Home Network DNS Resolution Problem

[khinkle13]

I have a small home network starting with a DSL modem, plugged into a
Linksys wireless router, which has a network drive attached plugged
into it, and two laptops that connect to the router via wireless. The
newer laptop, with XP Media Center, has no problems browsing the web.

The older laptop, which has always run XP Home Edition but only had
SP2 installed a few days ago (trying to resolve this problem), cannot
browse the web. From this laptop, I can ping the router, I can ping
the DSL modem, and I can access the file shares on the network drive
attached to the router. But any attempt to pull up a web page results
in a dns error. I also cannot ping anything by FQDN. Also, when I try
to ping the laptop from the web interface of the DSL modem, it times
out.

On the problem laptop, I have verified that Windows Firewall is turned
OFF. I looked through event logs as well and couldn't see anything
that looked related. But something has happened on this laptop in the
last month or so that seems to prevent it from communicating with
external IP addresses. While trying to get it working again, I noticed
a new icon in the system tray with a tooltip of "Windows is no longer
secure"...and that's when I decided to install SP2, hoping that would
clear it up.

Is it possible there is some other setting somewhere in XP, not in
Windows Firewall, that is still trying to "protect" me from
communicating with external resources?

 

[smlunatick]

I have a small home network starting with a DSL modem, plugged into a
Linksys wireless router, which has a network drive attached plugged
into it, and two laptops that connect to the router via wireless. The
newer laptop, with XP Media Center, has no problems browsing the web.

The older laptop, which has always run XP Home Edition but only had
SP2 installed a few days ago (trying to resolve this problem), cannot
browse the web. From this laptop, I can ping the router, I can ping
the DSL modem, and I can access the file shares on the network drive
attached to the router. But any attempt to pull up a web page results
in a dns error. I also cannot ping anything by FQDN. Also, when I try
to ping the laptop from the web interface of the DSL modem, it times
out.

On the problem laptop, I have verified that Windows Firewall is turned
OFF. I looked through event logs as well and couldn't see anything
that looked related. But something has happened on this laptop in the
last month or so that seems to prevent it from communicating with
external IP addresses. While trying to get it working again, I noticed
a new icon in the system tray with a tooltip of "Windows is no longer
secure"...and that's when I decided to install SP2, hoping that would
clear it up.

Is it possible there is some other setting somewhere in XP, not in
Windows Firewall, that is still trying to "protect" me from
communicating with external resources?

Do you have some type of anti-virus system installed like McAfee or
Norton? These anti-virus also include a "hidden" firewall module. In
Norton, this is known as "Internet Worm."

 

[Lem]

I have a small home network starting with a DSL modem, plugged into a
Linksys wireless router, which has a network drive attached plugged
into it, and two laptops that connect to the router via wireless. The
newer laptop, with XP Media Center, has no problems browsing the web.

The older laptop, which has always run XP Home Edition but only had
SP2 installed a few days ago (trying to resolve this problem), cannot
browse the web. From this laptop, I can ping the router, I can ping
the DSL modem, and I can access the file shares on the network drive
attached to the router. But any attempt to pull up a web page results
in a dns error. I also cannot ping anything by FQDN. Also, when I try
to ping the laptop from the web interface of the DSL modem, it times
out.

On the problem laptop, I have verified that Windows Firewall is turned
OFF. I looked through event logs as well and couldn't see anything
that looked related. But something has happened on this laptop in the
last month or so that seems to prevent it from communicating with
external IP addresses. While trying to get it working again, I noticed
a new icon in the system tray with a tooltip of "Windows is no longer
secure"...and that's when I decided to install SP2, hoping that would
clear it up.

Is it possible there is some other setting somewhere in XP, not in
Windows Firewall, that is still trying to "protect" me from
communicating with external resources?

Make sure that the network connection on the laptop (wired or wireless,
whichever one you're actually using to connect to the router) is set to
obtain both IP address and DNS server address automatically. Then re-boot.