Cannot connect to internet via wired or wireless on laptop

[starbuck]

My mum's laptop used to connect to internet via ethernet cable and suddenly stopped working.
It also used to connect wirelessly without a problem, but now that won't connect either.

I've tried a different ethernet cable without success and uninstalled and re-installed the win7 drivers.

I can connect both wires and wirelessly to the router but not the internet.

I can however connect both wired and wirelessly to the router and the internet with all other laptops/desktops/smartphones in the house.

Mcafee virus scan shows nothing, and I don't want to do a recovery of windows back to "as new" with the asus recovery software if I can help it (as my mother has a lot of games/media etc on there).

I've also tried plugging in a usb dongle which works in other laptops, but not in my mums one (same prob, connects to router, but not to net). I tried this on the virgin "superhub" and a netgear router I have - same results.

Any ideas?

[Viper81]

A quick fix that's less destructive than a full wipe could be to try using a Windows restore point (obviously picking one from when you were sure the laptop was working). Otherwise to try and troubleshoot:

When you say it can't connect to the internet what have you tested? Try pinging the Google DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 as a first check.

[DDY]

As Viper asked, what exactly of the 'internet' isn't working? Can your Mum's laptop connect to the local network work? e.g. Can you ping your router and can other machines ping your Mum's laptop?

Also, check if the web browser is configured for a proxy server, turn off proxy settings if they are on.

[oldboy47]

Had a very similar problem with a relative's PC. The problem started following a Microsoft software update. We could not even get internet access through DOS although everything there was reporting OK, we only could talk to the router. Ended up running a system restore to 11th August and then gradually adding the individual updates. Problem returned after installing KB2722913. Did another system restore and then added all the updates bar one (which was restored after all the others). System and internet access now all OK.

[freedomzero]

If you have a firewall then check to make sure it is not accidentally set as 'block all'.