Internet Connectivity Issue

[Southern Presbyterian]

Would any of the technologically savvy folk of the PB have any notion as to why my desktop suddenly decides to stop communicating with the internet even though the local area connection function shows that it is still connected? Where should I be looking to find and cure this issue?

I used a program called Advanced SystemCare to clean up some of the clutter on my hard drive and also to tidy up the registry. Everything else seems to work well. It just will not keep communicating with the web - no matter which browser (or email program) I use.

 

[Edward]

All sites, or just this one? I've had problems where my K-9 didn't play well with PB and I've had to re-boot to re-establish internet connectivity. I put in a script blocker to knock out 4 or 5 of the background scripts that run on PB and it seems to have solved the problem.

My guess would be some protective software on your computer is being triggered, probably by something you aren't even seeing. Of course, it could be a bad cable, loose card, or other hardware problem.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

All sites. My attempts to fix things have made it worse, I'm afraid. Now it won't connect to any site. Though my Dropbox and Carbonite accounts can apparently connect and do what they need to do to update. The other 4 computers in the house (the one I'm using right now, for instance) work just fine. I'm strongly considering putting it out of my misery for good.

 

[Berean]

Maybe all that snow the Weather Channel showed in Wytheville yesterday? Seriously, did you try rebooting your modem (turn it off, wait a minute, then turn it back on)?

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

My sister-in-law said to blame it on the sunspot activity.

Rebooted the route, but not the modem. I'll have to wait until my son finishes his game of Starcraft II with his friends, then give that a try.

 

[Edward]

Did the problem start after you did your clean up? That would suggest that a registry entry got changed or a driver deleted. Wired or wireless connection? Factory installed, or did you add some hardware for the connection after you got the machine? What operating system, and finally, have you tried rolling back to a restore point when everything worked right? Your cleanup program should have set a restore point for you before it started making changes, if the folks who developed it knew what they were doing.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

The problem started in earnst after the cleanup. I did roll back to before the clean up and it works a little better, but not much. No hardware changes. It's a wired connection. This machine is runnig Windows XP (yep, it's old). I've tried repiring the Local Area Connection but it cannot complete the cycle because it cannot clear the DNS cache. I even tried to manually flush the cache but just get an error message.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Not enough duct tape.

Shucks, and I was thinking that the issue is not enough cowbell.

 

[Edward]

I'm thinking it probably messed up your drivers, and the computer is trying to use a default drive, that works to a degree. Have you tried playing around with the 'Add Hardware' function?

If you are ready to trash the machine at this point anyway, you might backup everything you want to save, remove whatever card you're plugging into (if it is a separate card, reboot the machine, use regedit to delete the drivers, put the card back in, and try to reinstall it as new hardware.

If you aren't to that point yet, choose the install new hardware icon on the Control Panel, and see if you can do something with that.

And as a first option, try a much earlier restore point.

Of course, if it's dialup instead of cable or dsl, it could just be a bad modem.

I thought if I kept bumping your thread, someone who knew what they were doing would show up, and in the meanwhile, I'd get some possibly useful information for them. But it appears that no one wants to touch the thread except my semi-neighbor.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Josh,

How did you know I had one of these?

[video=youtube_share;H3B0bTYlzb4]http://youtu.be/H3B0bTYlzb4[/video]