My internet is all jacked up!

[MT Alex]

I really am at a loss over this one, but I have very little skill in dealing with internet/networking jazz. I just changed out my motherboard and did a reformat on Thursday night. Now I can surf what I would consider inconsequential web sites, but any of the "big ticket" sites (yahoo, apple, cnet) will not load. They won't give a "this page will not load" error, they will just idley think about loading indefinately. I have reset my internet options to default, messed with dang near every setting I can find that may have anything to do with security, and such, but no dice. This problen occurs in both Firefox and IE9. GRRRRRRRRRR!!

 

[brandonwh64]

Do you have a second PC? does it do the same on that one as well? If not then I would assume your NIC drivers are messed up and try to use the latest from the manufacturers site.

 

[t_ski]

Reset router or modem?

 

[MT Alex]

Well, no dice. I updated my drivers and unpluggrd my router, still no love. I'd try and reinstall IE, but I can't get to Microsoft!

 

[MRCL]

How ironic. Hmm did you alter any of the internet options (in the control panel) before the reformat? Like did you have a static IP or something like that, and now forgot to amend that?

 

[MT Alex]

I'm not sure why this worked, but I know it's wrong and needs to be fixed. I added a new connection under dialup and virtual private, added the username and password that I got from my ISP, and now things work. This makes me think I'm not authenticated something right with my regualr LAN connection?

 

[qubit]

I'm not sure why this worked, but I know it's wrong and needs to be fixed. I added a new connection under dialup and virtual private, added the username and password that I got from my ISP, and now things work. This makes me think I'm not authenticated something right with my regualr LAN connection?

http://img.techpowerup.org/110904/Untitled.jpg

It's not clear what configuration you've got for connecting to your ISP. From your last post, it sounds like you've got something like a USB ADSL modem connected straight to the PC, which would require this type of configuration. Is that right? If so, that's a highly unusual configuration to have nowadays and is insecure.

More likely, you have a router. Therefore, the settings that should work are as follows.

- Go to the IE configuration page you screenshotted above
- Select Never dial a connection
- Click LAN settings
- Make sure that all the options in the LAN settings dialog box are unticked
- OK everything and close both dialog boxes and try again

99% of the time this will work.

BTW, how are you posting here?

 

[MT Alex]

More likely, you have a router. Therefore, the settings that should work are as follows.

BTW, how are you posting here?

Yup, I use a router, and the setup you describe is how I usually have it set up, with the exception that I leave "Automatically detect settings" ticked.

As far as posting here, "I can surf what I would consider inconsequential web sites, but any of the "big ticket" sites (yahoo, apple, cnet) will not load. They won't give a "this page will not load" error, they will just idley think about loading indefinately." That is, however, until I added a dialup connection, which shouldn't have worked, but seems to have temporarily fixed things.

 

[qubit]

Ok, a router, good. Now, try setting it up exactly as I explained, without the auto setting and tell me if it works. Hint: that auto setting often screws things up.

Note that you don't have to delete that dialup setting you made, just make sure the control panel is set to LAN mode (never dial a connection).

Looked again at your screenshot and seen that switch there. Can you please tell us a bit about it, because it looks a bit odd there.

 

[MT Alex]

Well, I followed your last post, and that seems to work. I even restarted my machine (something I usually only do weekly) and things are still working.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea about the switch showing up in my network map. The CAT5 comes from the box to the router, then to my computer. I also have a leg going to my WD media player, and one to my wife's computer, which was shut off when I mapped that pic.

 

[qubit]

Awesome, glad to help.

It's possible that the WD thingy or your wife's PC were somehow showing up as a "switch". And why do they still show up? Well, if I remember correctly, Windows doesn't necessarily update the network map immediately when devices go offline. Sometimes they can hang around for ages, so I'm not really sure what criteria Windows uses to remove a device.

 

[MT Alex]

I spoke too soon Quite a few websites were failing, Performance PCs, Xocide, and a bunch of other random ones. I selected "Dial when connection isn't present" and things are fixed, again. Weird. Could this be some error with my provider's DNS? I don't think so, but it almost acts that way.

 

[qubit]

Yeah, that's odd alright. I'm not quite sure what's happening there, I'd have to see it in person. Does another computer show the same symptoms?

I know that with XP, I had to turn off the DNS cache service or I saw similar things,* but with Vista & 7 I never had this problem. Talking to your ISP or showing this to a knowledgeable friend sounds like a good idea.

Can anyone else on here here help MT Alex out?

*If the cache was on and a website couldn't be found, say google, due to a temporary network glitch say, then the stupid cache remembered this and the site could never be found, even when the glitch went away. Manual intervention was always required to clear this, so I turned it off.

 

[MT Alex]

Sheesh! You must live here, qubit

 

[qubit]

Sheesh! You must live here, qubit

Yeah, you're not wrong there, buddy. I've got a couple of weeks off work and I'm going posting crazy. I can't wait to get to 5000 posts. Who needs Real Life when you've got TPU?

You might like my pet peeves thread over at GN. I'll start you off with a little classic I just posted today: www.generalnonsense.net/showthread.php?p=152042#post152042

 

[Kantastic]

Neighbor had this issue, we tried a couple of things and gave up. A fresh Windows re-install solved the problem.

 

[MT Alex]

Unfortunately, I was thinking the same thing. Not that big of a deal since I just formatted Thursday night. Every day I wait only means it will be tougher. I figured someone else has had to have had this issue, glad I'm not the only one.

 

[silkstone]

you might want to try using google's free DNS server. It could be an issue with your ISP

 

[Goodman]

Could it be the firewall?

Try disabling windows firewall & see if it helps?

 

[MT Alex]

Could it be the firewall?

Try disabling windows firewall & see if it helps?

Yup, I tried that. No go.

I spent an hour tonight on the phone with CenturyLink, did a bunch of commands in my cmd prompt to reset my catalog, flush my DNS, and still nothing. They said "Sorry, Old Boy, we haven't a clue." Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet on the reinstall. Bummer. In hindsight, I'm wondering if ASRock's Xfast LAN might have been the culprit.

 

[qubit]

@MT Alex: I don't think you've tried another PC yet have you? Definitely give that a go before spending hours on a reinstall.

You might find that one of several things happen:

- It acts perfectly, which will tell you there's something wrong with this new install of yours. You then have the option of troubleshooting or wiping it and starting over

- It does the same thing as this install, which suggests the ISP/router

- It does some other weird thing, which again suggests the ISP/router

Just because your ISP have shrugged their shoulders and given up, does not mean the problem isn't at their end.

Also, if you suspect the ASRock networking to be at fault (doubtful) install a PCI network card and see how that goes. They're so cheap nowadays, that you can buy one just for this troubleshooting and keep it handy for other times.

 

[MT Alex]

Good points.

The ASRock XFastLan I'm referring to is a program that monitors your connections and prioritizes them to supposedly streamline and speed things up. I uninstalled it, and I'm not sure of the exact timing of my troubles. I'm almost postive my networking hardware in the board works fine.

ETA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGvLZ8iWso

 

[t_ski]

By any chance do you have Avast for antivirus?

 

[STCNE]

Try alternate DNS servers. My ISP, ATT will block off certain sites, normally the major sites like you listed or places I frequent to try to get us to upgrade our internet service. It last for a few hours normally.

 

[MT Alex]

By any chance do you have Avast for antivirus?

Nope. I use MSE.

Try alternate DNS servers. My ISP, ATT will block off certain sites, normally the major sites like you listed or places I frequent to try to get us to upgrade our internet service. It last for a few hours normally.

I'll give it a shot.