Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

This morning, Mrs Boomyal tried to get on the internet on here Laptop. The MSN home page would just open to a blank page. When she would select a favorite, it would come up with a message that the page could not be displayed.

She came over to my computer, booted it and got right on the internet. We are on cable and she is hooked up thru a wired connection via a router. Mine runs thru a switch hooked to the same router.

I opened up MS outlook express and it works. She can send and receive email.

I then ran an internet diagnostic off of the 'can't display' page and it came back and said their was no problem with the internet connection. It said that it hooked up to ftp.MSN.com, and a couple of other pages. When I copied and pasted those links, I would get the message that 'page cannot be displayed'.

I'm now running a trend micro scan but so far it has come up with nothing.

Any ideas what to do or try, or what might be going on?

Bob_VT · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

It happens on occassion. Have you tried re-booting AND resetting the router? Turn off the router and the compters for at least 60 seconds - power it all down unplug the router power now reboot the computer and turn on the router.

I used to get those problems and that is what I did..... as it turned out the router was about to die. I actually ended up changing the router 2 months later.

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Because my computer worked on the same router, I didn't think to try to reboot everything. I will do it.

Trend micro found about 70 cookies on her machine (I deleted them) but no spyware or viruses.

I reboote the laptop and still just get a blank page when trying to open any website.

i386 · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

As a test, put Firefox on a thumb drive or CD and install it on her computer. If that works, you've singled out Internet Explorer as the problem and can go from there. You can take firefox off when you're done with no ill effects.

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

i386 said:
As a test, put Firefox on a thumb drive or CD and install it on her computer. If that works, you've singled out Internet Explorer as the problem and can go from there. You can take firefox off when you're done with no ill effects.

I'll put that suggestion in line i386. I have just finished resetting the modem and router and rebooting the computers. No effect.

Now I am going to try her computer on one of my other working hardwired connections. If that does not work, is there any point in trying to do an XP restore?

And if so, how do I do that? (restoring to a previous period)

Tail_Gunner · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

No you dont need to do that, youve probably loaded the newest exploerer 7 i think. It cause's my on network to be a bit buggy and with the same issue's.

1.Click control panel
2.Network connection's
3.local area connections
4 Status bar comes up
5. Look to your far left you will see a New Task's menu
6.click repair this connection.
7. Get ready to be humbled on any body of water you choose.........:devil:

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

I was getting ready to spot you 10 yds, TG but the above availed nothing. Everything says my connection is good, even when I do the repair function.

Interesting to note, when I open up IE, getting only the header bars and a white screen, I click on Help to see the version of IE and it won't even display that. The little drop down menu that has about IE in it just goes away with nothing displayed.

I'm getting po'd.

Any more suggestions, anyone. Again, I can send and receive mail but nothing else internet.

bjcsc · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Take i386's advice re Firefox. If it works you can use it to reinstall IE (or not)...

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

bjcsc said:
Take i386's advice re Firefox. If it works you can use it to reinstall IE (or not)...

About to give it a try bjcsc. Can I download the whole Firefox on a 256 mb thumb drive? Then do I just install it on her laptop?

Plainsman · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Could it be a dns problem?
In the address bar type
216.109.112.135
You get a yahoo page that says "Sorry, the page you requested was not found" but it will still have the yahoo banner. If this works it's a dns problem.

What OS is on the laptop?

Bob_VT · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery?

Re: Internet connection mystery?

How about the anti-virus? I had a friend who let the norton expire and it locked them out of the net. Check your AV programs for settings.

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Here is the latest. I installed FireFox 2.?. I downloaded it to a flash drive, on my computer, then installed it on the XP notebook.

It works like a champ. I then did a search for 'repair IE' and got a link that showed me where else to go look for the installed version. Remember the 'about IE' would not work on the blank IE page.

The laptop has IE 6.0. The repair page gives a lot of info re repairing the registry, yada, yada, yada. Scares me to death!

Maybe I should just download IE 7? or maybe make sure I have all of the IE 6. service packs first? Remember, this is Mrs. Boomyals unit and she does not like changes.

Bob, as for the antivirus, I have a group subscription Trend Micro. It is also on all the other machines as well. I am past the renewal date but it has not affected my PC.

Eric, I tried the 216 deal. It loaded a yahoo address in the bar but came up 'page cannot be loaded. I also tried it on my PC and it reacted as you said.

Outlook Express continues to be able to send and receive mail.

Plainsman · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Well it's not dns if firefox worked. Uninstall IE6 and install IE 7. It's a change though. have her try IE 7 in your PC (if you have it installed) and see if likes it or not. Or see if you have IE 6 on a install CD, maybe from your ISP if they sent you one.

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Plainsman said:
Well it's not dns if firefox worked. Uninstall IE6 and install IE 7. It's a change though. have her try IE 7 in your PC (if you have it installed) and see if likes it or not. Or see if you have IE 6 on a install CD, maybe from your ISP if they sent you one.

Are you suggesting to just try reinstalling IE 6, hopefully without uninstalling it first? I purposefully left hers alone after I installed 7 on my PC.

IE 6, I believe, came installed on her Dell Laptop, maybe I could get to IE 6 thru the Dell install stuff.

I didn't think you could uninstall IE. I thought it was so intertwined with everything that you would create a mess.

Plainsman · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Control panel >add/Remove programs>Add/remove windows programs>uncheck IE and click next, follow the prompts. If firefox is working, download IE with that.

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Plainsman said:
Control panel >add/Remove programs>Add/remove windows programs>uncheck IE and click next, follow the prompts. If firefox is working, download IE with that.

Eric, I just went ahead and used FireFox to download IE7. MS had to download a little program to allow Firefox to download the IE 7 program.

The IE 7 install removed the old IE 6 program.

The bad news is that the new IE 7 acts the same way as IE 6 did. Firefox continues to function though.

I'm not sure what to do now?

Plainsman · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

I would remove as I discribed, reboot, Go to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and rename the folder internet explorer.old, then try a fresh install of IE7. IE 7 may have used some of the registry settings ot files that IE 6 had and may be corrupt, and thus the same problem

Boomyal · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

Plainsman said:
I would remove as I discribed, reboot, Go to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and rename the folder internet explorer.old, then try a fresh install of IE7. IE 7 may have used some of the registry settings ot files that IE 6 had and may be corrupt, and thus the same problem

Did all as you described above Eric. Until the part about renaming the C:\Program File/Internet Explorer. It would not allow me to to it. It said the IE was being used and could not be renamed.

I'm surprised that Add/Remove did not remove the folder.

Any other ideas? Had it worked, I was going to try to reload IE 6.

i386 · Feb 15, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

IE6 SP1

You can try that AFTER IE7 has been removed.

Something to try first (as a test). Create a new user (or use a different existing user). Login with a different user and try IE. If it works right, the problem exists in Mrs. Boomyal's profile (her personal settings for IE) and not with the program itself.

*** Bonus nugget of info... I just remembered this, but it should be quite useful on the forums. When ever you need to link to something but is has one of those awful long addresses that often don't work in the forums anyway, go to http://www.tinyurl.com and paste the address in there. They'll make it smaller. I used it in my link to IE6.

Boomyal · Feb 16, 2007

Re: Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

That's the point i386. I did remove IE 7 using the add/remove function but it did leave the folder with a bunch of stuff in C:\Program Files. That is what Eric said to go and rename to OLD. It won't allow itself to be renamed. It tells me something is using IE. Don't know how that could be since I removed it.

Internet connection mystery? UPDATE #1

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