Help. please

[danmand]

4 months ago, I bought a compaq laptop with Vista and have been using it via my wireless router ever since. Today, it worked this morning, but later IE cannot access any internet pages. To my knowledge nothing has changed.

Another PC is happily connected to the internet via the same router, running XP.

I have tried to reset modem, router and laptop, but nothing will get me internet access. Vista tells me that the wireless access is working fine.

I called HP, who said that I need new firmware in the router, but that does not make any sense to me, because it has worked for 4 months without problems.

Any suggestions before I restore Vista on the Laptop?

 

[WoodPeckr]

HP should know what to do......maybe....
So try doing what they suggest. The new firmware should be a free download.
Vista has more security features than XP which may cause problems.
Is IE your only browser?
Try another like Firefox so you have 2 to use. I have 3 browsers, Opera, FF, IE and rarely use IE anymore.
Another option remove and reinstall the router software and see if that helps.
I would do that before doing a Vista restore.

 

[Mack Bolan]

Can you ping your router?
Do you have an wire option. If you can connect to your router via cable from you laptop.
Have you disabled your wireless connection from your laptop?
Try to connect to your router with a cable and then the internet.

 

[danmand]

Can you ping your router?
Do you have an wire option. If you can connect to your router via cable from you laptop.
Have you disabled your wireless connection from your laptop?
Try to connect to your router with a cable and then the internet.

Vista diagnostics says that the wireless access is working fine. I have tried to disable, restart etc. Also, my PC works fine with the wireless.

My girlfriend has the laptop now, and she says internet access is fine from her office wireless connection.

I think it may be some security setting in the IE, that prevents it from accessing pages, or a mixup in the automatic IP addressing.

In the meantime I am taking HP's suggestion and installing newer firmware in the wireless router.

 

[shordy]

Just to eliminate all possibilities: when you reset the modem, did you turn the power off AND disconnect the power cord for 30 seconds? Sometimes the cache gets flooded if you don't regularly disconnect the power cord on a regular basis.

I'm wondering if you did this, b/c you said that your GF said that it worked fine with her office wireless network.

Also try retyping in your WEP key again.

 

[Mack Bolan]

Have you tried to connect to your router via cable? You know the cable you would have used before wireless access. If you can't connect to your router via cable, then it's a hardware issue. Not your brower.
Have tried to repair the wireless connection? I don't know VISTA.
Did you computer come with a dianogistics disk?

 

[danmand]

Just to eliminate all possibilities: when you reset the modem, did you turn the power off AND disconnect the power cord for 30 seconds? Sometimes the cache gets flooded if you don't regularly disconnect the power cord on a regular basis.

I'm wondering if you did this, b/c you said that your GF said that it worked fine with her office wireless network.

Also try retyping in your WEP key again.

I did turn off the modem and router power for 30 secs.

Have you tried to connect to your router via cable? You know the cable you would have used before wireless access. If you can't connect to your router via cable, then it's a hardware issue. Not your brower.
Have tried to repair the wireless connection? I don't know VISTA.
Did you computer come with a dianogistics disk?

No I have not. But the Vista diagnostics for the wireless access says the connection is fine. And it shows OK on the driver screen.

 

[danmand]

Did you try to connect to the modem directly to skip the router?

I had a similar problem last week and it was my router that couldn't connect to the modem anymore.

No, because I am accessing the internet right now through a wireless connection from my PC. Only the laptop
will not show internet pages.

 

[shordy]

did you download any new Vista updates?

 

[danmand]

Here is an update for the people who have been kind enough to help me:

The laptop is back, and I cannot access anything through the internet explorer, not even the
fixed IP address of my router.

Vista tells me that the wireless access is fine.

Windows update can access the microsoft update site.

And: I installed firefox and it works fine.

I reset all IE settings to defeault.

 

[Meister]

I did turn off the modem and router power for 30 secs.


