Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my PC, hoping one of you guys can help. I have a Dell dimension 2400 desktop. The problem is my internet just decides to stop working randomly, giving me "page cannot be found". Its not the connection, Status is allways connected when I check. I've allready tried to reboot pc, unplug/plug cable modem... I've allready called comcast, and they say since the connection is there they can't help me. I got on with Dell support and he had me go into MSCONFIG, and disable all in Start-up parameters and Wall-la, internet works. So, we go about 4 at a time, check 4 items and reboot, internet still works. until all that I had checked b4 are checked and it still works. So I think i'm ok. Then a couple days later it happens again. So I figure its something in my start up but cant figure out what it is. It seems like no matter which parameters I check to start, after a couple days, the internet will cease to work. I thought it might be a virus, I've used several virus scans and found nothing. Maybe its some kind of worm, I'm not too familiar with those or what to do. I'm constantly downloading music so I figure whatever it is came from there but who knows? I'm thinking about getting an external hardrive to back up too, copy over important files and reload windows, but i'm really trying to avoid that. Any help will be greatly appreciated.....
I would wager a guess that it could be your DNS that's giving you problems... I switched to Treewalk DNS recently (had the same problems you did) and everything's been golden since.
I have both Firefoxt and Explorer, both with the same problem. I'm using Windows XP, with no router..... hey moose, whats a DNS and how do I switch it?? please excuse the greenness, I'm a mainframe guy..
DNS is Dynamic Name Service (or Server, can't remember) -- basically the piece that translates www.yahoo.com into 10.1.103.43 or whatever its IP address is. If you have DNS problems, a website name might not resolve and you end up getting a 'page cannot be found'. What you can do to test this is ping some known sites (www.yahoo.com, www.amazon.com, etc) and write down their IP addresses (you use 'ping' from a command prompt). Then when the problem arises, go ahead and ping the address you wrote down. If you can ping a website by its IP address but not by its name (e.g. ping 10.1.34.3 works fine but ping www.amazon.com dies) you are experienceing issues with DNS. Your Internet Service Provider usually gives you a DNS server to handle name resolution like this. In my case (Bellsouth) those servers were somewhat flaky, and unreliable. I installed Treewalk which is a local DNS service (it does what the ISP's DNS servers do except on your local computer) and the problem went away. I'd also second Alex's suggestion about using Firefox or other browser if you haven't tried that. A recent service pack for Internet Explorer ended up screwing up half the machines at work, and they just started refusing to go to a lot of web sites. Besides, Firefox is far less likely to suck down spyware.... I just spent about four hours cleaning the wife's computer up after she went to look up some song lyrics or something and ended up with an assload of spyware/trojans. She's now using Firefox...
Since you download a lot of music and due to the fact your on high speed w/o a firewall or router I would suggest running a monthly scan with a product like LavaSoft Adaware and SpyBot Search and Destroy: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html Another thing you may want to look at on your computer is the LAN settings. On the computer that is having the problem, go to Control Panel, Network Connections and right click on the LAN Connection that applies to this instance. Choose properties. Next to the 'Connect Using' click on Configure then Power Management and untick the box that says it should shut down to save power. See if that helps. Also if your on Cable Modem Check your splitters. Cable internet needs splitters rated up to 1000MHz. If they aren't, go to your local Radio Shack and pick up a few. Remember, the more splitters you use, the weaker the signal will be, ie. get a three-way instead of two two-ways. You want your cable modem connected with the least amount of splits possible. Good Luck
Moose, I installed treewalk DNS to see if it would help with no luck. I think it is a DNS issue. I re-applied all my start-up parameters to recreate the problem, and was able to ping the IP address but not get there with the name. Really was hoping treewalk would help.... Lost in woods, I turned of the power management function and it didn't seem to help. also ran the spybot and lava soft software you recommended. I don't know guys, I really think its something in the start-up, I just can't isolate it. Like I said, when I disable all for the start-up and reboot, problem goes away... and again, the problem happens with Firefox and Explorer. This is killing me guys, and I'm running out of ideas... Any more help would be greatly appreciated...
After you did treewalk DNS, did you set your DNS server to 127.0.0.1 in TCP/IP config? I don't remember if the install does that automatically... Edit: if it doesn't work after you do that (unlikely) just set it back to 'Obtain automatically'...
not sure...., checked config and server and it looked ok. how exactly to if check for the dns address in ip config? I'm sure I could figure it out by you might save me some time.... is that the same area you'd set obtain automatically? If this doesn't work, is it a problem comcast would fix or Dell(I have the super duper warrenty with them)???
I have sort of the same problem... my AIM works fine, but I can't get onto websites. Turns out I had a lot of spyware taking up bandwidth on my computer. I used Ad-Aware and Spy Cleaner, and it seems to have done the job for now (at least until I get one of the really good ones for like $15. Also run some anti-virus software, that should help also. Hope this helps, Craig
Yeah, go into your Network settings... connection properties, TCP/IP properties... where it says 'Obtain DNS server automatically' change it to 'Use the following DNS server addresses' and then put in 127.0.0.1 as the preferred. Edit: Start->My Network Places, then click View Network Connections, right-click on your connection, click properties, click tcp/ip and properties...
Cool, I'm at work now but I'll try it when i get home... Suby1128, I've tried several anti-virus and spyware removal applications and they cant find anything. I think its either a DNS issue as Moose says or something in my start-up parameters...
The next time it screws up go to the command prompt and type: ipconfig /flushdns It's worked for me before though it's not fixing the problem.