pings but won't connect

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dick Rawlings
  • Start date Start date
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Dick Rawlings

Trying to troubleshoot my daughter's dorm room network connection
long-distance. Laptop with win2k pro installed. She cannot get IE to
connect to any sites yet she can ping (and get responses) from various
servers (DHCP and DNS). Instant Messaging won't connect to servers, either.
We uninstalled and reinstalled ethernet pcmcia cards. Uninstalled and
reinstalled TCP/IP. Ipconfig doesn't indicate any glaring errors.....

System was working, then just stopped connecting one day.

I really don't know where to look next. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
drawl
 
Dick Rawlings said:
Trying to troubleshoot my daughter's dorm room network connection
long-distance. Laptop with win2k pro installed. She cannot get IE to
connect to any sites yet she can ping (and get responses) from various
servers (DHCP and DNS).
Click to expand...

You're pinging DHCP and DNS servers? Might these be on the local LAN by any
chance? When you ping, are you pinging with IP address or name? Do names
resolve correctly?
 
"Network connection." Does this mean she plugs into a network that is
administered by someone managing the dorm, or by the college, or by some
IT department? If so, it sounds like they have blocked HTTP on that
network segment so no one can browse to web sites except those that are
either within the network (i.e., intranet servers) or only those on a
whitelist (i.e., those you are allowed to browse to).

See if she can telnet to a web site:

telnet <site> 80

Port 80 is used by default for HTTP communications with web servers, so
pick a normal web site and not one that uses SSL for a secure HTTP
connection. It's not important that you know what to do after the
connection is made. You just want to see if it looks like there was a
connection. If you cannot connect this way, good bets are that the
network is configured accidentally or deliberately to block HTTP
traffic.

Was working one day and stopped the next. Well, sure sounds again like
someone screwed up the network administration or firewall configuration
to block HTTP traffic (and whatever MSN Messenger uses). Can anyone
else in her dorm connect to a web site outside the network provided to
the dorm, like to www.intel.com or www.microsoft.com? Is there a reason
she refuses to contact whomever is responsible for adminstering the
dorm's network?
 
I had originally set her up on a wireless router (which we took out of the
network when the problems started and went with a patch cable from the
laptop to the port) so I had her plug the laptop directly into the router.
She can ping the router, 192.169.2.1, but if she attempts to open the router
admin function via Internet explorer (using the IP address) IE eventually
times out and replies that it can't open that site. So it doesn't seem that
it's a dorm network problem because she can't get the router, which is
local, to serve up a page. But she can communicate with the router as
demonstrated by the ability to ping it. No one else in the dorm is having
this problem. Her roommate isn't having any problem. I will have to double
check, but I think my daughter plugged into a port in another student's room
that they were having no troubles with and she still couldn't get a website
to come up.
 
You sure 192.169.2.1 is the fixed IP address for the router? Mine is
192.168.0.1. Maybe different routers use different IP addresses for
their HTTP web server admin's page. Since no one else is having
problems displaying the admin web page to this router (which begs the
question as to why EVERYONE is allowed to be an administrator so you'll
never know what is the configuration), are they also used the *same*
192.169.2.1 IP address for the router's admin page?

Did she clear out the browser's file cache (using the Control Panel
applet rather than opening IE and doing it while IE was open)? Has she
tried the following commands from a DOS shell:

ipconfig /release *
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

The first releases the IP address assigned by the router's DHCP server
(I am assuming that is where she gets her IP address assignment whether
fixed or dynamic). The second clears out the client-side DNS cache.
The last gets a new IP address assigned to her (could be the same one or
a new one). It's possible the IP address assigned to her has expired so
she has to negotiate for a new one. Does she *first* plug into the
network and *then* power up her computer? Or does she have it already
powered up when she plugs into the network?

Have you checked her hosts file to ensure all the sites that she is
trying to visit don't have 127.0.0.1 listed as their IP address? This
is a trick to prevent [accidental] navigation or connects to those
sites.

Have you checked the Internet Zone and Restricted Sites security zones
in IE? Are they are their default security level?

Does she run a firewall? What happens if it is temporarily disabled?
Could be that it uses application rules to determine which programs can
have Internet access. Could be the firewall blocks port 80 (for HTTP
traffic). Pinging is pinging. Pinging is NOT the same as HTTP. They
use different protocols. They use different port numbers. A successful
ping to a host does NOT also mean the web server is running or
responsive on that host. Pinging just means there is a path between you
and that target host. It does NOT verify there is a web server to which
you can connect nor that your system is properly configured for HTTP
traffic.

Have you bothered to yet try my suggestion of telnetting to the target
host? That will not use HTTP. If you get a session (although you might
not know what to do when a session is established) then you know their
web server is reachable, loaded, and responsive. (Type 'quit' to exit
the session if it doesn't timeout.)
 
She can ping the router, 192.169.2.1, but if she attempts to open the
router
admin function via Internet explorer (using the IP address) IE eventually
times out and replies that it can't open that site.
Click to expand...

Um, ya sure that's not supposed to be 192.168.x.x? (note: 168, instead of
169).
 
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