Last week i had a real strange problem, i connected to the net as usual but none of my 3 browsers would work - opera said 'internal communication error'internet explorer said couldnt find DNS even if i tryed connect to my isps site and when i typed FTP FTP.MICROSOFT.COM at the run box i got 'socket error unknown number'so i reinstalled TCP and the dial up stuff, nothing changed - everything looked in place so i changed my modem and still no difference - I CAN PING ANY CONNECTION, and get a good time back, all my settings look in order - could someone help me? im running NT4 SP6a on a p-166 laptop ext 56k modem, it worked FINE until last week.

Can you ping a URL, rather than an IP address? -> this will check the DNS is working. Also, do you have any firewall software installed? Have you altered any network settings recently? restricted port/protocol settings?

yeh i can ping a dns and i have no firewall software at all, this is weird nothing else is running in the background that normally doesnt

Check your DNS settings anyway TCP/IP DNS Pri and Sec DNS If they are automatically been designated , find out the IP addresses and type them in the DNS box Everytime you change something don't forget to reboot Dial an other ISP and check if it works with those settings ( free ISP soemwhere or ask a friend for his ISP settings to check ) If your ISP uses a proxy and you told IE to use this proxy, DISABLE this setting and try again Succes

i ended up reinstalling and all is good now, Its real weird tho, my ISP is a standard one with everything automatically assigned, i tryed another isp, same effect, i entered the dns servers.. same effect it doesnt use proxies and none were setup I think it may have been a virus that replaces the winsock.dll as i dont use a real time antivirus (see my specs to understand p-166mmx 24 ram) buyt everything worked without a glitch