No I have not. But the Vista diagnostics for the wireless access says the connection is fine. And it shows OK on the driver screen.

All this reminds me a bit of the Mac commercials and I'm not a Mac fan.

 

[Anynym]

Do I understand correctly that everything now appears to be fine except IE on your laptop?

If you log into the fixed IP address of the router from (say) your desktop, does it provide a page with packet / byte counts? Do the counts go up at all when you use IE from your laptop? (Other than, of course, to serve the other machines, apps, etc) My guess is: no.

Does IE somewhere have a "work offline" option enabled?

Does your Vista firewall (i.e. on your laptop) see packets from IE? (Not sure how to check)

 

[danmand]

Do I understand correctly that everything now appears to be fine except IE on your laptop?

If you log into the fixed IP address of the router from (say) your desktop, does it provide a page with packet / byte counts? Do the counts go up at all when you use IE from your laptop? (Other than, of course, to serve the other machines, apps, etc) My guess is: no.

Does IE somewhere have a "work offline" option enabled?

Does your Vista firewall (i.e. on your laptop) see packets from IE? (Not sure how to check)

It appears that everything else than the IE can access the internet through the wireless router.
I looked at the microsoft download site to see if I could download IE. Only IE 7 for XP is available for
download. Maybe I should try to install that. Otherwise I will just restore my laptop to factory condition.
I don't have alot of junk on it.

I am a bit annoyed with HP support, a lady there insisted that the problem was with the router firmware,
and would not listen to any logic at all. Typical passing the hot potato off to someone else.

I can't even get from IE to the router from my laptop by using the fixed address
http // 192.168.... so there is no communication.

Wouldn't the firewall only be for incoming traffic?

 

[Anynym]

I can't even get from IE to the router from my laptop by using the fixed address
http // 192.168.... so there is no communication.

Wouldn't the firewall only be for incoming traffic?

Nope, although apparently MS have decided to disable the outbound firewall by default on new installs - it may have become enabled on your laptop. Google (e.g.) vista firewall outbound, or configure vista outbound firewall, or similar terms for better details.

For good measure, Microsoft apparently doesn't put the outbound firewall configuration in the same place as the inbound firewall, at least according to this article:
http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid45_gci1247138,00.html

 

[danmand]

Nope, although apparently MS have decided to disable the outbound firewall by default on new installs - it may have become enabled on your laptop. Google (e.g.) vista firewall outbound, or configure vista outbound firewall, or similar terms for better details.

For good measure, Microsoft apparently doesn't put the outbound firewall configuration in the same place as the inbound firewall, at least according to this article:
http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid45_gci1247138,00.html

Thanks, I will look into that. But would it not screw up firefox also?

 

[WoodPeckr]

I am a bit annoyed with HP support, a lady there insisted that the problem was with the router firmware,

Used HP phone support a couple times for a HP printer and have been underwhelmed both times with them. Their website tech support wasn't very helpful either ....

Awhile back I had a similar problem with losing internet connectivity with a Belkin wireless router. Unlike HP, Belkin had great phone support!
The Belkin techie told me to do the same thing shordy mentioned in post #5, namely reboot my cable modem and wireless router. He told me to shutdown everything and unplug both the cable modem and router for 60 seconds. Then replug the power and restart the PC.
Did that and everything was OK.

Since FF is working, it looks like something changed with IE.

 

[danmand]

I finally bit the bullet and used to HP restore disk to reset the laptop to
factory state.

Even if it was only IE that did not work, and I had Firefow, came to that conclusion, because system restore failed when I tried to restore to any point in the past. Something was fishy, and I could not figure it out.

Thanks to everybody who helped out.

 

[Anynym]

Thanks, I will look into that. But would it not screw up firefox also?

Not necessarily, since the outbound firewall can also tell what executable is presenting the network traffic.

In any case, I'm glad to hear you're running clean again; here's hoping the problem doesn't recur.