Dial up connects, then just does nothing

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Psychobiker

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Hi,

A very irate friend has called me telling that his computer refuses to connect to the internet. It dials, connects, but then does nothing, and bringing up IE gives a 'page cannot be displayed', Outlook doesn't connect, nothing works. The two little computers at the bottom of the screen only blink every 5 seconds or so (I think only one blinks) and the packet throughput is incredibly low.

I thought it might be firewalling, so I got him to kill his firewalls and AV software. Nothing, still the same, checked that his DNS and IP were set to auto, the same. It worked the night I fixed it last for about half an hour and then died. I'm sensing the problem is with the ISP maybe. I reinstalled Windows for him two weeks ago, and could connect no problem...wtf is going on?

This is urgent, please respond ASAP.

L
 
I'd check to see if there are alternate or updated ISP telephone numbers to try. If there is no change, the modem itself might be bad.
 
After reformatting the hard drive, all drivers need to be reinstalled.
 
ummm.. silly answer but most overlooked... check in IE if the 'work offline' thing is unchecked..

heh.. it usualy gets me at the best of times =)
 
the offline thing pretty much stops any program from detecting an i.net connection, hence if you click send/recieve you'd get a cant reach server somethingorananada answer... thats why msn 7.5's troubleshooter has a offline checker..

but i'm not 95% sure if its related to your case.. just a tip...

wierd - it picked up the modem etc from Windows' own drivers
windows has its own set of generic/maker specific drivers thats included (or how else could it activate over phone when you install it.. ), usualy used to get activation and then after you can update to the correct/updated drivers for it via net or whatever...
and if you recently installed the device before then it keeps a copy of it
 
The settings in IE can cause all kinds of really weird little problems. If working offline doesn't fix it, can you tell us what he does to connect to the internet? Is it a software installed by the ISP, just a simple dialer or does starting IE cause it to dial out?
 
dials with IE and Network Connections. Going to reinstall windows, he wants a clean anyway. Then it'll be back to default and we'll work from there.
 
Okay. I would strongly suspect a setting in IE or a problem with the modem/modem driver based on what you have given us so far. The ISP should be able to give you the proper setting for IE for their setup so if it happens after reinstall you can call them to get those settings.
 
Not long ago a modem on one of my PCs would dial but not connect. I tried two different ISPs with the same results. I tried reinstalling the driver and reinstalling the ISP software. The ISP software wouldn't even finish installing. It just hung. I just replaced the modem with a new one and that solved it for me. $10-$12 simple and cheap.
 
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