Help! Broken Internet Connection

Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Hello! We're experiencing a small problem with my dad's old rusty PC regarding the internet connection, and I was hoping some of you techheads could shed some light on it for us.

Last night, the internet and email stopped connecting after my dad uninstalled 'Google Chrome' (or so he alleges. I've never even heard of Google Chrome); the home network connection (through which the pc connects to the internet) seems to be working normally, it's just that IE (shush) and any other net-using programs, like email or AVG updater, cannot manage to tell the net is connected, or maybe are trying to connect through a different connection altogether! I've tried resetting the modem and router and all the usual carry on, as well as having a look at the network connection and trying to set it up again in the control panel, but nothing seems to make it work.
Daddums was getting pretty angry last night, even accusing me of deliberately witholding information that could help him get it working again (no joke). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Question time:

Does the system report that the LAN connection is connected, or that is is having limited or no connectivity?

Are you connecting directly through a modem or through a router?

When you say "cannot get on the internet" what do you mean by this? Is it that no pages will open when using an internet browser? What are the error message(s) that you are receiving?

I am suspecting that your system is in fact connected to the internet, but it seems that it cannot resolve any addresses. This would mean that your DNS servers are potentially setup incorrectly. It is possible that rather than having your connection setup to obtain DNS servers automatically it actually has some static ones setup. To check what your DNS server settings are, see the first section in this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305553. Set them up to be obtained automatically.

Another problem is that you possibly have a proxy server setup to be used on your connection that is not working, or conversely, Chrome was set to not use a proxy server, IE is, and that proxy server that it is setup to use is either incorrect or should not even be there at all. To check proxy server settings for IE, you need to take the following steps:

-Open control Panel->Internet options
-Open the Connections tab and click the LAN settings button. Untick the "Automatically detect settings" button and the "use automatic configuration script" button.
-Untick the "Use a proxy server for your LAN" button too.

Then try reconnecting to various websites and see what happens.
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Ah, good man! In answer to your questions:

The system does indeed report the LAN is connected

Connecting through a router

No pages are loading in IE (your ubiquitous 404-type error comes up); outlook express regurgitates some shite about pop3.ntlword.com not connecting. I can't properly remember what it said, I'll check when I get home. AVG simply says it can't connect to the update server. Things like that.

I'll give those remedies a shot later on when I get home, I'm working (or, supposed to be working) at the moment. Danke, danke. Mit danke!
 
SgtFury

SgtFury

Junior Administrator
Staff member
I had a similar problem with my father in law's laptop, they had switched to Chrome and were worried that the "little computers icons" down on their toolbar were now showing a cross rather than the blue circle (vista) that showed it was connected. I tried a number of different things and it seemed to use the internet but was giving a cross for being connected. In the end I restarted (since I think they tend to Hibernate it all the time) then did a shutdown and started it up again and it seemed to fix it.

Don't know if it's anything similar just thought I would share.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Two tests to try. In the command prompt (Start | Run... | cmd) type:

Code: 
ping 195.92.195.92

Then try...
Code: 
nslookup www.cheese.com

Then paste the results back here (you'll need to right click to enter "mark" mode, then press enter once you've marked the stuff you want to copy).

[edit]Actually...[/edit]

Another test, from the same command prompt:

Code: 
ipconfig /all
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
OK, that's me back home and I had a wee try at some of these ideas. Unfortunately, they didn't sort the problem. The DNS server ... addresses ... number thingy, that was already set to detect automatically. The proxy settings stuff was all set up the way you outlined as well, but I tried ticking the boxes then unticking them just in case. No joy.

The results of the command line inputs are as follows:

upon the ping 195.92.195.92 request:

Code: 
Pinging 195.92.195.92 with 32 bytes of data:

Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 195.92.195.92:
       Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)

upon the nslookup www.cheese.com request:

Code: 
*** Default servers are not available
Server: UnKnown
Address: 127.0.0.1

*** UnKnown can't find find www.cheese.com: No response from server

and finally, the result of the ipconfig /all request was simply

Code: 
Windows IP Configuration

I don't know if any of that means anything to you. Thanks for the help so far guys, I'm sure it's something simple that's being overlooked.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
That looks fairly bad, actually. ipconfig should have come up with more than that. Implies that your connection may be disabled.

Check the Network Connections and ensure your network card(s) is/are enabled.
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Ok, a bit different this time:

Code: 
Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
      Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximat round trip times in milli-seconds:
      Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Also, I had a curious look at the network status thing from the tool bar; although it's supposedly connected, there have been no packets sent or received.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
So, the network is there, the loopback works, it just can't get any further than that. I wonder if reinstalling your network drivers would help?
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
If you go into network places and double click all available networks it will tell you if they are "enabling" as you do this. Also, check your cables - lights should be on for any wired links. Finally check another device on that network to ensure that the dhcp server (probably on the router) is up and running.

Given all the security software you're running its possible that something has pegged the connection and is preventing traffic or that you have a virtualised interface. Check the above first though.
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Hmmmmm, I've just uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers to no avail. I also had a quick peek at the router settings, and DHCP is enabled. It's a rusty old piece of merde that computer, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of problem with the components.

Again, thanks for the help. I think the best idea would be to chip that old dustbucket in the skip and buy a cheapo PC to replace it, but dad's having none of it. He does love that old dustbucket, not that its ever done him any favours.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
The blank response you got from ipconfig tells me that something is pretty seriously wrong with the network stack on that computer.

When you look in Network Connections, you see a thing called Local Internet Connection, right? If so, check that's getting an IP through DHCP. If it is, try making the IP static. Have a look at the IPs the router is giving out and make up another one like it, probably with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway to match the router's IP.

That make sense?
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Whoops! I think you just gave a jet pilot a fright that went so far over my head. It's sad that, even though computer gaming has been my pastime for about 18 years of my life, I couldn't tell you a netmask or a gateway from a pork sausage. I think I'll try some of that later, but I'll have to learn up a bit from wikipedia or something first.
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Sadly not, KC. Sadly not. At the moment my dad's busy using my brothers old laptop while the younger brother is trying to wear down his resolve and persuade him into buying a new PC. I haven't looked at it for a while since he's stopped moaning about it, but I think I'll try some of Ronin's ideas over the weekend and see if I can't get it working again.

Ronin: The PC uses XP
 
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