Vista - Network Changes to Local Only but Ping works..

gord · 3 Sep 2009 at 21:22

Hi all,

I have had this laptop brought to me and its got quite an odd problem.

Basically when I got it I had to strip out AVG and ZoneAlarm as they were blocking net traffic. Now its using Windows FW and Avast.

The thing is, on a restart its fine for 10 minutes. Then, all of a sudden it decides it doesnt want to talk to the internet any more. The network centre reports its broken at the internet link, but still connected to my local network.

Cant access the router or anything.. BUT can ping google.com and the router and ultimately, this brings the Network centres internet icon back.. only before trying to use IE to access a webpage to be told.. no internet connectivity any more.. and so the circle begins..

Anyone have any ideas? Virus territory? Ive done a Malware scan..

Any help is much appreciated.

theheyes · 3 Sep 2009 at 22:21

Not behind a web proxy or anything? Are there any dodgy DNS settings? Could be malware I suppose but I would want to rule out a few other things first. Does the same thing happen in other web browsers?

gord · 4 Sep 2009 at 09:43

theheyes said:
Not behind a web proxy or anything? Are there any dodgy DNS settings? Could be malware I suppose but I would want to rule out a few other things first. Does the same thing happen in other web browsers?

Will download FireFox tonight and see if it does the same. No web proxy, all other networked computers (mine) are fine.

No dodgy DNS settings, but I will recheck tonight.

Liquidfox · 4 Sep 2009 at 11:12

Try setting a static IP, along with a DNS of 4.2.2.1 & 4.2.2.2 (Microsoft DNS servers, they block based on IP after ~60 days)

Can you connect to the routers web management page when you're experiencing the issue?
Can you connect to google's homepage via IP?
Can you Tracert to google?
Do you experience this in Safe Mode w/ Networking?

Just a few things to try.

gord · 4 Sep 2009 at 20:08

Ok.

a) tried to download firefox in the 5 minute initial window of internet through IE, but upon download completion the file never comes down.. doesnt appear in the dl location

b) tried installing FF from a USB stick, installs fine.. but it just wont load.. the process starts etc but I cant see the FF window

c) static IP with MS DNS does exactly the same as usual.. after the initial internet use period it just stops working, even though windows did keep reporting we were connected to the net

d) cant connect to router during issue

e) safe mode w/ networking appears to work, just testing for longer, but will even load FireFox.. at which point Ive also found more remains of the ZoneAlarm and AVG installs.. im thinking they are screwing things up.

PCZ · 5 Sep 2009 at 12:15

Vista and W7 will often tell you no internet access even if it is working.
Ping the net and it realises you are connected and changes status.

It does this because
A It is stupid

B It has IP version 6 enabled by default and your router doesn't.
Because it cant reach the net using IP V6 it assumes no internet access but you can reach the net because IP v4 is working.

Try disabling IP V6.

marc2003 · 5 Sep 2009 at 13:12

at which point Ive also found more remains of the ZoneAlarm and AVG installs.. im thinking they are screwing things up.

could well be. i had trouble fixing a mate's xp machine recently that had traces of avg on it. looking at services (start, run, services.msc) showed it was still running even though it had been removed via add/remove programs. so i had to find the same version (it was old), install it again and then un-install again. major faffing about but it worked in the end.

Firegod · 5 Sep 2009 at 15:55

Try rebooting the router?

gord · 5 Sep 2009 at 17:06

PCZ said:
Try disabling IP V6.

Yeh saw that in the connections settings so I turned off IPv6. No difference.

Firegod said:
Try rebooting the router?

Router is fine. All other machines love it.

But progress time. Ive removed other traces of programs and it found a virus after that, which I think was hiding in AVG... :rolleyes:

Anyway, now it just won't connect to network at all.. reinstalled both adapters.. but it just wont negotiate the network. The wireless even picks up the network.. but it wont apply itself..

ipconfig /all just doesnt display any adapters...

im starting to think a windows reinstall would be best..

Uhtred · 6 Sep 2009 at 09:00

try this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

gord · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:39

Thanks for all the suggestions.

In the end nothing worked, just formatted, installed Win 7 RC and its now flying along.