This week I received a few clients computers who had trouble connecting to the Internet. The first thing I ask them over the phone before they bring in their machine is to make sure their Internet modem is working. You can do this by making a phone call to your provider. They will send a signal out to verify the modem is operational. If there is nothing wrong with the modem, there is a variety of things that can cause a loss in Internet connectivity. Viruses and spyware are one of the main reasons. Even if you remove them completely your Internet may still not work. Other instances include corrupt registry entries, incorrect network settings, and uninstalling certain software.
One of the best tools out there to help correct an Internet Connectivity problem caused by a virus is the Winsock Fix. It can be downloaded here. The Winsock Fix program restores corrupt network registry keys to help restore your connection. Once you run the program make sure to reboot your computer directly after. I have used this program several times with great success.
I encountered a machine yesterday that I could not figure out why the Internet was not working. The crazy thing was that I could ping web addresses in the command prompt. After searching and searching for possible solutions I finally came across something interesting. The article explained how Symantec software such as Norton Antivirus can cause Internet loss when the programs are uninstalled. It followed up with a link to the Norton Removal Tool. I called the customer and they confirmed that they recently removed Norton 360 when their license expired. As a last resort I ran this tool and to my surprise it actually worked. Internet connectivity was immediately restored to the machine once I rebooted. This tool will definitely be added to my flash drive for future use.
Nicholas Catanoso
Catanoso Computing
http://www.catanosocomputing.com