XP now can't see Internet

[lesH]

Hi

I've got three machines in a home office, a Win XP Home, a Linux and a
Mac (I'm a web developer). The Win XP Home suddenly can't see the
Internet. I can't think what's changed.

The router seems fine, the XP machine can ping another machine on the
network, but can't ping either a URL or external IP.

I'm seeing no error messages other than browser (IE and Firefox)
saying the website's timed out.

I'm running ZoneAlarm (scanning now, just in case), and that can't see
the Internet either.

I've looked in control panel, network, at the ethernet card and all
seems OK.

DDNS is working because I've got an IP address, there's nothing on the
router to block access.

AFAIK Windows is up to date.

ipconfig says:
Conn-specific DNS suffix: domain_not_set.invalid (the only thing I'm
not sure I 'get')
IP addr: 192.168.1.66
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.1.1

which, barring the first line, seems fine.

OK, I may have missed something (I'm not a networking expert), but
that's the overview of the scenario.

How can I diagnose and fix this?

Cheers

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Try to check the status of Winsock and LSP,
http://www.ezlan.net/clean.gtml#refreshnet
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[lesH]

Hi
Try to check the status of Winsock and LSP,http://www.ezlan.net/clean.gtml#refreshnet
Jack (MVP-Networking).

Thanks (obviously clean.Html). OK, WinsockFix ran, rebooted, but
didn't fix. LSP-Fix said no changes necessary. I did the netsh thing.
It just came back with a prompt and the log file contains just a few
lines of things it's deleted, that's it.

I've rebooted, and no difference.

You mention checking the status of Winsock, I didn't see how to do
that, I just 'fixed' it.

Any other thoughts?

Ta

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
If you run WinSock fix it took care its status.
Can you log to the Router's menu by typing the Routers IP to the Browser?
I hate to resort to the mundane but I would try to get rid of ZoneAlarm and
see what happens, you can always re-install it if you like it.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[lesH]

Hi
If you run WinSock fix it took care its status.
Can you log to the Router's menu by typing the Routers IP to the Browser?
I hate to resort to the mundane but I would try to get rid of ZoneAlarm and
see what happens, you can always re-install it if you like it.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

Thanks.

Yes, I can get to the router, and yes I completely removed ZoneAlarm
and .. mundane worked. Now I can get to the Internet.

So what's the story there then?

Cheers

 

[John B]

What is ZoneAlarm?
How could it do this to you?

 

[lesH]

What is ZoneAlarm?
How could it do this to you?

My question exactly. It's an Internet Security Suite. The top
recommendation by PC Pro magazine in the UK. It's worked well so far
and I was happy with it.

Maybe it killed something that would have killed me, and caused some
collatoral damage. Maybe it's actually a hero. No idea.

Any views anyone?

 

[sgopus]

Actually ZA is not a suite, it's just one program, (as soon as I typed that)
I remembered that I dumped ZA due to it's becoming bloated and attempting to
incorporate all kinds of checking into what used to be strictly a software
firewall.
in the past ZA would lock the internet access for no reason, the only fix
was uninstall and reinstall. I like the idea of a software firewall to
monitor incoming and outgoing activity. and also have a hardware firewall.
but I chose to go with KAS internet security, it does nag at you but I'd
rather be safe then sorry.