way off topic - mum's internet probs

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 11 Apr 2007, 21:13

chaps, anyone help with this?

not for the... er feinthearted

mums lost her internet,

I am stuck

mum has windows XP I think

she uses firefox, and i have got her to try IE as well, but nothing is available now to her. BBC ebay etc etc

Anyway, we have ran through our various settings together and all seems fine (we both have the same boxes ticked). Outlook email doesn't work either.

problem is

Skype works fine !

puzzled

have emptied her cache pf temporary data..

not sure what else to try

she had firewall disabled from last night, that is reneabled, no difference.. she cant update windows, as she cant access the net..

please help

Johnnnieee

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 11 Apr 2007, 21:48

I had a problem after an update that prevented me getting Explorer and MSN Messenger. Firefox would work.

Remedy downloaded from Microsoft Knowledge base or whatever they call it was:

1. Open explorer, click Tools - Internet Options.

2. Click Connections

3. Click first entry in Dialup and Virtual Private Networks list then click Settings

4. Select Automatically detect settings check box, and then click OK

5. Repeat 2 previous steps for each entry in the Dialup and Virtual Private Networks list

6. Click the LAN Settings button in the Connections tab, and repeat steps 4-6. Click OK on the Connections tab.

7. Close Internet Explorer and then restart IT

Firefox may be similar - or correcting Explorer may do both. I had 1 wrong box somewhere.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 11 Apr 2007, 21:50

Who's her ISP? Is it Virgin Media (NTL)
How does she connect to the net? Via dial up, adsl or cabel modem?
If it's adsl what router is she using?

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 11 Apr 2007, 22:48

thanks both

Her ISP is Nildram

Bropadband via filtered modem I am 99%

John

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 12 Apr 2007, 09:44

will make sure her settings are on auto detect..

beginning to think it's a build up of adware etc.. as she is skypeable, I think i will send her some free stuff to 'clean' things up

john

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Apr 2007, 11:15

Get her to go to the command prompt:
click start
click run
type CMD and click OK

This brings up a black command prompt window.
Ask her to click on the icon at the top left of the window, it looks like a C:\ on a black background.
This will bring up a drop down menu.
Click on properties.
On the first tab of the properties window is a tick box called QuickEdit Mode, this needs to be ticked.
Click ok, and on the popup, select Save properties for future windows with same title, then click ok.

Ask her to type the following (pressing return at the end of each line) :

cd\
ping www.google.com

Using the mouse, she can select the text which appears in the window.
Once she's selected everything, hitting return will copy this text to the clipboard.
She can then paste it into an email to you (right click in the email and select paste)

It should look something like:

Pinging www.l.google.com [64.233.183.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 64.233.183.99: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 64.233.183.99: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 64.233.183.99: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 64.233.183.99: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 64.233.183.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\>

The numbers may be different, or it may come back with destination host unreachable or request timed out.

Another thing you could get her to type is:

telnet www.google.com 80

That's simulating what your browser does when it connects to a web site.
You may just get a blinking curser at the top left of the window, or you may get some text, those mean you're connecting.
If you get timeouts or anything that suggest a failure, then something is blocking port 80 traffic (web traffic)

You could also try going to https://www.hiscoxonline.com from her browser, as https uses port 443.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 12 Apr 2007, 11:34

many thanks Xac will report back this eve..
J

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Apr 2007, 11:45

Just looked into Nildrams' service, doesn't look like they provide an ADSL modem, so if you can get the model of your mum's that'd help trouble shoot.
Also, can you find out if she's using their Centralised Firewall service?

How long has she been with them? They're quite expensive.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 12 Apr 2007, 11:48

will do..

she must have been with them a year or more..

we tried enabling whatever firewall was there and re enabling it..

its all a bit tricky over the phone.. but anyway, that didnt seem to make any difference
J

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Apr 2007, 12:01

Was it the Windows XP firewall?
That will just block things inbound.
If she's been with them a year, it might be worth looking into other providers.
Do lots of research as many providers have appauling track records!
ADSL routers aren't that expensive these days, you can pick up a wifi one for £40 at PC World for instance.
A router will act as a firewall too, blocking inbound access by hiding your computers behind it.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 12 Apr 2007, 12:58

yeah have a £40 wifi one for my home use..

the thing about all of this is..

she is online, otherwise skype wouldnt work,.,

just browsers are timing out...

still think Malware cleaning would be good to start with>.. adaware?

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Apr 2007, 13:46

Could be, although from experience mal/adware normally forces you to their web site to buy their "removal" tool which of course gives them access to your credit card details.
My gf used to get them all the time.
Stopping you accessing the web would be a strange thing for them to do though.
AVG is quite good at removing them.

The telnet on port 80 will check if something is blocking the pc connecting to web sites.
It could be nildram have accidentaly blocked outbound port 80 connections for her.

If there is malware, then I'd suggest burning all her documents onto a CD or DVD if possible, and then rebuild the PC from scratch.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 12 Apr 2007, 14:31

Try 'Adbot' - Google search should bring it up. (Its free!)

Also Windows Malicious Software removal tool may help. (Free as well)

Adbot finds things - Malicious software tool with Windows Defender hasn't found anything yet!

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 12 Apr 2007, 15:11

thanks Both
John

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Apr 2007, 15:31

Also see if you can boot into safe mode with networking, and see if you can browse through there.

You could also try restoring to a system restore point before this problem occured, but you'll basically be uninstalling any programs you've installed since that point and any hotfixes.