Strange networking problem

[donbenni]

I've had a weird networking problem that is now solved but can't put my finger on exactly what could have been causing it, and would really like to know!

Basically we've got a PC and a laptop both running XP and both connected to a wireless router. The PC is wired to the router and the laptop accesses it wirelessly. The PC was running IE and able to access the WWW fine. The laptop was connected via VPN to a company server where it receives email and can access files. However the laptop couldn't access the WWW via IE. IE ran very slowly on it and just refused to open websites.

The solution was to turn the PC off. After this, the laptop worked fine and could access the WWW via IE.

We then decided to try and get the PC running alongside it, and randomly the PC was able to run IE fine and get onto the WWW without further conflicts with the laptop. So they can now run side by side without problems.

I think we can pretty much discount the VPN connection, because even with that disconnected the laptop couldn't access websites via IE. Unfortunately no other browser was available on the laptop to check whether it was an IE specific problem.

Any ideas what could have caused this problem?

Thanks in advance!

 

[donbenni]

Ok, so i'm thinking the PC was somehow blocking the port on the router that is used for accessing the WWW. This would lead me to think that it's a firewall issue.

As both computers were running XP, could there have been some kind of conflict between the two built in Windows Firewalls? Possibly both trying to go down the same port and being overly defensive about it?

I'm all at sea and in need of suggestions!

 

[DQuaN]

Even though you discounted the VPN, this is a little tip. In the connection properties, click the Network tab, then TCP/IP Properties, then Advanced.

Deselect "use default gateway on remote network".

If it is enabled, you will be getting the internet via their network instead of your own gateway. This will slow your connection down considerably and will invoke any of their firewall rules on you.