[quote] I always get great trouble shooting advice from T-Nation readers, so here’s the latest problem I need help with:
I’m forced to use dial-up right now (don’t ask.) Last night my desktop PC suddenly starts giving me errors as I surfed the net, “www.t-nation.com can’t be found. Please check the name and try again.” It’s like I’ve lost my connection but the computer itself shows I’m connected.
But, the bytes sent and received are down to about a 1000 each. So I’m “connected” but can’t go anywhere. I’m using Mozilla and Firefox. Both give me errors.
Now here’s the kicker: My old laptop connects just fine as does another computer I’ve tried using the same provider (using Explorer and Outlook.) So this doesn’t seem to be an issue with my internet provider.
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
But, the bytes sent and received are down to about a 1000 each. So I’m “connected” but can’t go anywhere. I’m using Mozilla and Firefox. Both give me errors.
[/quote]
That doesn’t mean much… A better way to see if you are “connected” is to open up the Dos-prompt by going into “Run…” in the Start Menu, then type in “cmd” (w/o the quotes) in the run dialogue and hit enter.
In the Dos Prompt, type in “ping www.google.com” or any other website you are confident is up and running. If you are connected, you’ll see round trip time. If you are not, you’ll see all 4 packets dropped. Try that and we’ll proceed from there.
Im sure it has to do with either your internet settings or your dsl modem. sometimes i cant get on i turn off my modem and restart it and it works. If that doesnt work let me know and I will give you other ideas.
How’s your phone line? I have a phone line in my basement office which sends/receives voice just fine but is hit or miss when it comes to data such as fax or Internet.
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
How’s your phone line? I have a phone line in my basement office which sends/receives voice just fine but is hit or miss when it comes to data such as fax or Internet.[/quote]
But his old laptop is fine so that all but eliminates anything wrong with his phone line/ISP.
It seems like it has more to do with his desktop setting.
Did you tried Internet Exployer on that PC? Scan for viruses and Spywares. Also, see if you can access T-Nation by typing the IP address instead of typing www.T-Nation.com
[quote]IronHell wrote:
MikeTheBear wrote:
How’s your phone line? I have a phone line in my basement office which sends/receives voice just fine but is hit or miss when it comes to data such as fax or Internet.
But his old laptop is fine so that all but eliminates anything wrong with his phone line/ISP.
It seems like it has more to do with his desktop setting.[/quote]
This is true. I’m using the same phone line for the laptop and it’s working fine.
[quote]iatguy wrote:
Did you tried Internet Exployer on that PC? Scan for viruses and Spywares. Also, see if you can access T-Nation by typing the IP address instead of typing www.T-Nation.com[/quote]
I can’t use Explorer or I’ll get zapped automatically by viruses and spyware. This is why I switched to Mozilla. Basically, if I open Explorer, I’m screwed.
Other than that, 5 different virus and spyware killer programs say I’m clean.
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
IronHell wrote:
Also, can you connect to any other websites beside T-Nation?
I can’t connect to anything on the desktop. I’m on a laptop now.
As for the other stuff you wrote above, thanks, but I’ll hold off for now. Every time I start messing with Dos I end up buying a new computer.
[/quote]
LOL, no, you aren’t changing any configuration. Pinging merely measures the time it takes for your computer to send out a signal to the said ip address and the time it takes to get a response. You are by no means altering the configuration state of your computer. And unless you type in anything other than what I prescribed (that being “ping www.google.com”) you wouldn’t f* anything up.
That said, I take not responsibility if you are so computer illiterate or bad at typing that while trying to type ping www.google.com you type in format…
The ping thing will tell us if you are connected or not, if the ping works and your email/net surfers don’t, then that indicates your modem is installed fine but some setting in windows is f*ed up.
If ping doesn’t work, then that means your modem hardware/setting/driver could be a problem.
If that’s the case, try first seeing if there is an update for your modem in terms of driver downloads.
If that doesn’t help, try unintalling the modem, rebooting, then reinstalling.
If that still doesn’t work, make sure your modem didn’t go bust (how old is it? They do break over time.)
The last pain in the ass is trying to go through your settings, that being your network settings. Now THAT’s a pain. You might consider calling your ISP to have them walk you through all your settings. I.e. TCP/IP etc. because they would know what they should be.
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
iatguy wrote:
Did you tried Internet Exployer on that PC? Scan for viruses and Spywares. Also, see if you can access T-Nation by typing the IP address instead of typing www.T-Nation.com
I can’t use Explorer or I’ll get zapped automatically by viruses and spyware. This is why I switched to Mozilla. Basically, if I open Explorer, I’m screwed.
Other than that, 5 different virus and spyware killer programs say I’m clean.
[/quote]
So typing 128.121.26.41 won’t work? What operating system are you running on that PC? Win 98, 2000, XP? Did you ever installed the lastest service pack for your internet explorer? I know you don’t want to do this but you can open the cmd and type in ipconfig/all and see if you have a DNS address.
Chris - got a question: Do you get the “site not found” message when you surf to other sites on your desktop PC?
In any case, from Firefox, try going to the Tools menu, then to Options, then under PRIVACY click on COOKIES and make sure that “Allow Site to set Cookies” is enabled.
Next, go to CACHE and CLEAR it.
And finally, go to the Windows Control Panel and check the Firewall - if it is active make sure that T-Nation is listed as an exception.
Hope my suggestions make sense and they do some good. I’ve tried on my own dial up machine with Firefox and I don’t have a problem. Based on what you indicate in your post it kind of seems like a Firewall issue, but no promises!
[quote]IronHell wrote:
LOL, no, you aren’t changing any configuration. Pinging merely measures the time it takes for your computer to send out a signal to the said ip address and the time it takes to get a response. You are by no means altering the configuration state of your computer. And unless you type in anything other than what I prescribed (that being “ping www.google.com”) you wouldn’t f* anything up.
That said, I take not responsibility if you are so computer illiterate or bad at typing that while trying to type ping www.google.com you type in format… [/quote]
Okay, I did the run, dos, ping thing. It said it couldn’t find Google, check the name and try again, etc etc.
[quote]IronHell wrote:
MikeTheBear wrote:
How’s your phone line? I have a phone line in my basement office which sends/receives voice just fine but is hit or miss when it comes to data such as fax or Internet.
But his old laptop is fine so that all but eliminates anything wrong with his phone line/ISP.
It seems like it has more to do with his desktop setting.[/quote]
Or a modem issue? Could be there’s something wrong with the modem itself OR a settings issue, i.e., it’s set to the wrong COM port.
[quote]StuartDMT wrote:
Chris - got a question: Do you get the “site not found” message when you surf to other sites on your desktop PC?
[/quote]
I can’t surf at all. I get the error automatically whenever I try to go to any site. Can’t check email either. Just like I have no connection even though the icon says I do (albeit at 1000 bytes sending and recieving.)[quote]
In any case, from Firefox, try going to the Tools menu, then to Options, then under PRIVACY click on COOKIES and make sure that “Allow Site to set Cookies” is enabled.
Next, go to CACHE and CLEAR it.
And finally, go to the Windows Control Panel and check the Firewall - if it is active make sure that T-Nation is listed as an exception.
[/quote]
All that stuff is fine or has been done. Thanks for the suggestions though. As frustrating as it is, anything is better than dealing with the non-English speaking Dell people for 5 hours only to have nothng resolved.