Internet connected but browser's won't work

[TomCamavi]

(This is pretty much just a guide I made to help people solve this seemingly common problem that no one seems to know how to fix)

(I put this little bit of info so you can relate your problem to mine and determine if your problem is being caused by what mine was)
Okay so about two weeks ago my sister called me complaining about how her laptop would not browse the internet after she updated firefox to the lastest version. I took on the challenge of fixing it, thinking that it would be something stupid like firefox was set to be in offline mode. When I got the laptop this was not the case, no browser I installed on it would work but yet I was able to ping websites perfectly fine with 0% packet loss and other applications and games that use the internet would work fine.

This is what worked for me-
Download Norton Removal Tool and run it then reboot
It's kind of funny that this worked because my sister told me she had never installed norton and her machine came preinstalled with mcafee but yet it removed something that caused it to work.

Things that might work for other people-
1.) Flush DNS
go to CMD and type "ipconfig /flushdns" (without quotes) and reboot

2.) If you use IE open IE and go to Tools>Internet Options>Connections>Lan Settings and make sure all 3 boxes are unchecked but in some cases I've read that people have solved their problem by checking the "Automatically Detect Settings" box and leaving the other two unchecked. Restart IE after changing any settings.
2A.) If your using firefox then go to Tools>Options>Advanced>Network>Settings and make sure that "No Proxy" is checked or "Use System Proxy Settings" is checked.

3.) Download winsockfix and run it then reboot. (I did this right before I used the norton removal tool, I don't know if it helped or not really but I doubt it because I tried it before and it didn't work)

4.) Turn off your firewall or add the browser you are using to connect to the internet to the exceptions list.

Other things that could work-
1.) If you're having a problem with connecting to the internet all together then I really doubt it's your browsers fault so check for updates for the driver of the network device you use or if you have updated the driver and afterwards the problem occured, roll back the driver to the pervious version.

2.) Malware often change settings or damage files that are necessesary for programs such as internet browsers to work. So download MalwareBytes or SuperAntiSpyware and scan your PC for any malware. After the malware's removal if you still are unable to connect you will probably have to uninstall your browser(s) and reinstall them.

3.) Restore from a restore point that was created before the problem occured.

4.) Finally if nothing else worked for you then you might just want to go ahead and format your HD and reinstall windows or if you have a full system back up from before the problem occured then do that.

Please post your experiences and if anything I listed worked for you and if what worked for you was not on here please post how you fixed your problem or if you have a known fix or possible solution post it!:)

[AlphaBetaDelta]

Hi, and thanks for posting this. I just searched for a similar problem and your post came up, along with thread79952. I'm posting my experience, just in case it would be helpful to anyone else.

Background: We moved to university housing where the internet is provided through their network via 2 wall connections, one in the office, and one in the bedroom. IT Personnel configured our laptops and the wall connections; the office connection worked fine for the Toshiba (running Vista) but the Compaq (running XP SP2) wouldn't connect in the bedroom (I didn't try switching them). Because a neighbor had similar problems and the IT guys said it was the physical connection, we assumed as much for ours.

IT personnel came, checked the physical connection with their own system, and with and without their supplied cable. Their computer browsers worked, so their answer was that the Compaq hardware was the problem, and they suggested reformatting the hard drive to repair it. [I should note here, that the IT personnel gave us two cables when they configured our laptops, one - new - green colored cable, and one - already in use - white cable.]

Not wanting to take so drastic a measure right away (for one problem only), I began searching. I moved the Compaq to the Office and tried the following things:

1) Manually reset winsocks "netsh winsock reset catalog", & rebooted. No change.

2) Checked my firewall settings (Comodo free version); there were no browsers blocked, but just in case, I added rules allowing them. No change.

3) Checked ipconfig [and noted all the values they had added]; then tried to ping it. That was successful, but didn't solve the browser issue.

4) Flushed DNS & rebooted. No change.

5) I ran CCleaner [ http://www.piriform.com/] - both the general cleaner & the registry cleaner [making a backup first] & rebooted. No change.

6) Ran WinSockFix. This cleared out the TCP/IP settings [set it to Obtain IP Automatically], and when I reset them to the IT supplied settings, the browsers worked.

At this point, I moved it to the bedroom. The browsers stopped working, though ping showed a live network connection (just like in the office). I ran WinSockFix at that location, reset the TCP/IP settings, and tried the browsers again without success, though moving the laptop back to the office, the browsers worked.

On a whim, I decided to test the cables. I took the office cable [the white used one] & Compaq laptop back to the bedroom, plugged in, and it worked. To make it more interesting, I took the bedroom cable [the green new one], plugged in the Toshiba laptop in the office, and it worked.

So after all that hassle, it may have been the cable all along. I can't say that for sure, because I believe the IT personnel tried their working cable with the Compaq. Another reminder to check the simple things first.

So, anyone have a suggestion as to why seemingly identical cables would work on one computer and not another?

[AlphaBetaDelta]

Update: OK - it wasn't the cable. Running WinSockFix and then resetting the TCP/IP settings fixes the connection only once. Then it seems to revert back to not connecting. It doesn't matter at which connection this is done. This computer worked fine using a wireless connection just a month ago. As far as I know though, it's never been connected physically though.

It's a compaq presario M2200 running Windows XP SP3. We are trying to connect to a university network, via cable. I can ping the ip, so it seems to be connecting to the network, but when I try and connect to the internet with a browser [IE or Firefox] it just runs and never makes a connection. I know the cable and wall connection are good - I can connect another computer to the internet.

Any ideas as to why we can't seem to connection, and/or things I could try to get this connection running?

[notex]

I also downloaded a recommended Firefox update and suddenly couldn't get on the internet from Firefox or any other browser, though internet was still connected, downloading antivirus updates, etc. I went to the last known good configuration in Windows 7 and that didn't resolve the problem--only made it so I couldn't even open Firefox at all. Then I found this site and tried uninstalling the copy of Norton's that was on the computer which I had never activated (as suggested above). No dice.
Finally followed some other advice I found elsewhere: went into Internet Explorer, internet options, connections, LAN settings, and clicked "automatically detect connection" and unclicked all other options. Immediately IE browser activity was restored. Then I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox and it seems to be working fine now.