BleepingComputer.com: Laptop won't connect to internet consistently

My wife has a Dell Inspiron B1300. FYI: I've discussed this with keyboardNinja. This is posted in the Networking forum. We don't believe it is a software issue. And when I say inconsistent, I mean, it won't connect most of the time, if at all. There are a few sites that it will connect to, such as, banking site(s) and eBay. That's about it. And it is, also, inconsistent.

To my question: Is there anyway to check the network card, if that's what it is called? Or is there something else going on? And if it is the network card, can it be replaced?

Thanks for any feedback!

bshane06, on Apr 23 2010, 12:47 AM, said:

Hello and to Bleepingcomputer!!

KeyboardNija is one of our finest BC Advisors, if I do say so myself!

Now on to your problem.

You say it won't connect most of the time, has this always been the case or has this problem suddenly started happening one day for no reason?

You are also saying you can connect to some sites, but no all sites, OK so if you can connect to a bank web site or e-bay, that means the card is working, other wise you wouldn't connect to any web sites.

What are your security settings for your Internet? you can find those by opening your browser and looking for TOOLS then INTERNET OPTIONS, check the tab called Internet and see what level your security is set to, see if there are any settings on this page that could be causing this problem, or just click RESTORE DEFAULTS and see if this fixes the problem.

Is this a add-on card? If so can you discribe the card's manufacture's name and model number, if it is a Ethernet chip built in please let us know.

I don't want to rant endlessly here with options all in one post, so I will allow you to work with what I have suggested and if those fail to fix the problem, we will go from there.

you can try purchasing a USB wireless card and seeing if that solves the issue. theyre usually not that expensive if you order them online. Though I tend to think it would be wise to follow MrBruces advice first. :D

This post has been edited by the_patriot09: 23 April 2010 - 12:26 AM

It has been a recent issue. Her computer was really slow when starting up. KeyboardNinja noticed that her comp. had Norton Internet Security. He believed it was "hogging" resources and recommended to remove it. I did. It's had an issue with connecting since. She likes the response of the computer w/o Norton, but can't connect. Not sure why.

I'll try your ideas and report back.

Thanks!

The problem is norton security suite had control over your programs as part of your firewall, it allowed in/out connections and programs to run through its settings, but without the program, those permissions are now invalid, but were not reset to default when the program was removed, which happens with such programs as Norton's security, the programs them-selves are still under the control of a program that no longer exists on the computer.

So yes, it is software related.

Give me a moment to check your post in the networking section to try and follow what has been already tried and what I can suggest from here and what you should try next.


Thank you for your patience.

I think I followed the correct thread you posted in the networking section of the forums, the one I read did not mention Norton Internet Security, did you post the correct name of your firewall in your post above?

This is important information for me to know so I can guide you along with the correct solutions available.

Thanks in advance.

Probably. I only have the one thread in Networking. I forget that keyboardNinja also helped me in the anti-virus, ... forum, as well. That was where he mentioned that I should remove Norton. Sorry about that. I was having issues with my computer, too. I just applied the info he shared with me to her computer.

Her firewall right now is Windows. She has XP as her OS. Mine is Vista. I followed kN's advice and put Avast! as her anti-virus. I had put Comodo as her firewall, just as her firewall, after reading a few other threads. I have it on mine, which is directly connected to the modem/router. If you need anymore, info I will gladly do the best I can to share it.

Also, ever since we've removed Norton, I believe, we both get the sanative32 ... message at the start of Windows. Any ideas?

Thanks, again.

Oops. It was in Vista forum. Boy, I really am sorry about the confusion I may be causing.

Tried the internet options fix and it still won't load the pages.

We use Firefox.

This post has been edited by bshane06: 23 April 2010 - 05:21 PM

I might have some ideas, I am one of those die hard "I won't give up kind of people" LOL
I might lose track of a thread I was helping in from time to time as I try to help as many people as I can.

What I need to do now is research Norton's web site for a fix.

Below is my personal account of what happened to me and where my theory is coming from in this post.
Once upon a time I had Norton anti-virus 2008 along with an embedded firewall, once I un-installed Norton, some problems started happening, because any programs that needed access to the Internet were installed under the control of Norton's firewall exceptions, so they were still linked to Norton looking for permission to execute. Since Norton was no longer installed, there was no response, so the programs failed to work. So that is what I am thinking is your problem now.

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 23 April 2010 - 05:27 PM

It just loaded the pages using Firefox. I was using IE8 when I made the changes. I put on her computer to see if it would work. It didn't. I'm looking at the start page of Firefox. I don't know if it worked. It's done this before.

Thank you, very much, for your tenacity.

I clicked to go to bleeping computer. It loaded a very 'empty' page. It had blue and black without pictures. And now won't load pages.

This post has been edited by bshane06: 23 April 2010 - 05:31 PM

OK What I have to follow here is you have two computers here, both are having issues with loading web pages.

Now correct me if I am wrong, as I am just trying to draw a picture in my mind's eye here and trying to play catch-up from a previous thread.

Are both these computers connected to a router, using both WIRELESS, WAN and LAN? And if so can you discribe the routher to me, maker and model number.

No. My wife's computer is wi-fi. Mine is direct-connect. I'm not having problems loading pages. Originally, my computer would crash, suddenly. From what kN and I have figured is that mine was overheating. My wife's would crash, as well. Just not as often. kN wanted a readout of my specs. I used Speccy and gave it to him. He noticed I was using Norton and said I should get rid of it. It was sucking resources. I hypothesized and applied the same info to my wife's computer due to her slow load times and processing of info.

Now, hers says 'problem loading page' The connection was reset... and the 3 options it gives to fix the issue. If I click on the '!' at the beginning of the address bar, it tells me something about page not being encrypted. In the address bar is the site I'm going to, but won't load the page.

I hope this helps. And, again, sorry for any confusion I've caused.

OK, so your experiencing this problem on your wife's laptop with both Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox as well I gather?