Cannot download a Web page

Are you getting an IP address on your wireless card from the router?  To check, right click on the wireless network icon in the System tray, and select Status from the drop down menu.  Then, click on the Support tab.  You should be getting an IP address in the range 192.168.xxx.xxx.  If you are not getting an IP address in this range, click on the Repair button.   Report back the results.   If the connection cannot be repaired or reports an Autoconfiguration IP address like 169.254.xxx.xxx, then you may need to repair your Winsock settings.  To do this, download the winsock fix program from the following site:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

Steve

Volcano11

Thanks for your reply and interest in my problem.  My solution to the problem was to uninstall XP Service Pack 2.  After it was uninstalled, access to the internet was immediate.  I then reinstalled it and the problem came right back so I uninstalled it again and all is working properly again.  I am not going to reinstall Service Pack 2 again until all compatibility problems are resolved.  Subsequent communication with Dell Support also advised me not  to install Service Pack until all compatibility issues are resolved.  Again, thanks for your interest.

Don't hold your breath waiting for SP2 issues to be resolved.  Since there are millions of users not having problems and only a few that are, when you decide that you have waited long enough and you reinstall SP2, post back and we'll try to help you resolve the issue in the proper way.

Steve

Steve,

I agree with you about many users having no problems with service pack 2.  I have it installed on my desktop and runs flawlessly.  It was running flawlessly on my laptop for about 2 months until this past Friday evening when it the problem arose.  I did download the latest update from "Ad-Aware" that evening and am wondering if that new update might have triggered the problem.  I plan on uninstalling that program, reinstalling SP2 and seeing what happens.  If it is unsuccessful, then I will seriously consider your patch.  Again, thanks for your help and concern and will update you when I  perform those listed procedures.

Lionel

Steve,

I uninstalled "Ad-Aware" and then reinstalled SP2.  I am no longer able to access the internet with the SP2 installed.  Checking my wireless connection status, support shows the IP address as  192.168.x.xxx as it should be.  The subnet mask and default gateway values are what they should be.  All network parameters are the same with SP2 installed or uninstalled.  What to do now?

Lionel

 

So did you try running the winsockfix program?

Steve

You're not the only one with this problem. Check out this thread.

Peter

Steve,

From the recommendations you passed on to me and the checks that you asked me to perform, all IP parameters have correct values.  A repair still maintained the same parameters.  I was under the understanding that if the IP address was in the 164.  range, then that indicated a winsock.dll corruption and would need the winsock fix program.  If it was in the 192.168.xxx, that indicated the winsock.dll was not corrupted and didn't need a fix.  Since it was in the correct range I assumed that the .dll was not corrupted.  That's the reason I didn't run the winsock fix.  I didn't want to run a program if it was not indicated and then a possible "other" problem.  I would appreciate your thoughts and recommendations on my questions.  Thanks for your concerns.

Lionel

The winsock fix program will do no harm if you run, and it may fix the problem.  I recommend running winsockfix to see if it does fix the problem.  If it doesn't, again, no harm will be done and we will have eliminated one possible solution to the problem and will have to consider other possible fixes.

Steve

Steve,

What  I plan on doing on Wednesday is to reinstall SP2  for the 4th time and run the winsock fix (it's late now).  I still wonder why every reinstallation of SP2 initiates the recurrence of the problem.  If everything works properly with SP1, why is it going bonkers as soon as SP2 is reinstalled?  Either SP2  installation is corrupting the winsock.dll (if that is possible) or else it is creating a conflict someplace else which prevents IE from operating the way it is supposed to.  If it is corrupting the .dll which I will find out tomorrow, then a fix is necessary to prevent this from happening to other computer owners.  If not then there appears to be a serious incompatibility problem somewhere which results in IE not working. As I stated, I have uninstalled 3 times now and each time I uninstall, IE works fine.  As soon as SP2 is reinstalled, IE stops working.  Again, thanks and will let you know the results after I reinstall tomorrow and run the winsock fix. (I uninstalled SP3 again this afternoon so that I could access the internet with my laptop.  Have been using the desktop for this correspondence). 

Lionel 

Make sure your system is free of spyware before installing SP2.  The combination of SP2 and spyware can apparently cause these problems.  My computers are always free of spyware and I've had no networking problems at all on any of them that have been upgraded to SP2.

Steve