Member Avatar for robroyxdry

I have a three computer wireless LAN setup at home. one desktop and two laptops, which has been working well for over six months. Linksys router and Earthlink DSL provider, Pure Networks Network Magic manager. Last week took one of the laptops (Dell) on a trip. Could not get to connect to Internet or Outlook Express despite a strong hotel provided signal. Had it set for auto IP and auto DSN. the Dell recognized the strong signal but told me it had limited connectivity. Even hooked up to a friend's strong wireless connection with same result. When I manually entered his IP and DSN, it showed strong connectivity but still could not connect to internet or email. When I got home and reconnected to my LAN, where I had no problems before, I got the same negative results. Bottom line, both of the other computers work fine on the network and connect without a problem, so ther is no router or DSL problem. In fact, Network Magic shows the problem laptop connected to the LAN AND to the Internet, but both Internet Explore and Firefox show blank web page or "Server not Found" and Outlook Express shows "Earthlink.net"(my mail provider also) not found. It has to be the Dell laptop. I have shut down the firewall, no change. Ran anti-virus, rook kit, anti-adware and anti-spyware to no avail. In addition, in order to get strong connectivity, albeit without internet connection, I have to manually enter IP, DSN, Gateway, etc. Auto IP and Auto DSN only gives me "Limited Connectivity". I can ping various IPs with no problem.
I need help from this excellent forum. You saved my "life" once before and I hope you can repeat.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by aeinstein

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Good follow-up and a useful post-mortem for future readers. In short: this kind of “limited connectivity / can ping IPs but browsers and mail fail” often stems from a corrupted NIC driver or vendor network filter/LSP rather than the ISP or router. fixed it by removing the wireless adapter/utility and reinstalling the driver; that outcome fits the common failure modes below.

Why that helps: vendor utilities (and their drivers) insert protocol/filter hooks that, when corrupted, can break name resolution or the TCP/IP stack while leaving low‑level IP pinging intact. Reinstalling the adapter removes and replaces those components and usually restores normal DNS/gateway behavior.

Practical checklist to apply if this happens again

  • Capture current settings first (IP, gateway, DNS, routing) so static values can be restored if needed.

  • In Device Manager uninstall the wireless adapter and its associated utility/driver (choose to remove driver files if prompted); reboot and install the latest driver from the vendor or from the laptop maker.

  • Reset the network stack and Winsock if problems persist:

    netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

  • Verify DNS vs routing by pinging a public IP (e.g., 8.8.8.8) and then a hostname; use nslookup to test DNS servers directly.

  • Check browser proxy settings and the hosts file; third‑party firewall or VPN drivers can also block HTTP/SMTP even when ICMP works.

Preventive notes: keep a known-good driver backup and a system restore point before installing vendor utilities; prefer the OS wireless manager if the vendor utility misbehaves. Thanks to for prompting the diagnostic info collection that makes targeted fixes much faster.

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Member Avatar for robroyxdry

Sorry, forgot to mentioned that the OS is XP SP2

Member Avatar for robroyxdry

I know someone in this forum has a possible solution. I feel unwanted. That "woe is me" feeling is slowly causing me to go into the pre-natal position.

Member Avatar for dlherron

surely by now you've been able to figure this out, right? please? i'm counting on you!!! i've had a problem similar to what you're describing for more than a month. what do i need to try next to get the laptop back online?

Member Avatar for aeinstein

Please open a console window (Start, Run, type "cmd" & enter), type in "ipconfig/all" & hit Enter. Left click the little "C:\" icon in the upper left hand corner of the window, click "Select All" and then do the same and click "Copy". If you would then paste that into a post here - for easer reading I'd recommend placing the text between code tags. The issue you're describing can have a number of causes so we might as well as try to either focus in on, or remove from contention, as many possibilities as we can, starting with the simplest to diagnose.

Member Avatar for robroyxdry

Yes I did resolve it. Took awhile, but after trying almost everything (pings, reinstalling my browsers and my network management, etc. etc.), a light went on in my head (pretty dark there with age) and I uninstalled my adapter (Intel Proset) and reinstalled it. Everything came up roses, instead of weeds. Sorry I didn't post my solution, but since no one had responded I thought no one was interested. Hope this helps you.

Member Avatar for aeinstein

Great to hear it robroyxdry, and Thanks for the update. :)

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