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General discussion

DNS error

Jan 11, 2011 10:43PM PST

I was on the internet with a few tabs open and then went to new site and got server error, could continue to work in open tabs but when I closed them I couldnt get back on the internet at all. (I have been having the occassional problem with a tab not opening but when I would reboot it would work then so never went to network connection) I went to network connections and got DNS domain name server windows failed to find the well known host "www.microsoft.com" using DNS. The server may be down. Now I can't get on internet at all. I tried IE8 & Firefox both got errors. How to know where problem is? Steps to figure it out. Any suggestions? I have windows vista and AT&T dsl (lite), 1wire modem. It may take me a while for me to get back since I now can only get internet at work.

Discussion is locked

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Just to start this off
Jan 12, 2011 5:35AM PST

with a guess.

Perhaps you've been hit by malware. Open IE and goto Tools > Internet Options, then the Connections tab. Click the "LAN Settings" button to open a new window. If there are any entries in there, and you do not use a Proxy server, clear all the entries and click OK/Apply/OK.

Sometimes malware will attempt to set up a Proxy Server and this will stop any internet connection.

Does that work?

Mark

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It works now! Wohoo.
Jan 12, 2011 10:02PM PST

Thank you Mark. I just ran Malware first (did find some things nothing too serious I think) then I went to ck the settings they seemed OK I also went to my modem and reentered the ASCI password I have setup for it and then it started working. Maybe the password was the problem somehow got lost or corrupted not sure but its working now. I am off today and thought it would be a really productive day off with no computer but alas now I can goof off on it. Thanks soooo much for your help. Have a great day. Is there someway to lock this thread?

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Glad you got it working
Jan 13, 2011 3:53AM PST

Whatever it was, well done for getting it sorted.

We don't close threads as such, but thanks for reporting back.

Mark