Windows 7 no internet access!!

[harshbarj]

For some odd reason my windows 7 box no longer connects to the internet. It was working just fine then just stopped working about 3 hours ago. I know it is a problem with the system itself as I have a p4 ubuntu box on the same hub and it is working just fine.

I have swapped the cat5 cables around and both work on the ubuntu box. Realtek diag also reports no problems in hardware or with the cable. Also the windows 7 box has normal network access. I can run synergy just fine and browse the network drives and stream content around the network. The main router is an old pentium 3 box running smoothwall and it reports no problems. The problem started out as intermittent and disabling and re-enabling the network adapter would fix it for a while. I have run both anti virus and malware sweeps, both locally and remotely from the ubuntu box and all was clean (I run everything in a sandbox first so my systems are normally clean).

Any ideas on what to do? Side note, I have 4 other computers(1xp, 3 ubuntu) and 2 notebooks(1 xp, 1 ubuntu), all fine with internet access.

The windows 7 box
Windows 7 home pre 64-bit
Intel core i5 750
4gb ddr3 ram
Gigabyte p55a-ud3 motherboard rev 1.0
All driver up to date as of 12 hours ago.

 

[amdskip]

I actually have a school that I am the computer guy at with a smoothwall setup. A few months back we purchased new library computers and they all have windows 7 home premium on them. They sound exactly like your situation. They can browse the network and see everything correctly but they have no internet access. I have posted on the smoothwall forums and no one was able to solve my issue.

The only thing I figured out was hooking a router up for the library and then the computers would get online. Post back if you figure anything out.

 

[RebateMonger]

First, check for web proxy servers. In I.E., go to the "Internet Options" menu, go to the "Connections" tab, and check the LAN settings. Be sure no Proxy Server is listed.

Along with that, you didn't install any AV software right before Internet access quit, did you?

 

[harshbarj]

Nothing can connect to the net. No firefox, chrome, msn, teamspeak, anything the needs to get past the router. I have been running this exact setup not for about 8 months with minimal problems (occasional internet dropouts, but a reboot of the d-link router always fixed that). I will try a live usb version of ubuntu and see if that works.

The only thing I did to this setup was update all the drivers last night (roughly 14 hours ago now). things went fine and I used the system for 6 hours after that with no problems. Actually I do remember updating smoothwall about an hour before this happened. It had not been updated in over a year. That could have been it? But it worked for a full hour after rebooting everything (I always do that when I update any network device).

 

[harshbarj]

everything works fine when running off a live ubuntu 10.10 usb stick.

 

[WackyDan]

everything works fine when running off a live ubuntu 10.10 usb stick.

It is the firewall. Turn it off and see what happens.

I had nothing but issues with NAV and firewalls on Win7 creating numerous connectivity bugs.

 

[harshbarj]

Nope, the firewall has no effect.

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[harshbarj]

No changes to the network were made in the last day or two (I removed a dlink router that sat between the smoothwall router and the rest of the network 3 days ago because it became unstable / overheated often, however I rebooted everything after that to ensure everything was fine). I can ping every computer on the network, including the smoothwall router. I can browse all network shares and can use remote desktop without a hitch. It's just anything on the public side of the router is off limits to the windows 7 box (internet, e-mail, etc). As I said before, every other computer on the network is working fine. Though this is my only windows 7 box.

 

[RebateMonger]

Nothing can connect to the net. No firefox, chrome, msn, teamspeak, anything the needs to get past the router.

In a network with no internal DNS server, if you can addess local resources but nothing on the Internet, the DNS settings of the PC(s) and the status of the Internet DNS server should be checked.

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[harshbarj]

In a network with no internal DNS server, if you can addess local resources but nothing on the Internet, the DNS settings of the PC(s) and the status of the Internet DNS server should be checked.

Good suggestion, but no. I just tried a manual dns server and it was a no go. I could ping the server from ubuntu but windows could not see it at all.

As I said, nothing on the other side of the router is accessible from the windows 7 box. I have pinged every ip addy I know to no avail.

 

[harshbarj]

Make sure the W7 computer is set to receive its DNS assignment AUTOMATICALLY (from your ISP).

