[Cornelius]

I usually run my PC with a wireless connection to our router which is on the floor below. The router is hooked up to the Comcast box.

A couple days ago the internet just stopped working on my computer. The other computers hooked up to the same router are getting internet fine. My laptop (which I'm on now) is most similar to the desktop that's not working - it has windows 98 and is connected wirelessly.

I can ping the router and the other computers connected to it but not web pages. I can transfer files like I normally do through the network. The Belken utility shows a signal of varying strength like normal.

I tried running the connection wizard, no effect.

I cleared my temporary internet files on a whim and it did nothing.

There was a power outage before the internet stopped working. It didn't seem to affect any other computers but I'm assuming it is at least a partial cause of this, because I did nothing else out of the ordinary. I wasn't even using the computer at the time.

Uh, thinking about what information might be useful:
Windows 98
Linksys router
Belken wireless utility
IE 6

I'm baffled. Don't know what to try next. I came here because this website has been extremely helpful twice in the past with other computer problems. If anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated.

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Have you aquired a wireless device like a cordless telephone of late? Some devices work on the same frq and can reduce if not stop wifi.

[acklan]

Have you aquired a wireless device like a cordless telephone of late? Some devices work on the same frq and can reduce if not stop wifi.

[Cornelius]

Interesting suggestion. Hm... We got new cordless phones about a month ago, but that was considerably before this happened. Besides, there's clearly a wireless connection, since I can transfer data to (and receive it from) other computers through the router. My only connection to that router is wireless.

[acklan]

Have you tried resetting your modem and router by unplugging them for a while? Then plugging the modem in, and then wait a minute and plug the router in? This will reset the WAN IP and the router will aquire the modem's new IP. It should clear the LAN IP address, and reassign them. Providedd you are DHCP and not static.

[Cornelius]

Tried it twice and it didn't work.
The IPs of each individual computer were reset. The base IP of the router remained the same, and I believe it has been the same throughout my use of it.

This is interesting. I tried pinging the PC that's not working from my laptop and got the following results the first few times:
timed out, timed out, 74 ms, 1 ms
4 ms, 4 ms, timed out, timed out
timed out, 1 ms, 1 ms, 1 ms
4 ms, 1 ms, 1 ms, 2 ms
4, 1, 1, 2
3, 1, 1, 1
3, 1, 1, 1

It's like it was unstable the first few times then became stable. Pinging the laptop from the ailing desktop resulted in 4 packages returned in 1 ms each every time. Same with pinging the default gateway.

Still can't ping or load any external websites from the desktop.

Sorry for the delayed response by the way. I'm not ignoring this advice, just had a full couple of days.

Edited by Cornelius, 12 June 2006 - 10:03 PM.

[Cornelius]

OK now this: I went and found Google's IP address. I can ping it. I can even access Google by typing said address into the address bar in IE. I can even search through Google this way. But I can't access any webpages by their normal domain names (thus can't succesfully click on any search results).

[Liz G.]

When this happens to me, with my laptop on a wireless connection to my modem and router, I release and renew the IP address on the laptop and generally get my connection back.

liz

[Cornelius]

Tried it twice, to no avail.


It's definitely a DNS error. Any advice on how to troubleshoot this kind of thing? I'll keep researching DNS online, too, but the information I've found so far doesn't seem to provide me with a way to actually change the way my computer tries to translate text-based domain names into IP addresses. In fact, I can't even tell what DNS server my computer is trying to use right now (assuming it's trying to use one at all) since the websites I've read only specify how to ask it that in Windows 2000 and XP. In 98 the closest thing I've found is the command "tracert", since in 2000/XP a similar command apparently translates the IPs used and gives the server used to do so.

[Liz G.]

When you set up your router, was there a way to set the Primary and Secondary DNS servers? I have them set with DNS addresses obtained from the Sympatico set up. When they are erased for some reason, the problems finding web pages are more frequent.

liz

[acklan]

You should be able to obtain you ISP's DNS IP addresses in your router's configuration page. Once you have them you can plug them in maunully to your Network Properties page.

Note:You will have to set your computer up with a static IP address. You can set your computer static and still use DHCP with your modem\router.

Edited by acklan, 16 June 2006 - 07:29 AM.

[Cornelius]

Haha, yes! It works. Turns out my network properties had DNS "disabled", which is kind of ridiculous. I'll check on the appropriate DNS addresses tomorrow; for now I'm using the three listed in your image.
I didn't know where to check for the DNS addresses my computer was trying to use. Thanks for the help! Not only is my internet fully functional again, as far as I can tell, but I've learned something in the process.

Once again this website has successfully solved a computer trouble of mine.

[acklan]

I am just a newbie. I am glad to be of help.

Peace

[Cornelius]

It's still an interesting question why that happened in the first place - since now my computer is set up differently from all the others on the same network. I have specified three DNS servers for it - none of the other computers have any specified at all. I can't figure out which ones the router is using for the other computers either, since I think that its are not static.