Internet troubles

[dude112]

Hello,

A friend of mine is having trouble with his internet. It's an old PC.
Mobo is the Asus K8N-E Delux. He did a clean Windows XP install.
Downloaded the Nvidia network drivers from Asus and installed it. Now he can get on Google just fine and searching works too. Only when trying to open other sites it will just endlessly load the page without progress.

In cmd I ping google.com fine. But ping adobe.com for example and I get a "request timed out".
Tried changing MTU in the router but doesn't help.
Also worth noting is that a second computer is connected to the same router and is working fine. Tried switching the ports but still the same problem.

Can this be because of the network adapter not working properly anymore? In that case I thought maybe getting a new network card like this TP-LINK TG-3269 PCI Gigabit Network Adapter - Newegg.com would fix the problem. Am I correct to think it's the network adapter?

 

[DistraughtSysop]

Is it a pre-built or self-built machine? If it's pre-built then you should get the drivers from the OEM company's site (HP, Dell, etc.) as opposed to the component manufacturer's site (Gigabyte, Asrock, etc.). It doesn't sound like a driver issue, but it's best to be thorough.

Not all sites will return pings for security purposes. Adobe won't, so not being able to ping their site doesn't mean anything, just FYI. Being able to ping www.google.com is a good sign; let's ping www.yahoo.com just to be sure. That should work, as well, so we should be able to rule out DNS as an issue.

If all that is true, then trying changing the MTU on the machine, itself, instead of just on the router. Open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" and make a note of the name of the wireless adapter that is in use.

Now type try this command, including the quote marks but not the brackets:

netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "[exact name of the wireless adapter]" mtu=1492 store= persistent

 

[carnageX]

Is it a pre-built or self-built machine? If it's pre-built then you should get the drivers from the OEM company's site (HP, Dell, etc.) as opposed to the component manufacturer's site (Gigabyte, Asrock, etc.). It doesn't sound like a driver issue, but it's best to be thorough.

I disagree with this. The OEM site won't have updated drivers; they'll just have what they consider a "stable" driver from whenever they first started shipping the unit, unless a major problem is found and they have to update it. I always go to the component manufacturer to get the newest driver, because they will have updated fixes to solve possible issues.

 

[DistraughtSysop]

I disagree with this. The OEM site won't have updated drivers; they'll just have what they consider a "stable" driver from whenever they first started shipping the unit, unless a major problem is found and they have to update it.

No, they're not the newest drivers, but I find them to be the most reliable. Agree to disagree, then.

 

[dude112]

@DistraughtSysop: This was a hand me down PC but he thinks it was a self built system.
Wireless adapter name from ipconfig /all?
Also read u can't change the MTU in XP through dos but need to add some stuff in registry. And he's not comfortable in dabbling with that type of stuff.
Will getting a network card fix the problem though. I can't stop by to help him this week... and a week without internet...

 

[DistraughtSysop]

Anything is possible, but I doubt that it's a hardware issue. A faulty NIC will usually screw up your connection rather than limit the sites that you can load.

If it was working fine before the XP install then that would suggest a configuration issue of some sort.

Open a command prompt and try the following commands followed by a reboot:

netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset reset.log

Also, what antivirus is your friend using? Certain products have been known to cause issues.

 

[Joe C]

sounds like it could possibly be a trojan, a virus or some type of malware that's either attempting to re-direct you or blocking access to web pages.
It's not a bad idea to have your pc checked first for anything malicious first before proceeding to fix anything else

 

[Horror]

try pinging other sites too. do they work?? otherwise it's likely a problem on the site's side

 

[dude112]

Sorry for the late reply. Did a fresh Win XP install so it shouldn't be a trojan right?
Haven't installed any antivirus yet only the lan driver.

I will try the reset commands when I get over there or catch him online.

Also don't think it's the websites themselves cause on a different computer that's connected to the same router the sites do open.