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    Cannot browse internet

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by mattireland, Jul 19, 2008.

  1. mattireland

    mattireland It used to be the iLand..

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    Hi,

    My friend's laptop says it is connected to a network but when I try to open a page in Internet Explorer or Firefox, I just get a page cannot be displayed message.

    Can anyone help?

    Thanks very much,

    Matt. I
     
  2. Mr._Kubelwagen

    Mr._Kubelwagen More machine now than man

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    Are you sure the network is "Internet" and not just "Local"? Because "connected to a network" does not mean "connected to the internet". All it means is that you're hooked up to a router or modem on a local area connection.
     
  3. nallukka

    nallukka Notebook Geek

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    turn off your modem, router, and anything else you have, then starting with the modem, wait a minute then turn it back on (usually a matter of unplugging and plugging back in), let it get all its ready lights set (you might want to test it via ethernet at this point), then the router (unless they are one in the same of course), then try again, making sure to restart your browser--not a bad idea to restart the computer, too...

    Try that first, and try it a couple times, being patient to let it find the signal... if an ethernet cord from the modem to the computer doesn't work, call your internet service provider--it's either your service going down or your modem having problems... they might need to reset an IP address and reboot it remotely or they might have to replace it if that doesn't work...
     
  4. makaveli72

    makaveli72 Eat.My.Shorts

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    If none of the above work, then ask the friend to try signing on to a messenger program like msn messenger, yahoo, or skype. If he can then that means the DNS server that he's connected to may be down.
     
  5. mattireland

    mattireland It used to be the iLand..

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    Thanks everybody. You're great!

    I'll try these things on his notebook and see if they work.

    Thanks again!

    Matt. I
     
  6. Wirelessman

    Wirelessman Monkeymod

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    Make sure that your router is set with DHCP so it can assign IP addresses to the computers attached to it.

    Also if that laptop has been used in another network, try to release the IP address and renew it (ipconfig/release, ipconfig/renew).
     
  7. nallukka

    nallukka Notebook Geek

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    In case that ^^ doesn't make sense to you, click start->run->cmd
    (type cmd, hit enter)
    that runs the command prompt (black and white text box) where you type in ipconfig to check your ip settings (and if you know about dns servers etc you'll probably already know what to look for; otherwise just type out ipconfig/release, enter, then ipconfig/renew, enter)

    Just making sure whenever he gets to wherever he's going, in case this is foreign territory, he knows the steps.