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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.

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  • Welcome to Server Fault! Your question is off topic for Serverfault because it doesn't relate to servers or desktop infrastructure in a professional environment. It may be on topic for Superuser but please search their site for similar questions that may already have the answer you're looking for.
    – user9517
    Oct 3, 2012 at 10:58

2 Answers 2

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Check your connection properties and just manually add your DNS server or the Google's one (8.8.8.8).

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  • Question is closed, but my first thought from the description you give is proxy.
    – Peter
    Oct 14, 2012 at 23:50
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Are your DNS servers being given out by DHCP or are they being manually set. (Check this by doing the following Start -> settings -> Control Panel - Network Connections then right click the connection you are using select Internet Protocol IPv4 and click properties) If they are being given out by DHCP move on if not, the DNS settings to via DHCP.

you say you can ping the IP for google, but are you able to ping google.com from the command line?

If not, and if your DNS servers are being gotten from DHCP.

Are you able to connect to google via a browser just on IP?

If not then we might want to think about removing and re-adding the TCP/IP stack.

Also, getting a run of Malwarebytes anti malware, and a virus scan might not be a bad idea...

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