Can't get to internet - browser won't resolve

[itsapaperweight]

If anyone's got an answer, it will be a big help.

Here's the situation. Computer, IBM PC running Windows 98. Person plays lots of games and sites and uses Avast, Ad-aware, and Spybot. I got on the computer briefly, went to a dictionary site for a spelling check and shortly afterwards a warning popped up from Avast about a problem. Computer owner deals with it and that is the end of it - apparently. Then find out person can't get to internet - in Netscape it is resolving the url but never makes it and then the error message that it can't access the internet pops up. The computer owner had called tech support and deleted Avast, but no change. I ran ipconfig and looked at it - the IP address is there, the gate way is also there. It uses RCN cable to access the internet and it gets the IP address automatically. Tried going back to last known good config, no change. Ran adaaware, no spyware showed. Could be missing the obvious here, but not sure what to do next. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

[DougL]

Can't believe that Avast would cause a problem, i have been using it for over a year without any issues, couple of things to try. can you ping the default gateway? try running ipconfig /flushdns at the command prompt and releasing renewing your IP address. have you thought about running scanreg and restoring the registry back to before the problem occured?

Doug

[mairving]

Originally Posted by DougL Can't believe that Avast would cause a problem, i have been using it for over a year without any issues, couple of things to try. can you ping the default gateway? try running ipconfig /flushdns at the command prompt and releasing renewing your IP address. have you thought about running scanreg and restoring the registry back to before the problem occured? Doug

ipconfig, system restore won't work on Windows 98. You can use winipcfg but not to flush the DNS. I am not sure about scanreg.

Have you tried using IE to connect to see if you have the same problem? Can you connect to a site via IP address instead of the DNS name?

[DougL]

Sorry my mistake, but I'm sure you can use scanreg /restore to restore the registry to a previous setting.

Doug

[peekaboo]

have you tried winsockfix?

[itsapaperweight]

THanks, for the responses. Can't get access through IE either. Can't get access by typing the ip address in the browser - though I can ping ip addresses. Will look into the winsock suggestion and scanreg. The service provider is rcn, and i manually put in the IP address, default gateway, mask, and the DNS server (which had been on disabled). The one issue I'm not sure about is the Host Name and domain (which 98 wants). RcN couldn't give me the name, and when I used another computer to run nslookup, their DNS servers are listed by name and then server:

ex. If I type nslookup ns1.dns.rcn.net I get:

Server: ns1.dns.rcn.net
Address: 207.172.3.8

Name: ns1.dns.rcn.net
Address: 207.172.3.8

I'm not sure if either of these gets entered into the "Host" and "DOmain" box for DNS. And without a specified host it will not close the dialog box. I saked RCN but they were of no help - they didn't know what to do with this.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[itsapaperweight]

Winsock fixed it. Thanks to all who posted.