Can't connect to Hotmail !?!?

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 09:07

Hi dudes.

This is an odd one.
My set up at home is that there is a laptop connected to a wireless router with an ethernet cable and then a PC connected completely wirelessly.

But for no reason I can tell, suddently last night both the laptop and the PC can no longer connect to MSN or Hotmail. All other websites work fine.

Since the only thing the laptop and PC have in common is the router I'm guessing the problem lies there ?

Anyone have any idea what could have happened ?

Cheers

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 10:44

Anyone ?
No one ?
Someone ?

shine · 23 Jan 2007 at 10:59

Do you get any errors when trying to connect to hotmail/msn?

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:20

MSN just stayed trying to connect forever.
Hotmail just stayed on a white screen forever.

shine · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:25

Do a tracert to www.hotmail.com and from your laptop/desktop and post the results.

MAllen · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:54

Is this only affecting IE? What about Firefox / Opera?

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 12:22

Yes, I'll be doing a tracert when I get home.
Someone here at work suggested entering new DNS settings as my ISP (Eclipse) might be broken in some way.

I only use IE too.

MAllen · 23 Jan 2007 at 12:39

Go and find another site with ActiveX on. Or try getting into the shop part of a site. Could be a broken IE Add-On. I think IE 7 now has a built in repair option, but not used it yet.

Go and hit a few "return to defaults" switches in IE.

OR... install Opera www.opera.com or Firefox www.firefox.com and see what superior browsers show. Could be a good excuse to run away from IE.

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 17:44

Well I'm no expert, but this....

...looks wrong !!

I'm also gonna add
www.torrentz.com and www.eclipse.net.uk and www.firefox.com
to the list of sites that won't open, and the download opera section is not working for me on the Opera page

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:14

Well I managed to get Opera on my PC and still none of those sites work.

Something is deffinately ****** up !!!

HEEEEELLLPPPPPP

Mr_White · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:33

The MSN servers have been ****** for the last two days.

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:46

The mystery deepens.....

I plugged my old USB modem in and connected instantly to all the above mentioned sites !?!?!?!

Does that help any ?

MAllen · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:54

Moonpie2 said:
Well I'm no expert, but this....

?!?!? IMAGE WON'T LOAD ?!?!

...looks wrong !!

Can you describe what you see on that image? It is refusing to load for me.

Have you checked your hosts file isn't poluted?
Have you done a virus scan (http://free.grisoft.com)
Have you done a spyware scan (http://free.grisoft.com, http://www.lavasoft.de, http://www.safer-networking.org)

PING or TRACERT? What is happening?

Eclipse is running fine - or my Dad and many of my clients would be on the phone.

MAllen · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:57

Moonpie2 said:
The mystery deepens.....

I plugged my old USB modem in and connected instantly to all the above mentioned sites !?!?!?!

Does that help any ?

This implies that your router is stuffed. Maybe "return to defaults?"

Or - have you been messing around with manually assigning DNS servers and IP Addresses? Again - set your network card TCP/IP settings back to default.

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:12

Well my PC is virus and spyware free, but I haven't done a check on the laptop that's connected to the router by ethernet cable yet.

Perhaps there's something on there that's knobbed the router up ?

I guess I could go "back to default" but I'm no internet expert and it took me AGES to get it working last time

MAllen · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:15

Moonpie2 said:
Well my PC is virus and spyware free, but I haven't done a check on the laptop that's connected to the router by ethernet cable yet.

Perhaps there's something on there that's knobbed the router up ?

I guess I could go "back to default" but I'm no internet expert and it took me AGES to get it working last time

Good point - your have two PCs affected. So it is not virus/spyware. Also your new post about the modem also points to not spyware.

It is the router or your network card. Have you rebooted your router? What brand/model is it? Generally you only need your ADSL username and password to connect. Then mess with your WiFi settings to securly connect your laptop.

Have you been changing settings in your network card? Go and check the TCP/IP settings are set to automatic, and not anything manually written in there.

Moonpie2 · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:32

But there could still be something nasty on the laptop that has affected the router, and that in turn would make the laptop and PC act in the same way as they are both using the router (albeit one by cable and one wireless)

I have rebooted the router to no avail.
It is an Edimax AR-7064g+A aparently.

The weird thing is that my whole wireless network was perfect Sunday night and then with no tinkering, it was broken on Monday

shine · 24 Jan 2007 at 10:11

If you think something is wrong with the router - reset it to factory default settings and then set it back up and don't connect the laptop to it until you are happy the router is working.

Moonpie2 · 24 Jan 2007 at 14:05

I kind of need the laptop to set the router up don't I ?

If I set it back to factory defaults, then I'll initially need a cable link.

MAllen · 24 Jan 2007 at 16:47

Yes you will need the laptop, or any hard cabled PC, to setup the router.

But if you don't want to reset the router, or answer any of the other questions, or check what your network card settings are, then there is nothing more we can do for you.