Laptop Help!

[Derek]

Hopefully someone can shed some light onto a problem a relative is having with a new Laptop. It's a Tiny laptop running Win XP Home.

He currently uses Ntl Broadband via USB to a home computer and wants to use the laptop via Ethernet when he is in the house. I've gone through the usual of switching the connections and rebooting the modem and he now has an IP address.

He can Ping websites and windows downloads updates in the background.

Whenever he tries to access a website in Internet Explorer he gets a message saying "Forbidden by access control list" - Error 403 - Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by Wanadoo

All the settings seem as they should. The homepage is blank but whenever you try another site this message appears. Even selecting links like windows update gives this message.

Normally I'd go round and fix it myself but really don't fancy a drive to Grimsby in the rain

All the startup services (and there were many of them which is quite scary on a brand new laptop) have been disabled to no avail.

Any ideas?

I'm going to see if remote assistance works tonight. Aside from that it looks like burning a copy of firefox onto CD for him to use instead.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Do you know whether he uses a modem or Set Top Box to connect. If the latter the lappy will need to be reregistered with ntl. Dunno how to do that though, I think it's a command typed into the internet explorer address line.

Ignore the wanadoo reference, that's just Tiny having added tag lines to the IE defaults.

[AndrewJ]

Aye also Tiny and many other makers install ten tonne of pure crap onto there machines, personally and I am sure many others on this forum will agree his best move would be to format it and install a fresh clean copy of Xp Pro for a start or Xp Home if he cannot afford Xp Home.

The disks restore of which they come with tend to be ghost images of his HD, hence you just reinstall the crap.

I agree with MovedGoalPosts, post above they it will need re-registering its something to do with release and renew the ip if that may ring a bell sadly I have forgotten the command.

[Paul K]

According to this
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316699
it could be a problem with the LAN connection settings, have you tried making a new connection in the Network connections area?
you may find that switching browsers won't help.
Also check the hosts file for anything strange.

[Derek]

Its through a standalone modem.

The LAN settings seemed OK but I'll double check them and create new one later on.

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

I agree with MovedGoalPosts, post above they it will need re-registering its something to do with release and renew the ip if that may ring a bell sadly I have forgotten the command.

If he can download via Windows Update, then he's getting some connectivity. You could force a renewal of the IP address by doing ipconfig /renew but don't personally think this is necessary as he can download stuff.
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Can he establish a connection via telnet or ftp?

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Gareth

If he can download via Windows Update, then he's getting some connectivity. You could force a renewal of the IP address by doing ipconfig /renew but don't personally think this is necessary as he can download stuff.

Agreed. I think it is down to something with IE.

Originally Posted by Gareth

Can he establish a connection via telnet or ftp?

He was able to access upload.ntlworld.com via FTP

[ntl customer]

Has he checked for proxies in internet options?

I take it he used to have some sort of Wanadoo connection on there judging by the branding on the browser.

[Derek]

Now sorted.

A combination of a few things but now all working. Thanks for the advice/pointers.

[Paul K]

As long as it's working ok now it might be time to run for it lol