internet working but not exploder

[tommyj27]

i've been playing the phone support game with my uncle and his dsl. he can ping the dsl gateway, public servers by IP and by name. but when he tries to load up things in Internet Exploder he gets site not found errors. There isn't a proxy set in his preferences and he can't even access the gateway web interface through IE. it sounds like an IE issue to me but he doesn't have any other programs with which to test his connection. He just installed SP2 and Adaware, which he said found tons of things to fix. Anyone got any ideas as to what might not be working?

 

[catocom]

Has he got an AV on there?
Like AVG or something, and scanned for viruses?

 

[tommyj27]

i'm not sure if he scanned for a virus or not, i told him to download the definitions at work and bring them home.

 

[PT]

I don't know enought about it to tell you how to fix it, but I have heard some stories about people losing all their network settings after installing sp2.

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_svcpacks&message.id=1524

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6264-5222856.html

 

[Leslie]

what was the order this all happened in? he lost net then put in sp2? or vice versa?

sounds like what used to happen to me all the time with IE, it'd get fucked up...I'd have to repair it, repeat infinitely. If that's what it is, it's gonna be more of a problem with XP tho

 

[tommyj27]

i had him install SP2 after he called me with problems, so he was having net problems before that. he emailed me this morning saying he spent 3 hours on the phone with a M$ tech in India only to have them determine the same thing i did, that the problem is something to do with IE. I might just go down there and fix him up (ugh, hour drive).

He was also wondering about a personal firewall for windows, are there any out there that you guys recommend [against]? He has been talking about MacAfee, is there anything free or cheap?

 

[Luis G]

ms tech in India??? did MS moved?

 

[Inkara1]

M$ is still based in Redmond, Washington... but the cost to pay a support technician in India is so low, it's cheaper to pay them and route calls across the ocean than it is to pay a technician here.

 

[Leslie]

i had him install SP2 after he called me with problems, so he was having net problems before that. he emailed me this morning saying he spent 3 hours on the phone with a M$ tech in India only to have them determine the same thing i did, that the problem is something to do with IE. I might just go down there and fix him up (ugh, hour drive).

He was also wondering about a personal firewall for windows, are there any out there that you guys recommend [against]? He has been talking about MacAfee, is there anything free or cheap?

I'm not finding ZoneAlarm too terrible. My issues with it are just trying to get used to it after norton, but it seems ok.