Can only surf using IP address

[ncarter3]

I have a friend that knows very little about computers. She was trying to stop unwanted pop ups during her browsing, and did something to stop the computer from pulling up web pages using a "www" url. If I put in the web pages IP address, the web page will come up, but not using the address itself.
She is using windows XP. I have tried restoring the computer to a time that it worked correctly. I have not tried reloading XP. I'm thinking it's a simple fix, but I can't figure it out. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

What exactly do you see when it doesn't go to a web page, what error message?

 

[ncarter3]

page can not be displayed is the error I get. It acts as if I am not online

 

[mechBgon]

If you go Start > Run > cmd for a command-line box, and then ipconfig /all, what are the IP addresses of the DNS servers in there? Can you ping them?

 

[cubby1223]

From a command prompt type: ping www.google.com
If it returns an ip address, then malware is screwing up internet explorer, clean it up. If not, then read on:

You can go into the tcp/ip properties for the nic, and input the dns servers 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3

Other than that, I would go into the device manager and uninstall the network card and reboot - Windows will redetect and set up the nic.

And once in a blue moon, from the network connections screen you can right-click on the nic's local area connection icon & select repair.

If still not working I would remove Winsock 2 from the system. Delete the registry key HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\winsock2. Then in the network connections properties deselect tcp/ip and click OK. Reboot. Go back to network connections properties and click install >> protocal >> have disk >> type in c:\windows\inf and click ok >> select tcp/ip and click ok. On reboot, Windows will have reconfigured WinSock 2 to default settings.

And if none of those work, malware is again the likely cause.