Geek-type question

[RBH]

I have a wireless network. The DSL modem is connected to an old Win98 machine. (I keep it because I use some proprietary software that requires genuine DOS, and Win98 is the last version that has a genuine DOS rather than a DOS emulator.) That machine feeds the wireless router (a Linksys).

OK, when I booted up one of my XP desktop machines yesterday, it displayed a problem I have never seen nor heard of before. When I started Firefox, I could reach mail.google.com, news.google.com, and reader.google.com, but nowhere else in the world. I can't ping anywhere I've tried but those three from that machine. There's another XP machine upstairs on the wireless network, and it works fine, as does the Win98 machine.

So, I think to myself, "OK, the Norton antivirus stuff is screwing me up somehow." So I do the msconfig thing and disable all the Norton stuff. No dice -- still can't get anywhere but Google.

Does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on? Norton's tech support are convinced it's not them, and I'm inclined to believe them. It's very late now, but tomorrow I guess I'll try to reach Linksys customer support (I haven't found a phone number yet). Man, I sure miss smoke signals!

[Alethias]

Reset your router.

you probably have one ethernet cable that brings the internet connection into it, and then something up to four wires(or even just holes for wires to plug into going out of it).

unplug the internet connection going into it, and unplug the power connector. Wait about 10-12 seconds, and plug the internet cable back into it, and plug the power back in. You'll see the lights on the router go thru a power up sequence, then go solid on for a split second and then start flashing intermittently at a fairly fast past. At that point you should have an internet connection restored.

The process I just described there resets your router. After you've done that, see what you can get to or see on the windows 98 machine. If you still can't get to any sites but the google sites you mention, don't call linksys tech support, call your Internet Service Providers tech support. They'll talk you thru checking things on that box like your dns settings, and what you have set as your gateway address, and so on.

[RBH]

Yup, tried that early in the process, to no avail. Two machines (the one with the DSL in and Ethernet-to-router out, and one upstairs on the wireless network) get everywhere they want to, and the one machine is still restricted to a limited number of sites. :dunno: That's the strange part -- one machine out there on the wireless net has compete net connectivity, the other is faulty. That's why it's hard to pin on a DSL, ISP, or router issue.

[Valheru]

I'd take a look at what's inside your HOSTS file.

windows\system\drivers\etc\HOSTS (or something like that, not sure of the exact path under Win98)

[Alethias]

Yup, tried that early in the process, to no avail. Two machines (the one with the DSL in and Ethernet-to-router out, and one upstairs on the wireless network) get everywhere they want to, and the one machine is still restricted to a limited number of sites. :dunno: That's the strange part -- one machine out there on the wireless net has compete net connectivity, the other is faulty. That's why it's hard to pin on a DSL, ISP, or router issue.I'd been hoping that it was set up for DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and that re-configuring the router would push new information to that machines setup.

It still could be any number of things:
1)A configuration issue with the hosts file(as Valheru mentioned)
2)Some other setup issue, like your tcp/ip properties being corrupted. or one of your system files having faulty configuration in it like there being a corrupted entry in your system.ini file, or your win.ini file, or your registry.
3)I know from what you said that you have antivirus software on it, but would you consider it possible for that machine to be corrupted with a bit of malware? This is not an uncommon signature of malware, that it restricts your internet access to just a few sites. It would be really weird for it to be those specific sites however; most of the time, when it's because of malware you are re-directed to an advertising site, or the site for the malware itself, and everytime it re-directs you there it re-infects your machine. Is the machine sluggish in its responsiveness otherwise? If not I'd say it unlikely that it is malware.

Without being in front of the machine, it'd be hard for me to talk you thru a fix, as it's likely to be any one of a number of things. If it were me, at this point I'd be looking for problems in:
1)hosts, most likely located at C:\windows\hosts, but sometimes in C:\windows\system\hosts, or C:\Windows\system32\hosts
2)your startup configuration files on that machine, that can all be easily located by running sysedit.exe from the little 'run' box.
3)Your registry, which can be loaded by running regedit.exe.

Unless you found something obvious in looking at those, I suggest you consider calling your internet service provider. There is a chance they can talk you thru finding the problem.

[RBH]

Okey dokey. Thanks, guys!