Internet and mail stops working until I restart PC

[Attie W]

Good day everyone.
I suddenly have this problem for the past week or so and just don't know how to fix it.
My internet and email will work and after a while (don't know how long), my internet and email will stop working. Here is the funny thing: If I try to open a new browse session or open a new tab, the internet will not work and also if I press the send and receive button for new email, the email will time out, but I can ping any IP address from the command prompt and it works 100%. Also if one of the internet tabs that was open on a radio station that I was listening too, the radio still works, but no new connections can be established either with my email or with any of my browsers.
Hope the above makes sense.

I removed the network driver in device manager and restarted my pc.. no luck, I have disabled my network adapter and enabled it... no luck. The only thing that works is to restart my PC.

I did the IPconfig /release, IPconfig /renew etc, nothing makes a difference. Also tried static IP addresses no luck. I am connected via a network cable and the other people in my office don't have any network/internet/email issues, so it cannot be the ADSL router.
I also removed AVG and installed another virus program AVAST.
What doesn't make sense is how is it possible that I can ping various IP's and receive replies, even the internet radio is working in the background, but I cannot open a new browser tab/session or send/receive new mail.
The next thing is to buy a new network card or ADSL Router, but I think this is not a hardware problem.
Using Windows 8 pro as operating system.

Looking forward to a solution for this very frustrating problem....

 

[DelJo63]

What doesn't make sense is how is it possible that I can ping various IP's and receive replies, even the internet radio is working in the background, but I cannot open a new browser tab/session or send/receive new mail.

PING verifies that you have Internet connectivity, but the browser and email need the DNS to convert names to addresses.

Next time it fails, get a command prompt and run these

• ipconfig /all (verify you still have the dns addresses)
• nslookup google.com

You will likely see the second one fail to return an address.

Next, we need to run privileged - -

runas /user:administrator cmd​

which will get you a new window and use these

• ipconfig /flushdns
• net stop "dns client"

I suspect the /flush might fail, but forge ahead . .

retry nslookup google.com

Does it return the google address?

 

[Attie W]

Thanks for the reply Jobeard, I will try the above as soon as it fails again. Thanks for explaining the difference between (pinging) connectivity and browsers needing DNS to convert names to addresses. I borrowed a network card from a friend who owns a computer shop and installed it before I have seen your reply on my post, but I suspect the new network card will not solve the problem.

 

[Attie W]

Ok my internet just failed and I have tried what you said: The ipconfig /flushdns worked and as you can see in the image below the second try nslookup google.com worked too.
I tried the internet and email after that and it works too thanks. So what is the permanent fix?

Thanks for the help this far.

 

[DelJo63]

Set browser to empty cache upon exiting