Help with Vista internet problem
 

Hey everyone, first off, I'd just like to thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

My problem is this, I just recently got a new computer and haven't had this problem before. Every once in a while I'll be using the internet, and then all of a sudden it can't connect to any page that I try to go to. IE, Firefox, anything gives me "Cannot connect to server". However my downloads are still running strong in the background without interruption. The only way that I've found to fix it is to restart my computer and then my internet is back up and running fine every time. This is all very annoying lol.

And please, no responses like "Get XP" or something like that :P.

Thanks!

Edit:

Vista Home Premium 32 bit (all up to date)
3 gig ram
2.3 gig processor

I don't know if it works on Vista, but there is CCleaner. I used to get this all the time on my previous laptop with XP. I would close all browsers and then run CCleaner (set to sick everything) and then the browsers worked. I can't think of a technical reason why it works, but that is just how improper conditioning goes leading to OCD.

do you have a tower or a laptop? and what sort of connection are you using? wireless/wired? cable / dsl?

Try this.
Start > Programs > System Tools > IE (with no add ons)

Tower, wired, cable running through a D-Link wired router

as a permanent solution?

Why would that affect Firefox?

How much of your bandwidth is being taken up by your downloading?

Do you think it may affect the browser from using it when you try?

When you restart are the downloads going at full speed when you attempt to use your browser?

Have you tried closing all the programs using the internet when you try to start it?

If you're downloads are running, then you are connected.

Sometimes it can be as simple as shutting down the browser (window) and restarting it.

I agree, sometimes it can be this easy however thats never the case in these situations.

I'm not sure how much bandwidth is being taken up, but it happens even when I'm not downloading anything. The only reason I said that about the downloads is to show that I still have an active internet connection when this issue is happening.

Have you tried closing all browsers as mentioned before? Clearing your internet cache (possibly with the help of CCleaner)?

Yup, I tried that too. With and without CCleaner. This is getting so annoying lol. I guess my only hope to see if its addressed in a future Vista update. :(

I'd take this up during a Live Vista Community Discussion that happens every Thursday from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. When I find the exact link from Microsoft's site, I will post it.

Unfortunately, till then:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...c6b951033.mspx
http://winvistaforums.com/

Awesome. Thanks for your help Augi and everyone else that tried!

Windows XP Expert Zone Chats
Many sites describe a Vista Expert Zone chat, but they link to the Windows XP Expert chat zone. If there was anyone who knew the answer to your problem, or where the Vista Expert Chat zone is, it'd be these guys.

Have you attempted a ping or a tracert?

It sounds suspiciously like a client-side DNS issue.

Thanks Augi, if I'm not working then I'll be there this week!

Martian - no actually, I haven't. I'll try that though if it happens again.

Thanks again!

How are you connected to the internet?

If you have your own router try connecting to your own router by its ip address. If it comes up your computer is fine and the problem is with your router.

I should clarify, if you can connect to your router than the problem it is likely with your router but could also be somewhere beyond that (ie your ISP).

If you can connect to your router just fine then type the command:

ping www.tfproject.org

followed by the command

ping 209.50.251.11

and report the output of both commands here.

Hey there, just an update, when this happened most recently I could ping www.yahoo.com just fine. No ping issues at all there.

(I chose Yahoo because it know its ALWAYS up lol)

Sounds to me like you have some nasty spyware. I'd try using cwshredder, then spybot search & destroy to clean your system. After that maybe use Hijack this to look at what is starting up when you boot.