Member Avatar for jodman

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

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by antioed

Dani AI

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As describes, the adapter is getting packets (connection and pings work) but Internet Explorer reports a DNS/Server error. That pattern usually means name resolution or an application-layer interception (proxy, browser add-on, or a corrupted Winsock/LSP) is blocking HTTP requests while lower-level IP traffic still flows. 's pointer to check packet activity was a good isolation step; 's raw-HTTP test points toward the same class of problem.

Quick, non-destructive checks to run from an elevated Command Prompt (do these first):

ipconfig /all
nslookup example.com
ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /all shows which DNS servers the PC is using. nslookup proves whether DNS resolution works and which server answers. ipconfig /flushdns clears the local DNS cache in case of stale or corrupted entries.

If DNS looks OK but browsing still fails, reset the Windows network stacks (these require administrator rights and a reboot):

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

If netsh winsock reset is unavailable (older XP without SP2), reinstall the network adapter driver or run an LSP/Winsock repair tool recommended by Microsoft.

Also check these application-layer items not covered above: confirm the hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) has no bad entries; run IE with add-ons disabled to rule out browser extensions:

iexplore -extoff

Try a different browser and test from another machine on the same network to isolate PC vs. network. If a proxy or malicious component is detected (many dialers/spyware change proxy/LSP), run an updated anti-malware scan. Recommended order: verify DNS with nslookup, then Winsock/TCP reset, then hosts/proxy/add-ons and malware scan.

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Member Avatar for S4M31R4

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!

Member Avatar for antioed

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.

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