Repair utility is absolutely no help. Either i
get "There are no errors with your network connection" or "There is a
problem that Windows cannot diagnose. Please contact your
administrator." Well, I AM the administrator and I can't figure out
what's wrong!

With Firefox working this is not a DNS issue. What could be stiffiling
the ping and IE 7 name resolution? I'm still a newbie with Vista so
any help is appreciated.

-JS-

 

[Jacques Schett]

One more note on this problem:
We can ping internally and access other network appliances by name and
IP. This appears to be restricted to accessing through the
gateway/firewall (Cisco Pix 501 I believe).

With all the other computers off except these two laptops and the
printer I still was unable to get IE to connect to the internet.
Firefox had no problem hitting any site via domain name.

The Diagnose utility (in Internet Explorer) showed that the problem
was an inability to contact the DNS server. The DNS server on this
machine is exactly the same as on the sister laptop.

I'm stumpt.
HELP!
-JS-

 

[ato_zee]

The Diagnose utility (in Internet Explorer) showed that the problem
was an inability to contact the DNS server. The DNS server on this
machine is exactly the same as on the sister laptop.

A good starting point would be Programs -> Accessories ->
Command Prompt
cd \
To get to C:\
Then
ipconfig /all
This will show what DNS servers each adapter on the respective
PC's are using.
In my case my ISP has DNS servers, AFAIK my local PC
is not a DNS server, but for networking to work I have
to enter a Gateway Address (route to the outside world),
and my local router as the DNS server (even though it isn't)
plus the usual subnet mask, passwords etc.
I've found that things can go pear shaped if machines have
more than one network adapter.
ipconfig shows I have an Ethernet adapter with everyting
shown, 15 parameters, plus two Tunnel adapters, one
with 9 and one with 8 parameters, some of which are blank.
It works, so I'm not worried about the fine detail, of the
Tunnel Adapters.

 

[Jacques Schett]

What has me stumped is that this machine is configured the same way
its sister machin is configured! They're the same model, purchased on
the same day with the same version of the OS installed.

I haven't tried this with a wired connection yet (i've heard of some
issues with the wireless adapters having troubles but that was with
any type of connection.)

What I dont understand is, i can ping inside the LAN all day long. I
can connect to resources by name all day long. But if I try to go
outside i get butkas.

I'm running LogMeIn as a remote agent so I can connect remotely. It
works fine! I can connect to this laptop from outside the company just
fine! But once connected, Internet Explorer cannot access the internet
while Firefox (2.0.10) has absolutely NO problem!

I cannot PING outside the LAN with an IP address or domain name!

What could be causing this odd behavior? My only choice if I cannot
fix this is to clone the other machine to this one and say the hell
with it but I hate to give in and not ever know what got in the way!

-JS-