Unable to display any pages.

[Hiro UK]

Hi.

I'm trying to set up my nieces broadband but I'm having a problem getting any websites to display once everything is set up. She was with Pipex for both phone and broadband but has now been moved over to Tiscali for both phone and broadband. She's been sent a new router, of which I forget the name, but it's not wireless and is fairly tiny (speedsomething 4101?). I've connected it all up to the phone line and the Ethernet connection and it's all working properly, showing four green lights on the front. When I use the installation disc to set everything up it all goes as it should and passes all connectivity tests, etc., which suggest I do indeed have an internet connection, but when I run IE and try to go to any sites nothing will load. So I tried the manual set up suggested in the set up sheet and entered an IP number (192.168.254.254) into the address bar of IE which is supposed to bring up the router set up page, which should come up regardless of there being any internet connection or not, but I still get the message that the page cannot be displayed. Does any one know what might be going on?

I have rang Tiscali on her behalf and the guy I spoke to ran me through a few different test, some of which I'd done myself any way (pinging the IP address, etc). He said I do have an internet connection and was connected, so the only suggestion he made was that IE is broken, but couldn't say much more than that. Any thoughts on what this is supposed to mean? I've checked all the security settings and they are the same as they were when she was with Pipex and she had no problems connecting then. I've also tried the wireless router she was using and but for the Internet light (a.k.a activity light) being red, all the others are green. This suggests to me that the problem is in fact not with her laptop or her settings.

Any suggestions would be welcome as I will be trying again tomorrow.

[kmount]

Hi there,

Forget IE for now.

Can you ping a hostname on the internet, ie. news.bbc.co.uk?
If not, can you ping an IP on the internet, ie. 212.58.226.29?

If no to either of those, there's definitely a problem in there somewhere as those tests would bypass IE.

If the former works above but IE still will not, it suggests a proxy could be configured in IE, Tools, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings and ensure there's nothing mentioned in there out of the ordinary.

If the former does not work but the latter does, it's a DNS issue which would be where you look into the Control Panel / Network Settings to ensure there isn't hardcoded DNS Servers from a previous ISP/Configuration.

IF still no joy from anything, get the output of ipconfig /all and send it back here and we'll stone it.

[Hiro UK]

Hi.

I didn't think to try pinging any addresses. I only have about half hour or so to check things as she has to use the laptop for course work so I can only do a bit at a time, but I will try your suggestions tomorrow afternoon.

It's been a long time since I moved to ADSL so I can't recall fully now, but is there a bit of a delay before the connection goes fully live? I'm wondering if this is the problem because it turns out she was only put on to Tiscali broadband this Monday just gone. As far as I can tell she is now starting from fresh rather than it being like a migration. She can't remember now if they said something about 3 working days, and if that was in relation to her service or the router coming.

[Antonio_f2s]

Originally Posted by Hiro UK

Hi.
I've also tried the wireless router she was using and but for the Internet light (a.k.a activity light) being red, all the others are green. This suggests to me that the problem is in fact not with her laptop or her settings.

Not sure what router she got with pipex but if that light is red it is likely to be because the username/password in the router need to be changed to the Tiscali one.

Originally Posted by Hiro UK

Hi.
She's been sent a new router, of which I forget the name, but it's not wireless and is fairly tiny (speedsomething 4101?)

That would be a Siemens Speedstream 4101

Originally Posted by Chaz

Hi there,

Forget IE for now.

IF still no joy from anything, get the output of ipconfig /all and send it back here and we'll stone it.

Agree with Chaz....

One more thing you may want to do if everything looks ok in the ipconfig output is to check if you have a firewall that may be blocking your new connection (Norton likes to do that sometimes ), if you do, try to disable it and try again without the firewall.

For your peace of mind, you could also PM the adsl number and I will check that the Tiscali side of the connection is working too

[Hiro UK]

Hi.

The wireless router is a Belkin one she bought some time ago. I changed the user name and password to the new ones but no go. I also turned off the firewall (Windows) and disabled the antivirus software (Avast, which is the same as what I use), but still got the same results.

PM sent with the adsl number. Thanks.

[Hiro UK]

Originally Posted by Chaz

Hi there,

Forget IE for now.

Can you ping a hostname on the internet, ie. news.bbc.co.uk?
If not, can you ping an IP on the internet, ie. 212.58.226.29?


If the former works above but IE still will not, it suggests a proxy could be configured in IE, Tools, Internet Options, Connections, LAN Settings and ensure there's nothing mentioned in there out of the ordinary.

Hi.

Pinged both of the above and got four packes back, so all was right there. So I checked in the LAN settings and it turns out Proxy was selected. Don't know why it was, but unticking it has solved the problem (I'm on her laptop and service now). I still can't get the wirelsss router to connect, but for now she's going the use the one she's been sent with an ethernet cable and when we get more time, and she's found the original set up instructions, etc., we'll try and set up the wirelss router from scratch.

Am I glad I went for a PCI modem. I had none of this trouble setting mine up.

Thanks for the help.

[Hiro UK]

Whilst on the subject of routers, network cards and PCI modems, which would you say was the best option? I've had this PCI modem for quite a few years now and I have noticed that sometimes when I'm doing something very CPU intensive, like video editing, the modem will drop the ADSL connection and will remain dropped until the CPU intensive task has finished. It may be because it's getting old so I'm thinking of getting a new one, or would I perhaps be better getting a separate router and connecting my PC using an ethernet cable from the network card, same as my niece now has hers set up?

[kmount]

Best advice for me is always a router these days so it's OS independent and as you say takes the resource issues away from a single device.

I'd go for something like your nieces but I personally hate belkin stuff; I figured they should have stuck to making cables!

[Hiro UK]

I'm not particularly bothered about having a wireless one as I'm using a desktop PC so there's going to be no wandering about, so a router/modem like the Siemens Speedstream that she was sent from Tiscali would do me fine. I'm going to have a look and see what there is, any suggestions on a decent brand/make/model?

[kmount]

Can't go wrong with Netgear/Zyxel/Linksys or so for a home user.