Web browsing problems

[GlynnJ]

My neighbour is experiencing a weird problem with web browsing and, try as I might, I can't suss out the cause.

ISP is Sky Broadband.
Router is a Netgear DG834GT but it has been 'adapted' by Sky and the default username/password does not work so I cannot view or change its settings.
PC is a new Acer Aspire.
OS is Windows Vista Home Premium.
Browser is IE7 (I know, I know)

Until last Thursday, everything was fine. Since then, the PC will only browse to certain sites. Eg: the following websites can be viewed normally:

www.ask.com
www.theaa.com
www.bbc.co.uk

BUT, the following (and many more) cannot:

www.google.com (.co.uk)
www.yahoo.com (.co.uk)
www.ukgser.com

The browser status bar states "website found, waiting for a reply" but the site never appears.

I cannot find any reason for this strange behaviour. There are no parental controls operating, no content filtering etc.

Any ideas? It's driving me mad!

Glynn

 

[CliveS]

Just a thought

Sometimes your ISP will restrict you to specific sites, associated with the ISP, when you over run download limit. Talk to the ISP
Default for netgear: Administrator is "admin" and password is "password"

Safe Riding
CliveS

 

[ianf]

It's admin and 'sky' for a sky netgear.

Don't forget to switch it over to WPA2, change the channel to something the neighbours aren't using, and set up a nice long random letter key for the password.

I had a look at my brother in law's one a few weeks ago, the rubbish performance he was getting was down to only 1 of the DNS servers it was reporting actually being alive. You might find (using ping on the ip addresses of the ones you have listed) that neither actually work, and you can only get to sites that are cached.

Try telling windows to specifically use www.opendns.org to see if it improves.

Or you have a dns hijacked machine.?

 

[GlynnJ]

Thanks for the clues.

Presumably, using OpenDNS name servers will remove any hijack? If that is true, then the problem is not hijacking because I have already used the OpenDNS values.

At least I can now get into the router to check its DNS settings.

Also considering swapping IE7 for Firefox...

Cheers

GJ

 

[Steve]

Presumably, using OpenDNS name servers will remove any hijack? If that is true, then the problem is not hijacking because I have already used the OpenDNS values.

In the past, certain ISP's had trouble using the OpenDNS servers, manifesting itself as an inability to surf certain sites, such as Google and Yahoo. This was certainly the case with ntl/VirginMedia, although now resolved.

Perhaps the same is happening with Sky?

 

[GlynnJ]

It doesn't seem to be a DNS issue. I have set the DNS servers to the OpenDNS values within the network settings. I tried to do the same on the router but the firmware doesn't support user-defined DNS (it reports the DNS settings but doesn't allow you to change).

I have tried pinging ukgser.com and it resolves to 65.38.186.190 but, when I type this into the browser, the "waiting for ukgser.com" message remains in the status bar but the site does not appear. That tell me that the system is resolving IP addresses OK and something else is blocking the sites.

I have tried using Firefox to no avail.

I am now going to download an AV and anti-spyware prog and start digging deeper. The fact that the PC has been operating online for 2 months without any AV prog is cause for concern.

Any other ideas welcome...

GJ

 

[centaur]

It doesn't seem to be a DNS issue. I have set the DNS servers to the OpenDNS values within the network settings. I tried to do the same on the router but the firmware doesn't support user-defined DNS (it reports the DNS settings but doesn't allow you to change).

I have tried pinging ukgser.com and it resolves to 65.38.186.190 but, when I type this into the browser, the "waiting for ukgser.com" message remains in the status bar but the site does not appear. That tell me that the system is resolving IP addresses OK and something else is blocking the sites.

I have tried using Firefox to no avail.

I am now going to download an AV and anti-spyware prog and start digging deeper. The fact that the PC has been operating online for 2 months without any AV prog is cause for concern.

Any other ideas welcome...

GJ

You shouldn't need to change any settings on the router if you specified which DNS settings to use in the Windoze TCP/IP setup.

First thing I'd do is download and run HIJACKTHIS a Free utility, and post the resulting file here for analysis.

 

[GlynnJ]

Thanks to all. Problem now fixed. Changed a few settings in the router and all is well. That said, it is a mystery how it happened in the first place.

Thanks for the tip about Hijackthis. If the problem reappears I will run it and post the results.

Cheers

GJ

 

[ianf]

Glad to be of help...

I wasn't that clear at first, but if you'd been hijacked it probably wouldn't have been fixable by hardcoding DNS, as the hijacks tend to work around your settings anyway.

Keep an eye on the servers listed by sky though in future.... One was definitely dead on the config. I took a look at.