Wireless internet ??

Question

I have a dell laptop with wireless built in and I also have a netgear router with service from AT&T. For the past two months I am not able to get online using my paid service from AT&T. I talked to dell and AT&T - both were no help. If I use a free wireless service (someone in my building without security or Starbucks) then it works but the service is spotty. When I use my netgear/AT&T service it only brings up a blank white page. The Intel proset wireless tool says that I am online and that the signal is strong but when I type in an address the bottom bar says "Finding www.yahoo.com..." and then loads the page but the page contains no content, not even an error screen - it is completely blank. Any idea how to fix this? AT&T said it is my computer, not the service, and Dell could not find anything wrong with the computer.

Answer 1

Off hand it sounds like a DNS problem. To test this try to ping www.yahoo.com. If you see the IP address (e.g. 69.147.76.15) then I'm wrong. On the other hand if you see an error such as "could not find" or "could not resolve" then there is a DNS problem.



To correct this make sure your router is configured to get its DNS server settings from its DHCP server (methods for doing this vary according to the individual router). Also make sure your laptop is configured to get its DNS server settings via DHCP, which should come from your router. You may have to reboot the router then the laptop.



Alternatively you can use a public DNS server such as OpenDNS. Their servers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Try it on your laptop and see if that helps. Many people use these servers anyway because they are faster than their ISP's servers.



Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Start with a repair or re-install of your web browser (I assume Internet Explorer). You may have to download IE7 from another computer and throw it on a thumb drive or something...but it sounds like the browser is having issues.



Remember that when your wireless connection says that you are online/strong, it is referring to your computer's connection to the router. It doesn't tell you anything about your internet connection (beyond the router). Are other computers in your home connected and working fine? If so, then I would definitely look at the laptop's browser.

Answer 3

Dell would be no help, as this is a AT&T issue, call them again and ask them to send a tech guy out to you to fix the problem. Also hoping onto one of your neighbors networks, is illegal, they can tel when someone is stealing internet from them and can call the cops, just so you are aware of that.