IE6 on XP refuses to recognise LAN connection

[petethebloke]

This is a re-post because I got no help before. I'd be very grateful
for any advice.

I've logged into a client's XP machine using MSTSC. They use a
satellite broadband link via a Belkin router. I've tested that Windows
sees the connection OK by opening a Windows Messenger conversation.
I've confirmed that the dial-up connection is disconnected. I've tried
telling IE to detect connections automatically, and I've tried
unticking that box. I've told it to dial only when a network connection
is not present and I've told it never to dial. In other words I've
confirmed in all ways possible that it should use the network and not
the dial-up. I've checked that names resolve, by pinging www.yahoo.com
and I've confirmed that
IE cannot go direct to a website using an IP number i.e. it's not a DNS
issue.

I deleted the dial-up connection but this made no difference.

I've gone into program control and disabled nearly all the plug-ins,
BHOs etc,

Still... after all that.... even though I'm controlling the box over
the internet, IE refuses to find any webpages.

I've used IE to open an ftp site with no problems, so the issue seems
to be restricted to http sites when the
dial-up is disconnected (the client can use the dial-up connection and
view webpages normally).

BTW, it all used to work perfectly - the client doesn't know what
stopped it all of a sudden.

Please help if you can.

Thanks

Pete

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

This is a re-post because I got no help before. I'd be very grateful
for any advice.

I've logged into a client's XP machine using MSTSC. They use a
satellite broadband link via a Belkin router. I've tested that Windows
sees the connection OK by opening a Windows Messenger conversation.
I've confirmed that the dial-up connection is disconnected. I've tried
telling IE to detect connections automatically, and I've tried
unticking that box. I've told it to dial only when a network
connection is not present and I've told it never to dial. In other
words I've confirmed in all ways possible that it should use the
network and not the dial-up. I've checked that names resolve, by
pinging www.yahoo.com and I've confirmed that
IE cannot go direct to a website using an IP number i.e. it's not a
DNS issue.

I deleted the dial-up connection but this made no difference.

I've gone into program control and disabled nearly all the plug-ins,
BHOs etc,

Still... after all that.... even though I'm controlling the box over
the internet, IE refuses to find any webpages.

I've used IE to open an ftp site with no problems, so the issue seems
to be restricted to http sites when the
dial-up is disconnected (the client can use the dial-up connection and
view webpages normally).

BTW, it all used to work perfectly - the client doesn't know what
stopped it all of a sudden.

Please help if you can.

Thanks

Pete

Is the dial box actually coming up, or are you just not getting a
connection?

Try Winsockfix? I've had issues like that before, and this seemed to resolve
them....
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4372.html

 

[Peter Demeyer]

So, you only have http problems with your web browser.
Do you get a response when you telnet to a webserver, port 80 and type
something like "GET / HTTP/1.1" + return + return? If not, your browser is
not the problem, but http traffic is.
A firewall (either on the pc or on the way to the internet) or a filtering
rule on a router could be the reason then.

 

[petethebloke]

So, you only have http problems with your web browser.
Do you get a response when you telnet to a webserver, port 80 and type
something like "GET / HTTP/1.1" + return + return? If not, your browser is
not the problem, but http traffic is.
A firewall (either on the pc or on the way to the internet) or a filtering
rule on a router could be the reason then.

Thanks. I finally saw what should have been obvious. Someone had
accessed the router and blocked port 80 for this machine's IP address.
The Belkin router interface talks about "blocking" access in "blocks"
of time - someone had chosen "always" in the mistaken belief that they
were granting access. Luckily, it couldn't have been me because I
wasn't there when it happened!

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to look at this post for me.

Pete