weird intermittent internet problem

[smi256]

Alright, I’m not happy about this weird intermittent internet problem that my computer has.
It would seem that some sites just won’t load on my computer.  EX: hotmail, ebay, yahoo mail, my ISPs web site doesn’t even work
I’ve tried:
1) firefox and Iexplorer
2) I plugged in another HD and installed everything onto it.  So I effectively formatted my computer without losing anything.  I just plug in my normal HD to revert back to normal.
3) Disabled my firewall
4) I also set my router to DMZ

I just can’t figure out why I can’t get to some sites and yet others work just fine…
Suggestions please  :miffed:
 

[SS]

Could be a DNS problem.
The way to test that would be:
1) Get the IP addresses for those sites and when they don't work try the IP.
2) Try accessing the sites via a proxy server, eg: http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html

Also, try doing a tracert (start>run, type "cmd", type "tracert www.hotmail.com") and seeing if it is getting stuck at a specific point.

[smi256]

I still have no clue as to what went wrong…but I broke down and called my ISP’s tech support for help.  Though he didn’t know what the problem was, I asked him to fix a different problem that I had been having; which was that my modem got set to ‘bridge’ mode, so that my router had to tell the modem how to sign on to my ISP.  But in fixing that problem, my problem of going to some sites was fixed…
What confuses me is that I’ve had this set up (with the router telling the modem to sign on) for a long time and I didn’t have the problem of not being able to see some sites…
So… I give up; I don’t know what happened, all I know is that some how changing the settings on the computer and modem or some sort of combination of the two has resolved the problem… :blink:  

[smi256]

I lost my internet completely for a while there…
It turns out that some information in my modem was corrupt and my router (linksys) is dead…
So I no longer have a network  , but I now have internet
*knocks on wood :paranoid:

I wonder if my problems from before have anything to do with the nonsense I have to put-up with now  <_<  

[smi256]

like I said, I can connect directly to my modem and get to the internet that way, but for the life of me I can't get the router to work (which means I didn't need to send it away to be fixed, cuz it wasn't broken).  I've ended up taking a different harddrive and installed XP on it, it seems to work just fine (router and internet and all), so I copy all the settings, make note of what servises are running and settup my normal computer to be just like it... but still no go.  I guess I'll be installing all my stuff again when ever I have time (or when I don't want to be studing for finals and stuff )
I really don't understand... :unsure:

I've getten really good at installing everything and setting up networks/routers/modems because of nonsense like this :ph34r: