my sister phoned me up because here Internet connection wouldnt work.... but OE does ?

shes on using the router i setup for her a few months back, 2 other PCs on it, both fine

now...
Ive reset every possible thing i can find to default settings
installed/re-installed the drivers etc.. for the LAN card

its confusing me because...
it cant ping out at all
it cant be pinged
IE doesnt work
auto-updating programs cant get a net connection (anti virus etc..)

all firewall etc.. is off
all settings are correct

but still theres no LAN connection....

but outlook express will still check/get/send email ?

I spent 2 hours looking at it and just cant get anywhere with it... everything looks right

Proxy settings? Just a guess but Ive seen wierdness before with spyware chaning your proxy settings and fuxoring things royally.

Norton?

Port numbers perhaps, 80 and 110 isnt it for Http and email?

It could be a DNS issue perhaps. Outlook Express caches DNS seperately from the browser.

Doesnt OE use 25 and 110?  These ports are obviously open and port 80 for the tinterweb is not?  Is there a port check you can run from the command line?

ahhh

now i had her install norton.... and her email stopped working.... she uninstalled it and it started working again....

turns out her husband was tyring to set up sommething so he could connecto to his work pc/network just before it broke

hmm, ill tak a look at the port settings

is there any easy way i can just reset all internet/etc. settings in one go ?

mmm, where can I see/check/change/reset the port settings then ?

her pc is so damn slow with all the crap on it its taking me forever to do anything

(going to format for her in a few weeks, but she needs it for now!)

Tools > internet options > connections > LAN settings. Uncheck all boxes.

Control Panel > Network Connections. RC the connection, click TCP/IP, click properties & set everything to automatic.

Click advanced, check there aint nuffin in dns tab.


For a VPN he needs to make a new connection, specify the name and IP and put a shortcut on the dt - use the new con. wizard for that.

3 things that to try ::

i) Check that there is no "Alternate Config" set up on the connection and everything is set to automatic.  

ii) Swap the HOSTS file with one off another PC.  Some VPN apps rewrite the hosts file, and if hes using Appgate or the Cisco VPN Client the hosts may be be corrupted.  

iii) Uninstall then reinstall the TCP/IP Services.  Youll need the XP disk for it.  It sounds like her husband may have made a mess of things when he was trying to set up the VPN for work.