Unable to connect to internet... DNS issue?

Jonathan

I was trying to fix a friend's computer earlier and this had me stumped.
She has a Linksys WRT54GC router connected to 2Mb Eircom DSL.
Computer is running Windows XP Home and connected through Ethernet.
Her sister's laptop is running through this router too via wireless and has no problems.

The problem was that she had was that she couldn't access the internet at all using either IE or Firefox so I presumed it was the router that was acting up. I checked that and it was all hunky dory. Connected to Eircom fine. Any open window in either FF or IE just showed up: This page cannot be displayed. I then noticed that MSN was still connected fine in the status bar. This leads me to the conclusion that it's a DNS issue as MSN connects directly as opposed to using DNS lookup?

It's probably something very small but I've been driven mad all day thinking about it.

Here is an Ipconfig dump:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxx>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xxxxxx
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain_not_set.invalid

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 6:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domain_not_set.invalid
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-06-4F-xx-xx-xx
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . : 213.94.190.194
213.94.190.236
192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 07 July 2007 14:56:10
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 08 July 2007 14:56:10

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 5:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth PAN Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-67-31-D3-74

MOD: Feel free to move to NET/COMMS if deemed appropriate, I just thought it was better off here as its a computer issue as opposed to a network one.

Jonathan

Mods: Any chance of moving this to Net/Comms please? No response here.
Thanks

Static M.e.

Try switching off the Router for 1 minute then connecting again.

Run the following in CMD line

Ipconfig/flushdns

Under IE (version?) go to tools, Internet options, LAN settings and see whats ticked.

Anti

its ipconfig /flushdns also try ipconfig /renew

Jonathan

Nope. No luck with that guys. Is there any errors and are obvious from the ipconfig screen?
Thanks

Anti

I think it would be best to move this to net/comms tbh.

Kali

You could try the obvious and make sure that no pre-installed OEM mcafee/norton/whatever firewall is enabled and causing issues.

koloughlin

It's possible that she has a proxy server set up in the browser. This would be particularly true if she sometimes takes the laptop to work and if they use a proxy server at her work.

You could open a command task and just try to ping www.google.com. If it resolves correctly to an IP address you know it's not a DNS problem.

_CreeD_

Can you ping those DNS servers? Besides making sure you have connectivity all the way through in the first place it will almost definitely show you if it's a DNS issue or not - if you can ping them then it is, if you can't then it's not and definitely look at all firewalls in the data path.

ViDuchie

Disable any firewalls you might have. Also if you are receiving your IP configuration through DHCP from the router it is unusual to have a non private class IP in the DNS section. Generally your network card will be configured to the router address also the gateway address. Check the properties of TCP/IP of the network interface and make sure you are using DHCP to get your DNS info aswell as the IP address.

Those IP addresses are eircoms tho (213.94.190.194)


Or Manually set your DNS to 192.168.1.1.

Compare her sisters ipconfig to that of this computer.

Jonathan

_CreeD_ wrote:

Can you ping those DNS servers? Besides making sure you have connectivity all the way through in the first place it will almost definitely show you if it's a DNS issue or not - if you can ping them then it is, if you can't then it's not and definitely look at all firewalls in the data path.

Yea. I was at it last night and was able to ping google fine. I went and had a look at Norton and the stupid thing was not working correctly. Just jamming everytime I opened the config box. That might explain why IE7 is not working - the list of protected sites in Norton not working properly?

For some strange reason when i downgraded firefox 2.0.0.4 to 2.0.03 i could get internet access fine. I've just gone to Firefox and disabled automatic updates so it's a temp solution but she is happy out being able to access the internet again. Thanks again lads (and lassies?) for all the replies

Cake Fiend

ViDuchie wrote:

Also if you are receiving your IP configuration through DHCP from the router it is unusual to have a non private class IP in the DNS section.

No, it's not. This will only happen if the router is proxying DNS queries. Eircom-supplied DSL routers are usually pre-configured to supply eircom public DNS servers to DHCP clients.