One computer in the house is not connecting to the internet anymore?

[195]

My bro's been having a problem with his computer. It used to connect online so well, but recently, it's been loading a very long time on pages, not doing anything.

It says that it's perfectly connected to the router.

I'm on a laptop, and I can connect fine, which is strange. Can his desktop have a virus or be hindered by something? To my knowledge, he didn't change any settings.

On a side-note, he uses a 64-bit Windows Vista.

[Spencer]

How old is his computer? Make sure that you have a password on your wifi because someone could be connected to it and eating up your bandwith. Also go in to task manager and make sure there are no backround programs that could be usuing the internet in the backround. How old is the router and what is your internet provider?

[Bernard SP]

There's a number of things that could be going wrong, you should check to make sure that it is not a DNS issue.

Start>Control Panel>Network and sharing>on the left select "change adapter settings">

Next right click on "wireless connection" (or something similar) if you are using wireless or select "Local Area Connection" if you are using Ethernet cable> then select "propteries">at the top select the "Networking" tab.

Then make sure "obtain IP automatically is selected" and below select "Use the following DNS server address" for preferred enter: 8.8.8.8 and secondary enter: 8.8.4.4

Click "okay" as many times as needed to close all of the open dialogue boxes and check to see if the internet connection works.

If it still won't work open command prompt type "ipconfig /all" and copy/paste the results on here. It's hard to troubleshoot with so little information.

[Ty Zang]

Vista is not stable but beyond that...

1) Determine the scope of the issue - Is this the only machine? If so, then we can say it is the machine itself. If not, and more have issues, then check the router or modem

2) What has changed - How long ago has this started happening? Any new installs or hardware changes since it started happening?

3) Is this connected via wireless or cable? always troubleshoot speed with cable. There are less things that can go wrong. Plug it into the modem or router with a cable and see if anything changes. This will tell you if the wireless is being blocked or if the issue is all around slowness

4) Run malwarebytes (malwarebytes.org) to can the machine. This is free and I use it all the time. If there is a virus or malware, this will find it and clean it. Let it run a full scan. Once this is scan is done, reboot and run a quick scan to make sure it didnt miss anything.

Please make sure you test with a cable and not just wifi. If you plug in and the cable speed is good, then the wireless may be acting up. Try sitting directly beside the wireless and see if speed increases when on wifi.

So first eliminate the option of other machines having same issues. Try to determine if it is just this machine. Then check the stuff above. Then scan the machine. I bet that will help. Sounds like maybe a virus. I would download and install malwarebytes, update the database (on install it does it), then unplug the machine from internet and scan while its not connected. Don't let anything spread!

Won't hurt to check Bernard's DNS stuff but that won't usually change on its own.. and if its broken, it wont load pages at all. One thing to check instead is opening command prompt and typing in "ping google.com". If you get timed out then ping the IP 74.125.224.206. If that works, then DNS issue. If you get replies using name "google.com", then DNS is working.