Any help for strange internet connection problem?

Question

The cable modem and router on my parents computer are working (I am online at their house with my laptop as we speak), and the icon in their system tray says they are connected - but they can't get online. Yesterday it worked fine - today, no dice. I've tried reinstalling the network card and running a virus scan ... I can't think what else to do. What could be the problem? Thanks very much for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Well, it is obvious that the router, etc does not have to be recycled since you are on the internet going through their system.

I would check to verify the ip address & if you can ping.

So Go to Start/Run/ and type in CMD, at the dos prompt type in 'ipconfig /all'

Now type 'ping www.yahoo.com'

The first part will list the adapters that are connected and the ip address, default gateway, and servers that its connected to.

The second part will tell you if you can connect to the outside world.  If you get a reply with the number of ms that it took to connect to the Yahoo server, then you have a valid connection and the problem is in the web browser.

I would also run these tests on your machine to see if the default gateway and servers are the same as on your parents system - they should be. Your ip address should be different though... but they should be in the same range, such as 192.168.0.__  The first 3 sets of numbers should be he same and the last set should be different.

You said that you are using your laptop but I not sure if you are using it via a network cable to the router or using it wirelessly.  Are both connected via cable / both connected via wireless / or one cable & one wireless?

One possibility is that the wep key needs to be reset on the wireless router (if that's what you have) and then reinstalled on both computers.

Answer 2

Try using Windows System Restore and choose a date when it last worked.  If you get a message to choose a differnt date, try the same date while in Safe Mode.

j

Answer 3

Power cycle the network. Turn everything off.(modem, router, computers, etc.) Wait 5 mins. > Turn on modem > Wait 2 Min. > Turn on router > Wait 1 min. > turn on computers, one at a time. See if that helps?