Can't access web but can send and receive emails

anamenottaken

Help will be greatly appreciated.

My laptop connects to network (both and home and office) and I can send and receive emails using Outlook.

However I cannot access the internet using any of my browsers (Chrome, IE, FireFox).

Chrome tells me to try checking the connection, checking the proxy and the firewall and running Windows network diagnostics. I don't really know what is involved with that but may be able to work it out. The person who originally set things up died last summer and I have nobody else to ask.

I installed Avast as a free antivirus towards the end of last year and wonder whether this has suddenly decided to block all web access. It does give me a message saying it is out of date and to update - and I do give permission but nothing happens. Should I delete all the Avast folders that I can find on my C: drive?

AndyPix

First i would reset your internet settings - to remove any proxies etc that may have been added by malware


Open internet explorer, click tools (or the picture of a cog) and go to internet options.
Go to the advanced tab and click "reset"


Reboot your computer and see if that has fixed things


edit: I see you have tried firefox - firefox doesnt listen to windows internet options so your problem likely lies elsewhere ..


Can you open a command prompt, type


ping 8.8.8.8


press enter and see if it replies or times out

Heedtheadvice

Hmmm a bit odd if you can send/receive emails but not browse. My first thoughts are some sort of virus or a firewall blocking your browsers!

However, it will take a fair bit of diagnostics to track down the issue so you may need a bit of patience but do take note of the two previous posters who will give you good help.

Not straight forward if your browsers cannot access the internet and advisors are a distance away. I would be tempted to try and get a free antivirus installed (you really ought to have one running all the time!), load a programme called malware bytes to remove lots of nasties and once you are back online with your browser's do come back and ask for more instructions to protect your pc, set it up to make recovery easy and take backups. All things that are quite simple but essentially.

If you need programme that you cannot download to fix your problem do post on here. Do not give up there are many on this forum who if they cannot answer your query know someone who can. Dave and Andy are an excellent start!

kwikbreaks

What error message if any is appearing when trying to browse?

If it isn't a firewall blocking access the the most likely reason for email working and browsing not IMO is non-working DNS but why that should happen is a bit of a mystery. More detail is certainly needed.

danandjens_worldtravels

What is the date in your laptop? I have this problem when the date is in the past (happens when the laptop is switched off). It Windows vista won't allow internet access until the date is reset to the current date on the laptop.

I have no technical explanation or recall what the message actually says but I do know when I use the laptop I have to reset the date.

Strider590

You need to look at your adaptor settings, i'm betting something has changed them.

I can't tell you how, because I don't know what version of Windows your running.

If Win7 or 10, search for "view network connections"

Right click the active adaptor

Select properties

Select internet protocol version 4 and properties

Set all to automatic


The reason for doing this is primarily to make sure there are no rogue DNS settings.

Strider590

DavidP24 wrote: »

It will not be that, if email works but browser does not then is likely that web tcp ports blocked or diverted, probably by firewall or av as is only thing likely to affect more than one browser, well that or malware!

OP does not bother to reply despite several people offering help. I am not wasting more time on this

unsub

It would if the OP has another DNS server setup (like Google DNS) and if like with me on BT, their ISP suddenly decides to block people using external DNS servers, then it could cause an issue.

You see the likes of BT actually hijack DNS traffic, so DNS always goes through them anyway (to keep "cleanfeed" working), but for some stupid reason (probably an idiot in a suit) they decided to block customers who tried to use external DNS for websites only, but they didn't block other services (like FTP), so email would have still worked.

But hey, at least they're stopping piracy, terrorists and peadophiles........ Almost as effectively as UK border control is keeping out illegals.

AndyPix

Strider590 wrote: »

but for some stupid reason (probably an idiot in a suit) they decided to block customers who tried to use external DNS for websites only, but they didn't block other services (like FTP), so email would have still worked. .

They do this to stop users getting around their blocks of certain websites (putlocker et al) by using alternate DNS servers

anamenottaken

DavidP24 wrote: »

It will not be that, if email works but browser does not then is likely that web tcp ports blocked or diverted, probably by firewall or av as is only thing likely to affect more than one browser, well that or malware!

OP does not bother to reply despite several people offering help. I am not wasting more time on this

unsub

Sorry. I have only just been able to get online again this morning as the only place I can access this site is via my work computer and I do not go into work every day and cannot spend much work time on the internet. I am now going through all the responses and am very appreciative of all the effort everyone has put into trying to help.

And email has stopped working too since Friday.

anamenottaken

DavidP24 wrote: »

Hi

Further to your PM

Mailbox is FULL delete some messages to make space.

Deleted a few now.

anamenottaken

A big THANK YOU to everyone.

Problems now appear to have been resolved and it all seems down to an incomplete Windows 10 Update which two weeks on has now completed.

Thanks again.