[niceguyrichy]

hey guys & gals

throwing together a wee box for the kid, and everything seemed to be going swimmingly, until i tried opening a browser..

it's point blank refusing to let any browser connect to the internet.
which is a bit stupid, cos it let all the anti-virus and other progs update themselves, and as i type it's merrily downloading a Steam game at 900kb/s

so what gives ????

i've tried a couple of the easier idea's that popped up when i googled, didnt work, and i need to get this done pretty soon, so help please

[Jac]

Maybe your ISP dns server is down.

edit - unless your accessing from another PC at home!

[blibbax]

I too would suspect a DNS issue - have you set your DNS to something that isn't a DNS in config by accident?

[niceguyrichy]

right, see when i try to open IE, and it fails, and i click the 'Diagnose' button it offers, i get told that

"Problems Found - the DNS server isn't responding"

i'm a total n00b in 7, haven't found my feet yet at all, so be gentle with me.
where do i go to find out what the DNS problem might be ??

sorry again for being noobish, but i'm a total creature of habit, change of any kind throws me right off

[RoyBatty]

Try to open the Network and Sharing center from the Control panel, then click on Change adapter settings, right-click on the active connection, select Properties, now select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. On the first tab select/enable "Use the following DNS server adresses" and enter 8.8.8.8 as the primary and 8.8.4.4 as secondary adress (these are Google public DNS servers). Hit OK - now the web browser should work.

[niceguyrichy]

Originally Posted by RoyBatty

Try to open the Network and Sharing center from the Control panel, then click on Change adapter settings, right-click on the active connection, select Properties, now select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. On the first tab select/enable "Use the following DNS server adresses" and enter 8.8.8.8 as the primary and 8.8.4.4 as secondary adress (these are Google public DNS servers). Hit OK - now the web browser should work.

thank you
did that, doesn't connect yet either, but the diagnostics msg has changed to-

"your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding"

what is its problem with the dns ?
i confused

[Liqourice]

You're connected on a LAN at home?

Other computers are working?

Is your router setup to allow DHCP?

[niceguyrichy]

Originally Posted by Liqourice

You're connected on a LAN at home?

Other computers are working?

Is your router setup to allow DHCP?

Yes

Yes

Yes

i already swapped between ports on the router just in case.
i swapped cables just in case.

[Tyrsonswood]

Don't ya just love Win7 ?

[RoyBatty]

To make sure it's a DNS problem, can you open 74.125.87.104 in your browser/s? It's Google.

[Tipstaff]

3 things:

1) Go into Control Panel | Network and Sharing. Take a look under "View active networks". What type of network are you attached to? It should be "Home".

2) Go into Control Panel | Windows Firewall, and do either of these 2 things:

- Turn off Windows Firewall
or
- Open up the "Advanced Settings" listing on the left. From the menu choose "Action" and pick "Restore Default Policy". This will reset all the firewalls inbound/outbound policies back to their original.

3) When in doubt, remove your AV software. Rather than leaving your PC unprotected, instead install something very simple like Avast! Anti-Virus Free Edition or Avira Free Edition. Both of these have no firewall option, so there's no chance of it blocking ports and what not.

BTW, what kind of privileges have you setup for the user you are currently using on that computer? Is it setup with restricted access? Is it setup as a Standard user, and not an administrator? If so then this will be a problem. You need an account that has administrator privileges, and then set up what the standard user can and cannot do.

[Liqourice]

Perhaps you've set your router to accept only certain mac addresses?

Though, if you had you wouldn't have any access at all, those programs shouldn't have been able to update.

[niceguyrichy]

Originally Posted by Tipstaff

- Open up the "Advanced Settings" listing on the left. From the menu choose "Action" and pick "Restore Default Policy". This will reset all the firewalls inbound/outbound policies back to their original.

w00t! ^^ that's done it !
restored, restarted, bingo !

stuck Comodo on, restarted again just to be sure, it's all still working fine.

thanks guys