Broadband connected but no programs are working

[emtoucan]

Hi all, would be grateful for some advise.

I'm trying to help my brother-in-law fix his computer. The problem is he's in Italy and speak limited English.

The problem is with his internet connection. He has broadband and he can get the connection to work (i.e. the icon in the lower right is there and it says he is connected at 4.4Mb) but when he open IE nothing happens.

I have tried other programs which require connection (i.e. Norton Liv Update, messenger etc) and no of these work.

Also I tried to ping command and also nothing.

Any advise on what I could get him to try?

Thanks all.

 

[emtoucan]

Hi, he is connecting through a USB modem.

The problem started a few days ago. He spoke to the serve provider and they told him it was probably a virus (but we don't have much faith in the Italian helpdesks).

Therefore we have wiped the computer and reinstalled Windows XP (Service Pack 2) etc. and it's still the same problem.

We followed the correct installation instructions for the Speedtouch 330 modem.

His provider is tele2.it

 

[emtoucan]

It could be the firewall, but I asked him to turn it off and then try to connect, but this didn't resolve the issue, therefore I have discounted the firewall as the cause.

As I mentioned the language barrier is causing some problems, so whether he did turn it off properly or not I'm not entirely sure.

I have asked him to call the ISP again and this time tell them it's a freshly formatted computer so hopefully they can run through some of the finer config detials with him.

Any other thoughs would be greatly appriciated