Ping:connection fine.IExplorer refuses to use the connection

Hi Axe, DuckIT,

Thanks for taking the time to think about this.




Yes, I know. In fact I used to think I was rather proficient with computers... not the case apparently.
To answer you question, I haven't touched the router. The laptop just stopped connecting to the net. But then, if you read my answer to DuckIT below, I'm not so sure it's not the router.




Hmmm, seems I can't proof that: can't connect to the router website
- I can however ping the router,
- I can also ping the DSL-modem connected to the router
(the modem by the way also has an webserver interface)
- and I can also ping any computer on the internet




Checked proxy-setting: no junk there.
My desktop uses the same settings, and works. Because the laptop is XP and the working desktop is 98me, I had a friend over with an XP laptop, configured it... it worked right away. It was a laptop with an onboard wlan card so I couldn't test my card on his laptop. I have even gone so far (sigh) to buy a new us robotics wlan card (telling myself I would need it someday anyway) and tested that... no difference, the new card also doesn't work. back in the box.




No google.


The way I see it, its either XP misconfigured so it doesn't use the available TCP/IP connection or its the us robotics router blocking all requests other than ping, from the laptop only?

I think I have looked everywhere and changed every setting on the laptop. I have no clue what could be wrong with the router.


by the way, I agree this is taking up an absolutely irritating amount of time... but so would reformatting and having to completely reinstall a working system with all software and settings and everthing.
Besides, I would just like to fix it. Not give up and reformat.

Pffff,

Dennis

What's about access-list at router? Also maybe u can make NAT translation between outside and inside interface?

Well, since you've already spent this amount of time and are determined to fix it, anychance you could supply some screen shots of your network properties dialog boxes?

I also, just noticed you're using a wireless router. I doubt that has anything to do with the problem, but I must have missed that earlier.

The only thing I know for sure is if you can ping external internet sites, but can't access them by name resolution it has to be a DNS issue. But you are certainly covering your basis and I'm stumped. In addition to the network properties, if you can supply a screen shot or two of some of the router settings, that might speed things up some too. Somebody may see something that jumps out at them that you may have overlooked? Not sure it would help, but anything's worth a shot at this point.

Nice to see you sticking with it. I know it's frustrating, but you seem to have quite a bit of patience.

Glad you're sticking with this too!



The access-list is not a problem. The router allows access to my WLAN card, I can ping through it to the internet. +see below.



There we go:

http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/01.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/02.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/03.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/04.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/05.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/06.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/07.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/08.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/09.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/10.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/11.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/11a.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/12.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/13.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/14.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/15.jpg

http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/20.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/21.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/22.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/23.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/24.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/25.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/26.jpg
http://home.tiscali.nl/addadd/27.jpg

Nice

Dennis

Yeah.
U need choose one routing protocol beetwen two interfaces. Nat is enabled but u disabled receiving. Choose one of them RIP1 or RIP2. At Cisco I use RIP1.

Hi midhat!



It makes no difference. The desktop still connects to the net, the laptop still can only ping it all. I have kept the routing protocol setting at RIP1 however. You may be right and there might be two problems of which this was one... let's hope so.

nslookup on the laptop still responds like this:





thanks for giving it a shot. Other suggestions?

Dennis

try setting yr transmit nat- to one of the rip.
receive nat- change to disable

I think u cant ping for address 192.168.123.100 coz of yr nat settings.

Dennis,

First, I'm sorry, but I had to change your most excellent screen captures to links vs. Inline. We have a maximum width of 640 px for inline pictures to avoid skewing the tables on lower resolutions. Besides, they were seriously bogging down the page load.

The one thing that you haven't indicated you have tried is Leo Tapia's suggestion on the first page, and that is to bypass your router and hook your laptop directly to the modem. Then change your TCP/IP settings to automatic. vs. static. Since you're wireless, you may need to hardwire that one temporarily.

I guess the one thing that has nagged at me since this conversation started is why you are using the router for DNS at all. I have three computers at home on a router and cable modem, and all are set for automatic configuration, and I've never once had a DNS resolution issue. I don't believe I would ever use the router for DNS.

