Problems connecting to router via wireless (DNS failure?)

[sarah30]

My sister has sky broadband (sky sagem com router). They have 4 laptops and one desktop all running off the router. All the other pcs are fine except her son's laptop (Vista running google Chrome but same problem when tried through IE). It will work plugged in but if he uses wireless when he tries to load a webpage they get the message: the server at "webpage" cannot be found because the dns look up failed". She did self diagnose and it gave her two options one was to reset the DNS. I had a look online and told her how to reset but before we did it we wanted to check that it would affect any of the other laptops etc. We were scared we might stop them all working! Would appreciate any help. Thanks

(i know she said it's a sagem com router but not sure which one. I have been googling a bit myself and I told her to try a ping test which failed she also said the sent and received values are ridiculously low like 11. It's really difficult cos I am 200 miles away and run XP so struggling to try and help!)

[Scubbie]

A few things for you to try initially:

1. Double check that all the current Windows Updates have been applied
2. Check the manufacturer's website for any updates, particularly the ones for the WiFi adaptor
3. Manually set the DNS Server on the computer (suggestions below). Note: Not the IP address, just the DNS Servers

Public DNS Servers
DNS Advantage

156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

OpenDNS

208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

Google Public DNS

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

[sarah30]

Thanks for the reply, do you know where i can get into the dns server in vista? Thanks

[Scubbie]

Thanks for the reply, do you know where i can get into the dns server in vista? Thanks

Try this link:
Change TCP/IP settings

Remember to select the WiFi connection & it is the 'Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)' you should select (ignore IPv6 setting for now). Also whilst it talks about setting all the different part, you don't need to set the IP Address for the adaptor, only the DNS Servers.

If you have a laptop that is taken to other locations, then setting the IP address will cause issue if the access point at the other site uses a different IP Address range.

[Isitme]

If these suggestions fail, try the following -
Go to Control Panel, Admin tools, Services, right click on DNS Client, select Properties, click the Stop button, click Apply. Still on the pane, click Start, then Apply. Close down Services.

Repeat this for the DHCP Client.

Now open a Command Prompt and type IPCONFIG/FLUSHDNS and press enter.

Reboot the Laptop.

Note that carrying out these actions on a machine will not effect any other machine on the Network.