Connection but browsers don't work

B

biggles

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
2,219
I have a client with a vista pc sp1 wired directly to a 2wire att router. I can successfully ping and get windows updates, but the browsers (both ie and firefox) won't pull up web pages. Getting the offline error. Also, I connected my laptop to the router (both wired and wirelessly) and browsing the web works fine. Any idea what the problem might be? I'm thinking virus as the client has not been running antivirus software.

What is the easiest way to get antivirus software since the client's pc won't browse the net? Is this type of problem solvable with glary utilities? I'd hate to have to do a windows reinstall here.
 
Can you download from your own computer and put it on a flash drive and install from it? That's the easiest way if they can't connect themselves. Grab MSE and malwarebytes, see if those find anything. As for the networking I'll leave that to someone else... :)
 
Update: MSE would not work because it would not download, and windows update stopped working. Glary utilities did not help. I picked up Norton Antivirus at Best Buy. After installing and rebooting, internet browsers worked again. Also, was able to get windows update to work.

This whole process took me 7 hours, and I'm wondering if I could have fixed it faster. Any idea why simply installing norton antivirus would fix it? I'd like to be more efficient with future clients.
 
Sounds like the computer was infected with something. If you run across something like that again in the future I would highly suggest running anti-malware utilities like MBAM or SAS. Check out the Malware sticky for more info.
 
I don't think this is a problem with malware. I've been having a similiar problem with a linksys wrt54g on and off with several different computers the last 2 years or so. Every so often I'll lose the ability to connect to websites on browsers, and yet I'll be running torrents or playing EVE online. I'm not sure why it happens, but hitting the reset button on the back of the router fixes the problem.
 
Norton used to install a hook into the firewall that would disable internet access if it was disabled (either by malware, or the user disabling the processes from starting). Since you reinstalled Norton and your web browsing works again, that would most likely be what the root of your problem was.

In the futre, if the system has had Norton based products on it, and it can't access the web, down the norton removal tool (from Symantec themselves) and run it. It will repair the damage the Norton does to the OS and will let you acccess the web again. Then put a real A/V on there. :D
 
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