can't browse but email is ok

[varicoseveined]

I'm using a laptops with Vista. Every day I lose connection and can't browse, though I can send and receive emails from Windows Mail and messenger seems to work. Firewall settings seem ok, any ideas?

Yeah- dump vista!

sorry, not helpful....
erm how long has this been going on?
Broadband fault? We had one this week, where our phone went completely dead, but the internet still worked, albeit extremely slowly.

Maybe an IE bug?

Have you tried using firefox? problem still there?

I gave up on vista after yet another random crash and auto restart half way through something important

bought a macbook instead.

Have you run a virus scan?

eachpeach - haha! Would love to be able to get a macbook...

No faults on the broadband as I can send and receive email and use messenger. Weird!

Jodie - run virus scan, spyware check and windows defender - nothing!

If you would like to dump Vista try Ubuntu.

It's free.

It will run on your existing hardware.

You don't have to wipe Vista to use Ubuntu, you can have both on your machine, so you can easily go back to Windows, if you aren't gettung on with Ubuntu.

To really minimise the risk, you can try Ubuntu without even installing it. It will run from CD, without installing, in trial mode, but it will be a lot slower in trial mode.

Aha! That sounds interesting, I didn't know that I could keep Vista. May well give that a try if my ISP's/router's software is compatible

If it's an ethernet connection to the router you won't have any trouble. Wireless will probably be OK, the only question is whether the wireless card in the laptop is compatible and it probably will be.

No doubt if you ask your laptop supplier and your ISP will probably say "we don't support Linux". Don't worry about that. For real internet problems you can always reboot back into Vista while you deal with technical support. For everything else you'll probably find "it just works".