I have an Acer Ferrari 4000 (AMD Turion 64 Mobile; Technology ML-37;880 MHz 1.00 GB of RAM) running MS Windows XP Pro Version 2002 SP3 which I have just reinstalled. Everything worked smoothly but the next day I could connect to my wireless router but none of my browsers worked (Opera, Firefox, IE), even though I can - curiously enough - still use the e-mail function of Opera. Skype works fine, I can ping normally and non-browser based software updates are also no problem. I have tried basically all of the advice that I could find around here and elsewhere; Winsockfix did the trick a previous time when I had the same problem, but not this time; netsh winsock reset catalog; netsh int ip reset reset.log... all no use. I have the following system software installed: Avast, Spybot, Glary Utilities, HD Tune, Registry Booster 2, SpeedupmyPC 2009 and Smart Defrag... These are my IP settings: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : kris Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-9B-CA-74-FE Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:51:31 AM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:51:31 AM Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-C0-9F-A7-0E-EA Getting a little desperate after two full days of tinkering and rebooting with no result... Any suggestions very much appreciated!

Have you already checked the system for viruses?

Thanks, Paulsep, but yes,indeed, I have run basically every available virus scan... Any other suggestions?

Hi, From your post it appears that you are connecting through your wireless network connection. I see that your DNS is set to 198.162.0.1 This is a local address, and usually DNS which is the service that converts web names Such as www.Google.com to an IP address, points to a DNS server run by your internet provider. It looks as though your internet connection is working, but there is no address translation, hence the browsers won't work. Try entering this in a browser address bar: http://66.249.90.104 then hit Enter If Google comes up then your problem is DNS. Ask your internet service provider for the correct settings. Regards

Ok 2 things to check now. 1. open a command prompt by clicking Start / Run and type in CMD. In the command prompt type in tracert google.com and post the result. 2. check the proxy settings in your internet browser. It should be configured to connect directly.

Thanks Humar & Paulsep but some trial and error solved my problem... I disabled the Avast Web Shield 4.8-1356 and everything started working again. I haven't gotten the slightest clue why exactly this caused my browsers to stop working (my wife's computer has the exact same software installed and hasn't gotten a problem at all) but right now I'm back in business. If I re-allow that Avast provider to be active, the same thing happens again: all browser activity stalls. Go figure... Thanks again for the speedy response anyway!

reeloaderfive, think I may know the answer (SWAG). There's a setting in Avast to ignore certain things. Maybe you simply need to 'allow' the browsers? HTH. Ed in Texas.