Hello All, I’m trying to help a friend with this problem and I’ve seen a lot of variations of this problem discussed on this forum, but none of the solutions suggested seem to help. She has a Dell 2350 computer with onboard LAN and the problem is that although Windows XP Home shows her connected to her broadband router, she cannot view any websites, she gets “cannot find server” or similar errors in both IE and Netscape. I did an “ipconfig” and it shows her as connected and shows the IP address assigned by the router and I can “release and renew” this IP address with no problems. I’ve tried everything, I’ve uninstalled the onboard Nic as well as installed an add on Nic card with the same results. I have brought her computer to my network and although I can freely browse the other computers on my network, it will not access the web. My router “sees” it fine and her network settings are the same as all the other computers on my network. I can “ping” the Router and the other computers with no problem, but cannot ping any outside addresses. I get a weird reading after I try to ping that I hope will tell me something. When the ping attempt finishes I get the “Ping statistics for” message, but instead of her IP address I get one to three strange symbols or letters. This is the only thing it does that is different then my other computers aside from not being able to get on the internet. Oh and I’ve also tried connecting directly to the cable modem as well as a dialup connection with the same results. There are no firewalls or security currently setup on this computer. I’m sure it’s some network setting but I just can’t find it, I’d appreciate any help or suggestions offered! Thanks in advance!

One more thing I forgot to mention: When I do a "repair" of the network connection I get the following message: "Repair failed, unable to renew IP address". Yet, I can "release and renew" the IP address from the command screen. Thanks again.

Assumed you are connected to network correctly If you are on a network enviroment, set your DNS to your Internet Gateway, normally will be 192.168.0.1 DNS is use for detecting internet signal Regards, Boyd

I had a similar problem. No amount of removing and reinstalling network components helps. In my case, it was corrupted winsock, whatever that is. try this simple test: ftp 127.0.0.1 from the command prompt. if the response includes the word "socket", it is the same issue. the way to fix it is described under http://www.heber-edv.de/diverse/dns_winme.doc I tried it step by step and got my problem fixed. -Peter

Thanks for the response Boyd and Peter! I apprceiate the input, as it turns out, I did get the problem solved, unfortunatley, I'm not exactly sure how I did it, so I was hesitant to post an answer here. After trying everything, the last things I did before the connection started working was to run Adaware and CW shedder again. I had done this initially thinking a "ADware" program was messing with the settings, but it didn't help at that time. After I tried everything else, rebuilding the connection, reseting all winsock settings, etc, etc, I ran those programs again and this time CWshredder found one malicious BOT and after deleting it, my DNS started connecting fine. I'm not sure if that was actually the problem or if it was a combination of things, but it is working now and I really appreciate everyones suggestions! Be Well!

Very interesting discussion. I am having the exact same issue. I can release IP address but can not renew and get the same error message. Peter I tried your ftp test and I got the socket message back but i could not visit the page that you reffered in there.

I'm switching from dialup to broadband service. After installing software and a Belkin USB wireless (F5D6050) on Windows ME, I could ping router, but couldn't get a connection. The screen shots and instructions in the user manual didn't match the software supplied with the Belkin wireless. It simply didn't work. When I decided to surf for a fix via dialup, it had been hosed; the browser reporting it couldn't get a socket connection. From another computer I found this thread and downloaded the above mentioned doc: http://www.heber-edv.de/diverse/dns_winme.doc (Had to use NetScape, I.E. refused to download it). I followed the instructions and was able to get my dialup working again. I downloaded the latest driver from Belkin and installed it but still couldn't connect to router. In Control Panel > Network, I found a place to enter the routers IP for the Gateway. Now everything is connected to the router and I'm waiting for the cable guy to get hooked up to broadband. Thanks to all for sharing, hope this helps someone else.