Other than that, I can't see anything odd about your router settings. There should not be two DNS settings for your router regardless (I don't believe). The problem with DNS in your router, is that it is not going to be able to do name resolution for the external Internet. At best it would only benefit your internal network, and your computers will see each other just fine without it.

Your situation is a bit puzzling, but I'm willing to bet if you hook directly to the modem and set everything to automatic you get an instant connection.

Hi Madmonk,



If I set it to that, none of the computers can access the net...




I can ping the router at 192.168.123.100 (see my first post in this thread). I can ping any computer in the world. The problem is IExplorer on my laptop won't use the available internet connection.

Dennis

Hi ATNO,



That's fine.




I will try that this week. No time the past days.




I followed up on your suggestion to enter the ISP's DNS instead of the routers... It doesn't change a thing. I can still ping the router and I can still ping any other computer on the internet, including the ISP's DNS.
I also tried enabling DHCP on the router and the laptop... no change. The router hands out an IP address, but IExplorer on the laptop can't do a thing with it.

Will post again after having tried the Leo Tapia's suggestion.

Thanks for now,
Dennis

Hi ATNO,

I have just hard-connected the laptop directly to the dsl modem.
I set the IP and the modem as the gateway, and I could again ping the whole world, including the ISP's DNS.
IExplorer still refuses to access the internet, even now that the
wireless router is completely bypassed.


Conclusions:

1. The problem is not in the wireless router.

2. As far as DNS trouble goes, even when directly connected to the modem, IExplorer refused to access the webserver running on the modem when I typed its IP address in the URL-editbox in IEXplorer.
Keeping in mind that at that same time I can ping the modem, and I can ping everything out there.

3. This sucks.

4. The problem is with Windows and I really do not know where...


Dennis

Dennis, you completely lost me on that one. I've never known a modem to have it's own IP address, nor have I ever seen a modem that has a built in webserver.

Now you have me confused as to what you are doing.

The idea behind hooking it up directly to the modem was to lose all the static stuff. If you hook directly up, and set everything to Automatic and absolutely nothing to static you should obtain an IP from your ISP and you should be automatically set to use the ISP's DNS servers to resolve domain names.


The fact that you can ping everything indicates that there is nothing wrong with the physical aspect of your network. The fact that you are not resolving indicates that there is a DNS issue. Nothing else would cause this problem. It is the External ISP's DNS servers that will resolve the names for you. Nothing else in your internal network will. Your router simply doesn't have the capacity to do so.

Hi ATNO,

The 'modem' my ISP supplied with my DSL subscription turned out to be a modem/router combination (Zyxel 650R, see for example http://www.systemhouse.com/zyxel/prestige650.htm).
That's why it has a webserver/html configuration menu.




Don't you agree that when I type the modem's IP address (192.168.1.254) directly into iexplorer (while I can ping the modem) iexplorer should be able to connect to the inbuilt webserver without needing any DNS server? Doesn't that tell us that DNS resolution is not the problem?

To be sure: the network setup I just tested was

LAPTOP -> ZYXEL650R -> DSL-line


The network setup that I am running (and which used to work) when not testing the above is:


Desktop 1 ->
Desktop 2 -> WIRELESS ROUTER (USROBOTICS) -> ZYXEL650R -> DSL
Laptop ->

In this set up the two desktops can surf the web. The laptop can only ping everything.


Dennis

DNS servers are what convert the web address you type in, i.e. http://www.yahoo.com to the IP address assigned to that domain name.

Each DNS server on the web has a list of all the domain names and the IP addresses that they are assigned. Your router/modem positively will not have this list built in. Trust me, they just don't. There is no way you can depend on your router to be a DNS server for the web, because it just simply isn't. (Unless you've manually typed in several million names yourself *lol) The fact that you can ping everything but can't resolve web pages by the URL clearly indicates that for some reason your laptop is not accessing your DSL ISP's DNS servers. But I can't for the life of me figure out what you are doing differently with your laptop that is preventing it.

Sorry, but I'm about out of ideas.

Thanks for sticking with me on this.


I know what DNS servers are and what they do.



My problem is that IExplorer won't even access webpages by the IP-address! Bypassing the need for DNS servers!

Dennis