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#1
Can't browse the web but DNS works ok
A couple weeks ago, my Windows 7 machine became unable to browse the web. I have three browsers (IE8, Firefox, Chrome) and they all exhibit the same basic symptoms - when I put in a URL and press Enter, I get nothing back. In Firefox, there is just a blank page. In IE8 I get the "page cannot be displayed" error. In Chrome, I get "This webpage is not available", and the associated error message is "Error 105 (net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED): The server could not be found"
- The only internet connectivity I have is public WiFi. I am able to pull an IP address from DHCP. I am able to ping the default gateway, do Traceroute to common sites (CNN, Google, etc, etc) and NSLookup verifies that my DNS is working without any apparent issue.
- I have tried reinstalling my Wireless drivers
- I am not going through a Proxy. I verified that IE8 and Firefox are not configured to go through a Proxy.
- I have tried launching both IE8 and Firefox without add-ons
- I tried uninstalling all antivirus software (Norton) and disabling Windows Firewall, no change
- I have reinstalled Norton, as well as Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware, but they are not finding any apparent malware
- I was able to get to the web using a pre-installed utility called "Sony Vaio Update" which is an .exe that launches IE and points it at a specific website in the sony.com domain. Using this browser session, I'm able to surf to anywhere.
- I was able to restore what appears to be full functionality by using a Restore Point to a time before the issue started happening. However, the next time the computer is restarted the problem re-appears.
- I am also seeing occasional hangs or crashes in IE8 and Firefox
- I have run anti-rootkit tools from Sophos, Avast and SanityCheck, but nothing significant was found.
- I tried to run Combofix, but it's apparently incompatible with Windows 7.
- I had previously installed Lowerping, a tool to reduce latency with online gaming. It runs as a service, which is currently disabled.
Any suggestions for this problem are greatly appreciated!! :)