What gives with the internet?

October 12, 2007 8:17 PM

My internet is acting weird (I'm getting a lot of different opinions on what the problem is. Please offer yours.)

I cannot figure out what is wrong with my internet. Background info: Dell Dimension E521 Desktop, running Vista.

Internet Explorer and Mozilla and Itunes do not connect to the internet. However, if I try to download something through a BitTorrent client, it works perfectly fine. Has anyone encountered something like this before? Any ideas on what I should do?

I'm using a Netgear wireless connection too.

posted by Holygrail2 to computers & internet (8 comments total)

When I say they don't "connect" to the internet, I mean I get the "IE cannot display the webpage" message.
posted by Holygrail2 at 8:20 PM on October 12, 2007

I've seen things like that before.
Try doing this from a command prompt:
netsh int ip reset log.txt

And good luck...
posted by PowerCat at 8:31 PM on October 12, 2007

I had something kind of, sort of similar (Realtek wireless card, Vista, Linksys router) and fixed it by changing my wireless security from WPA to WPA2. I have no idea why it worked, though.
posted by found dog one eye at 8:43 PM on October 12, 2007

Sounds like a DNS issue. Go to a command prompt, type in "ping www.google.com" If that fails, I would start with your DNS servers.
posted by Climber at 10:01 PM on October 12, 2007

I agree with Climber. Sounds like a DNS problem.

An easy way to test this theory. If you can visit http://64.233.187.99/ but not http://www.google.com, then you know you just have a DNS problem and that everything else is working OK.

My guess is that your router is trying to use a DNS server that is down. Rebooting it (but unplugging the power, waiting, and plugging it back in) should force it to get new settings from your ISP, which will hopefully contain the address of a working DNS server.
posted by benign at 10:11 PM on October 12, 2007

Thirding the DNS suggestion. BitTorrent doesn't use domain names, while the other apps you mention do.
posted by rokusan at 12:03 AM on October 13, 2007

have you configured a proxy server by accident?

It would be strange to have done it for both firefox/ie but, you never know.
posted by viiviiviivii at 12:03 PM on October 13, 2007

Another thing you can try is configure OpenDNS as your DNS server: OpenDns Start
(no affiliation, just like 'em)
You can also try clearing your DNS cache
(at the command prompt type "ipconfig /flushdns)
posted by defcom1 at 12:49 PM on October 13, 2007