Very tempermental internet connection

I would really appreciated if someone could help me with this seemingly unique problem. I've looked around but haven't found anything that matches my exact problem.

I have a computer with Vista that is connected to a wireless router via a cable. About a month and a half ago, every page in firefox we tried to view came up with the message "Page load error, firefox cannot find the server for blank.com". All other computers (another desktop and a laptop) connected to the network find every page fine. Certain time of the day, pages will load fine (although some require to be refreshed after recieving the page load error message), then suddenly all of them will stop loading. Sometimes, while on the administrators account, a "connect Broadband connection" dialog box will pop up while a page is loading. Now, whats suspect is that google.com ALWAYS loads, as well as google images etc no matter how tempermental the connection is being. I've tried scanning the PC with spybot and HJT and nothing of note has come up. I've tried reseting the router, and rang up our ISP but with no joy. Now strangely, last week we had a bad lightning storm and plugged out the phone leads at the wall as a precautionary measure. After plugging them in again the internet worked FINE for a few days then it was back to it's old tricks. I've tried repeating this process but to no avail.

Can anyone tell me what is up with it? I would forever be grateful.

P.S Sorry for the longish message, just though the more detail the better.

 

Hi elchupo

I take it that you are using ADSL broadband, have you asked your phone line provider to check for noise on the line?

second thing how far away is the router from the main socket in to the house? the closer the better as phone extension wires can create noise

 

Just to add to Match's questions so we can try to get a handle on this. Have you tried another computer, say the laptop. in the same area using the same cable connections?

If you run into the same problem we will know it is not the PC. On the other hand it may be specific to that machine. We will need to know that.

 

To answer your questions, the router is around 9-11 ft from the main socket, but thats through two walls. The line comes from the socket into the router, with two leads going from the router into two desktops beside each other. One of the desktops is the one in question, and the other I'm on right now. The laptop connects wirelessly via a dongle.

 

I tried switching around the two leads going from the router to the PC's and the internet is working on them both. HOWEVER, the "connect broadband connection" dialog box pops up when a page is loading on the troublesome computer. once I X out of it the page loads as normal. It's done this before but before I switched the leads the internet was not working AT ALL on that PC.

Edit: Nevermind, I tried a few more sites and good ole page load error came up

 

I know it is frustrating but I am still leaning toward the simple answer.

It looks like we can rule out the router but just to be sure, switch the two ethernet cable connections at the router end. If the problem transfers to the other PC (doubtful I know) then it is the connection on the router.

You should be able to connect the cable to the laptop (or another PC) and disable the dongle. Assuming your LAN is enabled and there is nothing wrong with the cable the laptop should perform just fine. If it doesn't and the laptop is properly set then it is the cable itself.

If the cable will reach the other PC you may want to try that. Finally you can just try running a different cable. Do I expect any of this to solve your problem? Probably not, but we will all kick ourselves if we didn't try and it turns out to be the case. Besides these types of solutions work out more often than you might imagine.

Once these simple things are ruled out we will have to look toward the individual PC and possible causes.

 

To clarify, the internet on the bad computer is working ok, but the broadband connection dialog box and the page load error coming up is no different that before, so i'm being cautious.

Switched the leads at the router end, worked ok still.
Tried both leads in the laptop and it worked fine. Unfortunately I don't other cables but I think it's safe to say the problem doesn't lie with the router?

 

Another quick thought has come to mind. Do you have a nework connection PPoE showing in your Control Panel under Network and sharing network connection. If so just delete it. This is of major importance if you use Firefox in particular.

Also in Internet Explorer make certain that "never dial a connection" is ticked even if the area is grayed out.

 

hi elchupo

sorry misunderstood your first post

so two computers one good one bad, swapping leads has no effect,

have you tried un-installing the drivers from device manager and re-installing, preferably after downloading the latest ones for your LAN card. as un-installing them before downloading new ones can cause some connection problems

if this don't work just to rule out that its not the LAN card going south, you mentioned your laptop has a wireless dongle have you tried installing it to the pc? assuming its a wireless usb dongle that is

 

This will be an IP conflict -
can you open a command window on the PC (when it is connected via an ethernet to the router)
and type ipconfig/all in the cmd window and press enter.
then can you do the same on the laptop - (with the dongle)

Can you post the results for both please