Can ping adress via command line, but can not access from browsers

[gojko]

Hi,

I have a major problem. Seems that I can ping any site from command line, eg. ping 8.8.8.8 and ping www.anandtech.com and that works, but browsers can't connect to the internet. To be more precise, Chrome, IE and Firefox can't, but Opera 12 somehow can. I've tried a couple of other programs such as Outlook and they can not access internet either.

How did this happen? Well, to cut the story short, I had trouble again with my wireless adapter. In troubleshooting, I uninstalled VMware player (it had some netwok cards) and Microsoft Network Monitor, after which I uninstalled the Mucrosoft Network Monitor Device from Device Manager - Network. This is the only thing that comes to mind - or the WIFI device is faulty.

If I put the IP address in browser that I obtained from command line by pinging the domain, nothing comes up.

I've tried System resore (which failed), tried windows repair, uninstalled Avast antivirus, Shut down firewall, Scanned with Malwarebytes, ipconfig /flushdns etc.

The strangest thing is Opera (old version - 12.17) seems to get out ok. I've read somewhere that I should go to Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings, and set proxy to off, but the only thing that's checked there is automatic configuration.

I would really like to avoid uninstallation if at all possible. Thanks in advance.

 

[Savatar]

Proxy settings is indeed one of the most likely culprits from the sound of it. Pinging an IP like 8.8.8.8 shows you can get to the public internet, and pinging a domain name like anandtech.com shows that your DNS resolution is working properly (assuming it was resolved to the correct IP address).

In Firefox, can you go to Options > Advanced > Network Tab > click the 'Settings' button in the Connections section and then ensure that 'No Proxy' is selected? If it has some proxy entered, you'll have to check the other browsers and remove it there as well.

I would recommend running something like malwarebytes to help verify that the system doesn't have any infections as well, but since it impacts several browsers I'm not sure how likely that is (still good to try though).

 

[gojko]

Hi Savatar,

thanks for the reply. DNS resolution is working 100%, otherwise I would not be able to browse the internet with Opera (I also have other PCs on the network and they work fine), so we can rule that out. I did check the browser-specific proxy on Chrome, and there's none set, however I read online that the system-wide proxy may be the problem. I did take a look at it in internet options but no proxy set there (only auto is checked). I'd say the proxy is not software-specific, because other non-browser software can also not access the internet either.

More ideas?

 

[John Connor]

Try to reset the TCP/IP stack. http://www.windows-secrets.co.uk/2013/08/repair-the-windows-87vista-tcpip-stack/

I'm wondering if you have had or have malware that jacked up something since you couldn't do a system restore. If resting the TCP/IP stack doesn't work I wouold move on to a SFC /scannow. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/sfc-scannow.htm

If that doesn't work I would boot a Bitdefender live disk and scan the computer. Use that old Opera and go here to get the ISO and burn with portable imgburn.

http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vol....0_Development_Test_1_online.paf.exe/download

 

[gojko]

Thanks John, it's working now!

What did help was the 1st link, I could have sworn I executed the command
netsh winsock reset catalog
earlier when I was troubleshooting it before posting here. So, both commands are necessary in my case.

 

[John Connor]

Cool! Do you have any idea how this would have happened? Did you have a software based firewall you uninstalled? Did you uninstall Avast before this happened?