I'm trying to fix an old laptop running XP, it was all working fine until fairly recently but it will no longer connect to the web (via Chrome, Firefox or IE). I can ping out to the IP address for google, yahoo, etc. and ping the DNS server but nslookup fails giving 'DNS request timed out' errors.
I have tried disabling the firewall but it makes no difference. The same problem occurs with both wired and wireless connections but both work with other laptops so it's a problem with the laptop itself not with the internet connection it is trying to use. It has the same problem trying to connect via a completely separate connection too.
Unfortunately, I don't have any XP disks handy so I can't try a repair install and someone had the great wisdom to disable system restore points on this laptop so I can't try backing it out to a restore point.
What can I try next? What could be the problem?
Thank you.