BleepingComputer.com: Connecting to internet problem

About every other day when I turn on my computer it won't connect to the internet. I can get email, but get the old "cannot find server" message when I try to get on either with IE8 or Firefox. Anybody else have this problem? I restart the computer, reset the modem, (even though you wouldn't think I should need to if I'm getting email) and then it's OK for a day or so.

Is there something I should look for or do?

Thanks

hi,,, your internet connection is good if you receive mail,,,, next time it happens open command prompt and send a test ping to google url to test it,,, in uk its www.google.co.uk,,, if it returns ok then i would start to look at the connections into and out of the pc and sockets,,, make sure all filters are ok and that everything going to a phone socket is filtered,, if all is ok in this department,,, then next,, the browsers and your security,,,, uninstall FF and download a clean addition,,, use revo to uninstall it,,, switch off all add ons and browser helpers,, tool bars etc,,, check the browsers security is not too high or blocking anything,,, then lastly check your firewall is allowing both browsers through,,,, cant give much direction on IE as i don't use it, so will leave that to you or someone else,,,,, if all checks out good then contact your isp and ask them to check your line,
hope this helps and
good luck.

also as an after thought,,, are you wireless ??? if so then use an ethernet cable from the pc to the router to test the connection is good,, if all works fine then your wireless is playing up, which we can go into later.

Thanks for the info, no I'm not wireless, I'm on cable. I currently use the Windows firewall but I might change that if I keep having problems. I don't have any browser helpers or toolbars added on, they clutter up to much and I never use them anyway. I'm gonna print off your reply so next time it happens I'll give your answer a try.

hi,,,, its a good idea to flush out the browsers from time to time as well,,, i use ccleaner once a week,,, just the cleaner part,,, see if this also helps

Try changing any cables you are using

Well it happened again last nite so I did the ping thing, it worked. I also use ccleaner every couple of days. I went out to the Asus web site and found an update for the LAN and installed it. Hopefully that will take care of the problem. If not, I'll be back..
Thanks for tips and help!

hi,,,, the ping shows that you have a connection so the drop outs could be a lot of things,,, you say your using both ff and ie when this has happens so for now we will rule out the web browsers and there security,,, could be an add on thats in both browsers,, ie tool bar etc,,,, disable all these for a day or 2 just to see if it happens again,,,, also if you have access to another router then swap the old one out to see if it still happens,,, i doubt its your firewall as well as it would just allow or block,,, not let you on line for a while and then block,,,, seems more hardware related to me maybe,,, as you have updated drivers to the NIC i would wait to see if this gets it first,, if no then do the other stuff 1 at a time to eliminate them and last but not least,,, get your isp to check the line,,,
good luck.

Well it's been a few weeks and I've had no problems since the LAN update. So I guess that was it. Thanks for the help!