If that fails, try assigning it to receive DNS from one of the many PUBLIC DNS.
http://www.tech-faq.com/public-dns-servers.html

I myself am using the free OPenDNS http://www.opendns.com/

What is confusing is that your p4 ubuntu box on the same router is working. That suggests your problem is inside the network settings ON THAT W7 box.

It is not a dns problem. I can't even access external ip addys. It is quite annoying, it's like the smoothwall box has put up a block on that system, but the same system works when booted in linux, so I would count that out (both get the same ip addy as it is the same mac address)

I am really thinking amdskip has something. Just don't know why it took a full hour to take effect, even after a full reboot. I would have thought if the update was the problem it would have been immediate. Also the gradual shutdown of the connection is confusing.

 

[harshbarj]

Just thought I should also map out my network in case that helps.

First is my cable modem and that plugs into my smoothwall router (600mhz p3 384mb ram)

The smoothwall router then plugs into a netgear 10/100 switch.
into that switch I have a d-link router that has had the dhcp server disabled to act as a wifi pass-through for my laptops (no other devices connect to it and it had an address of 10.x.x.x and the new setup is 192.168.x.x so I can tell if somehow the dhcp server get re-enabled).
I then have 3 desktops plugged into that same switch (1xp, 2 ubuntu).

I then run a cable into my room and it plugs into a addtron 10/100 switch(8-port).
into that switch are 3 computers (1 windows 7, 2 ubuntu) (I also sometimes connect a p3 windows xp box and a pentium-60 windows nt4 server to this switch, and again they always work)

everything works but that windows 7 box when running windows. When running ubuntu it works great.

 

[RebateMonger]

The other semi-mysterious thing about Win7 (and Vista, too) is the Public/Private/Work/Home network classifications. It's pretty easy to end up with odd network connection properties and the inability to (see/be seen) and Win7/Vista tend to error on the side of "no connection" when not sure what type of network(s) you're connected to.

Additionally, the Windows Inbound/Outbound firewall will behave differently when faced with networks of those three (or four) types.

 

[harshbarj]

Now for something odd. I put a old netgear router between the win 7 box and the rest of the network and it works???? So amdskip may be correct about some compatibility issue, but why did the connection work for one hour and then gradually die? Also this setup is no good for me as I must have access to all my network shares and devices. All my routers (netgear,linksys,dlink) are unstable and overheat and require rebooting often so that is why I don't use them.

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[harshbarj]

I can ping every device on my internal network, but nothing outside of it. (well, now with the netgear router in place I can ping outside, but I should not have to do that)

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[harshbarj]

Just an update.

I have done a fresh install of the smoothwall software as I was told my install was missing some key services. That fixed nothing :-(

I have done full malware and virus scans, clean as a bell. I have run traceroutes from my working computers and they show no problems (as some have suggested my isp's dns server my be out, but that would affect my whole network, not just one system).

If I place a small router (linksys,netgear,etc) between my win 7 box and the smoothwall box The computer acts normally. However I do not want to run like that, nor should I.

I have reset every service suggested to me and have the firewall disabled on the win 7 box.

Can I scream now?

 

[RebateMonger]

Since Win7 sees the Internet with a commercial router directly connected, do you see a difference in Win7's "Network and Sharing Center" when it's connected to a commercial router versus Smoothwall? I'm talking about differences in "Network Location", "Network Discovery", and such. I've seen Server 2008 bounce around in its determination of the type of network it's attached too, resulting in variations of networking capabilities.

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[amdskip]

Here's my smoothwall board posting: http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=35169

 

[kevnich2]

Just out of curiosity - can you try and do a tracert on your windows 7 box to like google.com with and without the other netgear firewall you have there? I am having a very similar issue with a Windows 7 laptop of mine at work with a sonicwall router. Every other computer works (XP) except this laptop. It can ping all other systems internally fine but internet is a no go. If I do a tracert to google.com, it goes past the sonicwall but then hits a 172.xxx IP addy and then just stops there. We have no idea where that is at as the sonicwall has a public IP assigned to it.

I at first thought it was something with IPv6 - disabled it still no go. I'm baffled with it. Though of course if I connect a soho router between the laptop and the network - everything works fine. Seems like some kind of bug with windows 7 and certain hardware firewalls.

 

[Pulsar]

Try assigning a static IP address to you windows machine in the windows tcp/ip settings - make sure it's not the one that it's picking from your smoothwall setup.