Internet is REALLY screwed

[the nerve]

Ok. Gotta get this off of my chest. Bear with me please.

Recently my internet stopped working. It will load a few pages, then die and refuse to locate anything on the web. Sometimes I will manage to play Counter-Strike for a short period of time before I get kicked off. I am on a wireless LAN, but I know that is not the problem because I have tried switching network cards and using a normal wire, but it still does the same thing. Besides, I can still print and set up LAN games when my internet is down. So it's only when I try to connect outside of my house that it doesn't work.

I have tried directly connecting my computer to the cable modem, and it doesn't work. I have tried releasing and renewing the IP address. No such luck, it wouldn't let me release the IP address. I have restored my system from when I backed it up 8 days ago, and the problem is still there. I have tried uninstalling recent programs and everything. No matter what, I can't surf the web.

All the other computers in my house can access the internet just fine. There is no problem with my ISP (it used to be Excite @home, but it is now run by AT&T). The other systems are running Win2k and Win98. I am running Windows XP. Should I re-format and try installing Windows 98? Help, this is so frustrating.

It's almost like some kind of cache is full and it won't let me surf anymore... some kind of overflow thing. I have no clue what it might be. It reminds me of a problem I had with Counter-Strike several weeks ago where I would get booted off of the server 10 seconds after I joined. It turned out that I had an "overflow problem." This behaves similarly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sho.gun]

That's a bit odd... after it boots you off, will it work after a restart? Is it just IE that does it or if you have nutscrape does it do the same thing? Try removing the current TCP/IP protocols and reinstalling it again, or reinstall NIC drivers with the most up to date one from the manufacturer, I doubt that'll fix it though

[Grimm]

Your problem could be that AT&T's network is heavily overloaded right now. With the switch to the new system, many users have experienced problems.
A second cause could be the cable modem itself. They sometimes go bad, especialy older models and ones that build up too much heat, is it propery ventilated?

[the nerve]

Shogun: Sometimes rebooting fixes it, sometimes it doesn't. It is very inconsistent, which is what baffles me. And when IE doesn't work, nothing works (AIM, Kazaa, Counter-strike, etc).

Grimm: All the other computers on my house run just fine. It might be AT&T, but I'd expect the whole network to go down, not just this computer. And my cable modem seems to be fine...

I called my local computer shop and they said they've been having similar complaints usually pertaining to WinXP and AT&T. I'm going to install Win2k tonight and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then I don't know what I'm going to do.

[any1care]

i had a similar problem and it was the computer, i had to reformat and reinstall everything. you might want to try that if you haven't already.

btw, keep calln at&t and tell them ur problem. If they can't fix it they'll come out. Ask them to refer ur call to CSR and tell them u've been experiencing problems and they'll give you credit. I got 3 months of serice for free!!

[the nerve]

I found out what the problem is. AT&T's DNS servers keep crashing and for some reason Win2k and Win98 take it a lot better than WinXP. Excite had one DNS server for every town; AT&T has 3 nationwide. Eventually they will get it fixed and I will have stable internet again.

[BrewMaster]

we have AT&T at home and all is going well. none of the comps are on XP though, only Win2k, Win2k Server, and Linux. keep hounding AT&T if that's the problem though. you should get something free out of it.