I have recently purchase BT broadband internet and when i originally installed the modem and the software i had the internet working fine.

However, it has suddenly started acting up - the connection is made fine and i can ping websites through the MSDOS command prompt but when i try to browse the websites through internet explorer i get a "cannot find server or DNS" error.

I called BT but they say the connection is fine and the problem is with my computer - but i havent got a clue how to sort this problem out.

Any help with this would be received very greatfully, below i have listed my computer details -

operating system = Windows XP professional version 2002
make and model = custom built, 1.6 AMD athlon
last few installs = broadband software

Thanks in advance

Go To Control Panal
Click on Network Connections
Then Click on your connection
When you open it a box will appear, near the bottom there will be a picture of 2 monitors. Beside them is heading Sent and Recieved. Check if you are recieving any (numbers should be increasing) also check if you are sending any!

Go to the command prompt and type this: telnet yahoo.com 80

...you'll know whether it worked if you get a blank black screen - if it doesn't work you'll get a message like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\yo mama>telnet yahoo.com 80

Connecting To yahoo.com...Could not open connection to the host, on port 80: Connect failed

If it worked then try clearing your cache (Tools-->Options-->General-->Delete files in Internet Explorer) and bump it up to 256MB...then go to the connections tab and click "Lan Settings" and make sure none of the boxes are checked.

If it didn't work then are you running a firewall? If so try turning if off and see if it works after that.