Internet help please!

[Mozart]

So my internet is acting up..Whenever I do anything like open a webpage or sign into msn...it stops working. But if I leave it alone to download something, it works without any trouble. The little test of MSN seems to always need to fix the dns..what is dns? Any reason it would be doing this?

[Mark]

I can't help with your internet problems, as I'd need to look at lots of factors, but I can tell you what DNS stands for: Domain Name Server.

[Holden]

We need to know a few things before we can answer. Such as: What browser are you using? Are you on DSL, Cable or Wireless? What AV software are you using? Have you scanned the PC for viruses?

In the meantime do the following.

Download and install Firefox 2.0.0.7 from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/  even if you already have it (though I suspect not).

Uninstall MSN (or disable it - whichever option you are allowed)

Launch firefox and see what happens then report back with the results. If you have a similar problem then:

Download and install JV16Powertools. http://www.macecraft.com/downloads/    Then run the registry cleaner and try again.

report back

[Mozart]

Ok I re did firefox (yep I already had it ) and then the registry cleaner. 300 errors! So i hit fix and it fixed some and delete to the others. Ran the scan again and nothing came up. Am I supposed to reinstall msn messenger also?

[Mozart]

It seems to be running fine now, thanks alot

[Mozart]

Its broken again It works for like 20 seconds then stops working and the problem is the dns. Any new ideas? Yesterday it worked all day, and at night stopped and now its having similar problems.

[DavidW]

To make sure that it's not a browser issue, here is how you can check your connection--

google is I think always up, so this is my test--

run cmd (opens a dos shell) then execute "ping www.google.com" if you get packets then your connection is fine and it's a software issue and not a connectivity issue.  Do not follow Holden's advise (unless you are of course interested in Mozilla, I love their software personally).  Here are the reasons--

(a) IE is integrated with MS updates, it is a natural and easy way to get updates if you need to manually update something.
(b) IE is part of the OS and should not be uninstalled, the same way that you would not uninstall konquerer if you were running kde.
(c) If a virus has hijacked IE then your entire system is compromised and uninstalling IE will not fix this problem.
(d) Holden's post is just Mozilla propaganda.  I've never ever ever ever ran into a case where I got the internet through Firefox/Seamonkey etc but not through IE.

And probably most of the time if you have a problem you will fix it by simply power cycling your modem or ip refreshing. 

You should not have to screw around with registry cleaner, antivirus etc if you've been hijacked, the hijackers are usually smart enough not to throttle your bandwidth.  Funny enough linux (as reported on slashdot) machines have always been much more likely candidates to hijack if they want internet bandwidth because workstations running linux are usually left on (because of stability and ironically security) connected to the net continuously.  Home pcs running windows are the worst candidates for hijacking because those machines are usually not online continuously, but are instead shut off to conserve electricity when not in use.

[Mozart]

And probably most of the time if you have a problem you will fix it by simply power cycling your modem or ip refreshing. 

Yes, this is what I usually do and then I have run this internet connection thing from msn messenger to fix some dns problem, and then it works fine. But now that didn't work, and what is strange is my router isn't working. I guess I have to set it up again, but when I try to connect through the router, instead of directly from the modem, it doesn't work. Instead of the internet just being on, I have connect it with a login and password (I had to set this up before, but then by messing with the router settings I didn't need to login anymore, it was just on).

Can it be (unlikely) that my router just decided to break down? Why would I be able to login directly from the modem, but not through the router?


Ohh and I dont use IE (does anyone anymore?)

[Holden]

To make sure that it's not a browser issue, here is how you can check your connection--

google is I think always up, so this is my test--

run cmd (opens a dos shell) then execute "ping www.google.com" if you get packets then your connection is fine and it's a software issue and not a connectivity issue.  Do not follow Holden's advise (unless you are of course interested in Mozilla, I love their software personally).  Here are the reasons--

(a) IE is integrated with MS updates, it is a natural and easy way to get updates if you need to manually update something.
(b) IE is part of the OS and should not be uninstalled, the same way that you would not uninstall konquerer if you were running kde.
(c) If a virus has hijacked IE then your entire system is compromised and uninstalling IE will not fix this problem.
(d) Holden's post is just Mozilla propaganda.  I've never ever ever ever ran into a case where I got the internet through Firefox/Seamonkey etc but not through IE.

And probably most of the time if you have a problem you will fix it by simply power cycling your modem or ip refreshing. 

You should not have to screw around with registry cleaner, antivirus etc if you've been hijacked, the hijackers are usually smart enough not to throttle your bandwidth.  Funny enough linux (as reported on slashdot) machines have always been much more likely candidates to hijack if they want internet bandwidth because workstations running linux are usually left on (because of stability and ironically security) connected to the net continuously.  Home pcs running windows are the worst candidates for hijacking because those machines are usually not online continuously, but are instead shut off to conserve electricity when not in use.

To be blunt, this does sound a bit like some sort of hijacking but I wanted to eliminate other possibilities first. It's interesting that running JV16 Powertools did temporarily solve the problem for a day. I assume that if the machine has been hijacked then the problems could reappear on reboot.

Maybe it's time for Hijackthis. Go to   http://www.merijn.org/files/HiJackThis_v2.exe and download Hijack this.

Install the program, run it and save the results. You then need to post these results to a forum where there are people who can analyse them. I use PCQandA's  computer forum  www.pcqanda.com. There are many others.

As an aside to DavidW. I'm not sure why you're suggesting I said that IE is necessarily bad, I didn't - it's just that FF runs differently (as does Linux from XP) and using a program that doesn't rely on ActiveX controls could give a different result. A virus that has hijacked IE will not necessarily be able to do the same to FF or Opera. Anyway, he uses FF so it's a moot point and it eliminates a number of possibilities and I never suggested that IE be uninstalled, just that MSN be disabled.

[Mozart]

I think its fixed for good now I even configured my router! I'm not sure what I did or what happened, but it was like magic and I just fixed it.

Thanks for the help!