Internet "Connecting..." Forever

Hi there

Ever since I installed VirtualBox on my windows 7, I have been having some connectivity issues with my internet. Like I said on the title, my internet is taking forever to connect. I have even tried leaving it for half an hour and it would still be "connecting" when I return. However, this does not always happen. Most of the time when this occurs, I restart my computer and then I am able to connect normally and browse.

It's a wired connection. I use Mozilla Firefox, but I have tried to connect with IE8 as well and both suffer the same problem. I have tried to narrow down to the cause of the problem by using several different browsers, using other programs that connect to the internet (Windows Live Messenger, online games), but both to no avail. The only thing I could think of that could be the problem is when I installed (and now recently uninstalled) VirtualBox. Could it have damaged my network connections?

It's interesting to note that when I look at Network sharing centre, it shows that I am connected to the Internet. If I tried to troubleshoot the connection, it says that it cannot detect any issues.

Any ideas what the problem is and what I could do to solve it?

Kirsch said:

Are you connected using DHCP? If so, Start > Run > CMD.

Type "ipconfig /release" without the quotes, hit enter
Then "ipconfig /renew" without the quotes, hit enter

See if it will connect.

I have tried this and my internet would not connect. Also, after looking at my network properites, "DHCP" is connected.

PooMan UK said:

Hiya and welcome to the forums

Try setting your IP address / Gateway / DNS manually

How do I do this? Is there a tutorial that I can follow?


Also, after browsing through my network properties, I saw that IPv6 is not connected. Is that relevant?

stpbby said:

Have you rebooted your router/cable modem/dsl modem

if none of the above answers help, change your dns servers to use google dns..... 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

How do I do both of those? I'm sorry if I seem rather dumb about all this; I just want to be sure I'm doing things properly.

I'm not sure how, but I believe I fixed the connectivity issues. I was troubleshooting the launching of an online game I'm trying to install, and while browsing its support site, it suggested I install "Microsoft Fix It" from the Microsoft website. https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9657448. After installing and following its instructions, the connectivity issues have stopped occurring. I have yet to see if the issue has been fixed in the long term, but for now it's working. Thanks for all the help PooMan and Kirsch.

Kirsch said:

jeniuskid said:

Thanks for all the help PooMan and Kirsch.

No problem!! Be sure to stick around :)

will do