General

[Schmitti]

My father in law are sitting here trying to diagnose/fix his machine.

He can see the wireless internet here at my house and is connected.

BUT... when we try to connect via a browser (Firefox or IE) we can not see the internet.

Skype will do a test call.. so something connects.

Also... Norton will not completely uninstal.. there is still 16 Mb of file on the machine and when you try to uninstal it says the file is no longer there.

And.. Jack tried to instal Macafee the other day.. and it is now no longer there.

This morning I turned Windows firewall back on seeing as there was no protection.

Any thoughts?

E

[Schmitti]

We are trying this right now:

Re: Internet explorer cannot display webpage - Microsoft Windows Vista Community Forums - Vistaheads

Can't believe with over a dozen IT guys as members that none have chimed in

Enjoy your saturday

E

[Schmitti]

No luck... we gave up around 2:30.... both Jack and I were ready to throw the laptop through the dining room window

E

[Mstrtal]

Is your wireless router Vista Compliant? I know our router wasn't Vista compliant when we got new PCs and I had to go out and drop money on a new one.

[Schmitti]

Yup... he can be hard wired to the router and the browsers still don't work.

E

[Phantom Power]

Have you checked whether it's a DNS issue ? Perhaps it's just not resolving host names. Try going to Google
in your browser.

EDIT: Apparently you can't post an IP address without the forum resolving it for you. So, go to http:// 209 . 85 . 173 . 104 but without the spaces.

[Wycke]

Erik,

When you say "Norton", do you mean "Norton Internet Security" (or one of the other products that isn't JUST antivirus)? If so, and you've tried installing McAffee with any remnant or the Norton program, you've got a very sophisticated paperweight there. "Norton (anything)" + "McAffee (anything)" = very bad mojo, even (in fact, more so) if one of them is only partially installed or uninstalled. Symantec has decent documentation on how to properly exorcise a machine of NIS, but it's a very long, time consuming process that must be followed exactly as it's written or you'll just make things worse. They've also released a few "automated" tools intended to do this exact thing, but because of the very subtle and infuriating differences from one version to the next, none of them (in my experience) have ever worked correctly.

Were this my computer, I'd start by hitting Symantec's site and finding "manual uninstall" instructions for the EXACT product that was installed on the laptop to begin with. Follow them to the letter, then reboot 2 or 3 times to be 100% sure that nothing creeps back in. Then, I'd also get rid of McAffee completely. Again, reboot a couple times to be thorough. Then, you're down to just MS Piss-tah. If the problem remains:

1) don't be surprised.
2) check the power options for the network adapter drivers - the most common problem I've seen on student laptops with Vista is that the default power settings shuts down their wireless card/chipset after some ridiculously short "inactivity" (like 30-45 seconds) in order to maximize battery life (even when running on AC power - yeah, that makes sense...). This often needs to be changed through the advanced driver properties in the Device Mangler (NOT just the "Power Options" in the Control Panel).

If/when you get Vista alone tamed and have a stable network connection, choose ONE of those two (Norton or McAffee) and reinstall JUST the antivirus portion (you'll need to do a custom install either way). Or, you could go with AVG Free (AVG Free Advisor - Free antivirus and anti-spyware downloads). I've installed this on dozens of XP machines with nary an issue or infection (when kept up-to-date) in like 4 years. However, I have no experience with it in MS Vista...I understand it's supposed to be compatible, but someone might just have a case of the "supposed tos".

-Chad

[Harbinger[TG]]

Check your nic drivers. A recent vista updated w/o updating the drivers and gave me pretty much what you have.

[Schmitti]

Wycke... went and downloaded the software remnant remover from Symantic. And cleared the machine of NIS. I don't think my Father in Law tried to install Mcafee over Norton.. I think he firmly believed that (after using the uninstall in the control panel) that Norton was cleared from the machine... something we all know doesn't happen (can we get a class action suit against Symantec for that).

SO I cleared NIS and all it's little remnants of crap. Turned on windows firewall and defender. tried downloading any updates... now here's where it got goofy.

I could run a skype test call.. the machine was connected to the wireless network with a very strong signal the entire time.. and skype was good to go. But the browsers were both shot... and the machine could check for updates and see that they were available.. but could not download them. I even tried downloading the updates to my machine and moving them to his machine with a thumb drive... only to be told that there was not enough space to install the updates (some 65 gigs of harddrive space available somehow = no room? )

Anyways.. my father in law has the customer servace number and the extension to request so he hopefully doesn't get stuck with just a list reader.

E

[Morfesto]

Verify your getting a valid IP address.

Start> All Programs> Accessories> Command Prompt -- right click on it and run as Admin.

ipconfig /all

Then verify that you can ping the gateway.

ping <gatewayIP>
replace <gatewayIP> with the IP no <>



If that works.

Try and ping outside the network "ping 72.14.205.103" <-- google

Try "telnet www. google .com 80"

No spaces in the URL

If it connects with a blinking cursor your good.

Is your internet service DSL or Cable?