Old laptop and internet help needed

[tsugsr]

So I acquired an older dell lap top running windows XP.

I've got it showing it has internet connection on wired or wireless, both with good connectivity however I cannot access the internet (browser or to update programs)

Any ideas? It's default browser is IE which will be the first thing I change and I need to update the antivirus.

Firewall is off and for whatever reason even system restore won't work because of the issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Coiled]

Do you see an icon similar to that in the taskbar and when you hover the cursor it shows:
Connected to: (and it IS connected?)
Signal quailty:
Speed:
IP address:

??

Edit: Not sure how I missed "I've got it showing it has internet connection on wired or wireless, both with good connectivity" lol

Have you tried accessing something like iHeart radio?

 

[tsugsr]

I've tried a few websites, I just tried and was able to pull up Fox News but google, hotmail or anything else won't work. Some sites, like pandora start to work but anything that requires updated software I can't load.

I went in and turned on proxy for the LAN,
System restore will at least pull up now. Still can't update other things though.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TxStetson]

I believe Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows XP, so you wont be able to update It or anything on it. My advice is get a copy of Windows 7 and install it.

 

[boomgoesthedynamite]

My thought is that you acquired the laptop from an organization that has it locked down. You said you could get to a news page but not a time wasting site like Google. I would check for other software that is running that sounds like it might be security related. If you can't remove that, a system restore might be in order. As mentioned XP has been deprecated, so support will be at least 2 years out of date. I agree with the Win 7 recommendation.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Tcruse]

I believe Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows XP, so you wont be able to update It or anything on it. My advice is get a copy of Windows 7 and install it.

Win 10 is smaller, faster, and more stable that Windows 7. If your hardware allows, Win 10 is a much better choice. You need to "turn proxy" off since virtually no home network and most business networks DO NOT USE proxy server. If you have a "proxy" server information entered, it is probably the result of a virus and not useful. Disable the proxy service in services.msc

 

[Kar98]

Just wipe the damn thing and install a newer version of Windows on it; 8.1 at least.

 

[TexasBrandon]

Yep, best bet is to re-format and install Win 10. Windows 7 is not a good choice unless your system can't run Windows 10. Win 7 is less efficient in almost every manner. People like to talk crap on Windows 10, me included since it has spyware baked in and forces updates unless you have Win 10 Pro. If you open a command prompt by pressing the "windows key+R" and typing CMD, then hit enter, type "Ping www.google.com" and see if you get a reply. If you do, then its locked down in some other manner, probably an old company's AD server and policies preventing you from doing anything.

 

[Brains]

You're probably up against the new SSL/TLS restrictions. Web servers more and more are defaulting to SSL connections, and have turned off older insecure implementations of it. Windows XP does not by default support the newer/better encryption and thus you're not getting anywhere that is SSL by default (like Google). Non-SSL sites (like FoxNews.com) will still work.

 

[tsugsr]

Makes sense about SSL and also the company locking it down, I'll try the things mentioned and if I can get a different windows I'll try that. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tsugsr]

Yep, best bet is to re-format and install Win 10. Windows 7 is not a good choice unless your system can't run Windows 10. Win 7 is less efficient in almost every manner. People like to talk crap on Windows 10, me included since it has spyware baked in and forces updates unless you have Win 10 Pro. If you open a command prompt by pressing the "windows key+R" and typing CMD, then hit enter, type "Ping www.google.com" and see if you get a reply. If you do, then its locked down in some other manner, probably an old company's AD server and policies preventing you from doing anything.

What would the response you speak of look like? I got 4 "reply from xyz" lines and then ping stats

I should have paid more attention in school during computer class lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kar98]

This is what you should get:

Pinging google.com [172.217.12.78] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 172.217.12.78: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=52

Reply from 172.217.12.78: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=52

Reply from 172.217.12.78: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=52

Reply from 172.217.12.78: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 172.217.12.78:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms

If you're getting:

Ping request could not find host google.com
Please check the name and try again.

this means you have no internet connectivity at all (for your purposes anyway, it could mean a number of other things that you don't need to be concerned about).

 

[tsugsr]

Well I got the first one, which I guess means Brains diagnosis of ssl/tls restrictions is accurate in this case. Time to upgrade to something newer than XP lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TexasBrandon]

I would upgrade regardless, you want a OS that is being updated and considered secure.

 

[mroper]

If you are just using it for surfing you might consider putting a linux version on it instead of windows

 

[Darkpriest667]

you're gonna have to update to windows 7 via a CD (DVD).... if it's XP then it's running Default IE 6 and it CANNOT access the modern webpages.

 

[TexasBrandon]

He can roll with Opera and go that route, well any other browser really.

 

[Kar98]

No, that's not the issue. Back in the XP/Server 2003 days, Windows Update ran through Internet Explorer, and Internet Explorer only. No Windows updates for you unless you used the latest version of IE. No latest version of IE for you unless you run Windows updates.

I made a big effort to forget what the workaround was, but you can google it... probably on a different machine.

 

[TexasBrandon]

Yeah but he doesn't need updates if he is going to a CD/DVD or a USB bootable. Load it up and go. Best to just reformat the whole damn thing and install clean.

 

[Kar98]

Yeah but he doesn't need updates if he is going to a CD/DVD or a USB bootable. Load it up and go. Best to just reformat the whole damn thing and install clean.

https://www.texasguntalk.com/threads/old-laptop-and-internet-help-needed.81952/#post-1619277