Puzzling LAN/DNS fault

Sorry to be cheeky and give you a problem as a first post but here you go.

While playing online gaming i got cut off from the server, not due to my actions my account is still working and i can get into it through the steam forum but cannot sign into it to play. I also cant see any other game server on the net or access other secure areas such as sign into hotmail or other areas but i can reach amazon, my ISPs mail page and so on. Net browsing is unaffected, it simply times out when trying to reach certain secure areas, certain web pages and so on.

Ive been through the Steam tech support and it looks like its an ISP or LAN problem at my end, unfortunately my ISPs tech support (talk talk) was about as useful as a chocolate tea pot so i'm on my own here.

Ive tried this on a vista/Norton wireless laptop and a Win 7 x64/McAfee pc wired by ethernet and still cant get through, the common factor is that they go through the same Netgear DGN100 router/modem.

So far ive reset the PC back to its earliest save point, rebooted then reset the modem to factory standard, removed the anti-virus and clean installed them, flushed the DNS logs, renewed them, switched off Upnp and manually adjusted all needed ports on the router and im still no nearer finding a solution. Oh and i've removed anything that people have claimed interferes with the DNS such as bonjour with iTunes.
I'm still getting error 651 or if that doesnt come up it reads as the local area connection not having a valid connection or IP

Removing the router and using a modem (Netgear DM111p new out of the box) without a router simply gets more puzzling. it sets up, all lights are green but it wont be recognised by the PC. I then went back and tried flushing the DNS and resetting it and it worked perfectly and got recognised by the system, got an internet signal...then went off half a second later and claimed it was unrecognised.

Quite frankly i'm stumped, it has to be something obvious that i'm missing, routers and Local area connection settings are an unknown area for me so i'm learning this as i go.

The common factor also seems to be those A/V's you have installed. Both Norton and McAfee are notorious for causing problems like this. I can only recommend that you uninstall them completely if you want to fix this problem.

Tried that about 10 days ago, currently varying between using trial avira and putting McAfee back on depending on what settings ive been testing.

A firewall problem doesnt explain why its so specific though, it cant be the NIC because i can still get on the internet, it cant be a wireless problem because i'm hardwired.

DNS faults are looking less and less likely because while i can run a tracert check on websites, on most its running with full efficiency, on others i get 100% packet loss. About the only point in that is that at some hops its running at about 230 ms rather than the average of about 120 m.

I would definately uninstall completely which ever A/V you have installed. They cause problems like this all the time.

Currently uninstalled McAfee with removal tool so not a trace of it remains, windows firewall is switched off, still getting timed out when trying to reach game sign ins or hotmail sign in, i'm open to suggestions?

Have you tried plugging directly into the modem to rule out a router problem, or is this one of those combo modem routers? Maybe trying a different DNS would help.

It might also help to reset the browser to default security settings.

Its a combined modem/router usually, its been reset a few times, flushed and renewed the DNS. Ive also been advised to update winsock and done that with no change noticed.

The last time is what gave me the local area connection not having an assigned IP message.

I have a modem as backup but if i try and use that the PC wont recognise it, unless i reset the DNS and renew it, which worked for about 15 seconds to get the PC to recognise the modem then it went off again.

I've virus scanned a couple of times so i'm relatively certain it wasn't that, i only had the standard password on the router though so i cant be certain the settings werent fiddled with by internet gremlins.

Its the specificity of the fault that gets me, the way i cant get to certain sign in pages but i can to some https: ones. Quite frankly if i could narrow it down to a router fault i'd bin the old one and buy new but since i cant be certain it isnt a flaw in the PC, which is only about 2 months old i couldnt be sure i wasnt wasting my money.

With this modem router combo, do you have the ablity to try a different DNS server? Have you tried to manually type in the IP,DNS,subnet,default gateway into your ipv4 properties window?

Perhaps if you can post your ipconfig /all read out we could look for a problem there.

easily sorted

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Nemo-unPC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B8-AC-6F-9F-77-3B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4403:4df8:178d:17a2%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, September 16, 2010 7:15:53 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, September 18, 2010 11:57:30 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 246983791
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-13-C3-DC-3C-B8-AC-6F-9F-77-3B

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{444B1578-F752-4535-A381-257D12DE7EB8}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:79fd:182d:1199:2bfe:7000(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::182d:1199:2bfe:7000%12(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Windows\system32>

OK the ipconfig looks pretty normal to me.

I'm not sure about which DNS that the router-modem is using but you should be able get around a DNS problem by manually typing the DNS into your IPv4 properties window.

If this is happening on two machines then the router is to blame obviously enough. Follow the screen shot below and type in Google's DNS where it's circled in blue and hit apply then check to see if you can access those websites again.

There are also settings in some routers to restrict access to certain sites so you might want to check to see if those settings are enabled.