DHCP and DNS don't work anymore

DHCP and DNS don't work in Vista anymore.
I'm using ethernet.

When I boot off a Ubuntu Live CD, there is no problem accessing the Internet and browsing. So the ethernet interface and router seem to be OK.

In Vista, I can manually enter an IP address, gateway, and DNS server. Vista makes me reboot after making changes (??? XP never did).
Anyway, after that I can ping websites out on the Internet by using their IP numbers, but not by using their www addresses (so DNS isn't working). I can't access websites by typing IP numbers in Firefox though (would that be HTTP not working?)

I've tried going back to restore points that were made back when things were working, but DNS and DHCP still don't work.

Is there a Windows service that could be responsible?

Could a Windows update have done this?

I could try reformatting the computer and starting from scratch, but I want to know what caused the problem so as to avoid it in the future. If it was a Windows update or driver, I want to avoid that update.

 

run the command prompt as administrator

type

netsh int reset all


will reset you network setting


what firewall you runing are you sure that not blocking dns?

 

I originally had Trend Micro's Suite that came with the laptop, but I uninstalled it. Trend started malfunctioning around the same time I had the problem with DNS and DHCP.
So now there is only Vista's firewall.

I tried
netsh int reset all
but it doesn't help.

I've been having a lot of BSOD's lately -- 5 so far today.
I think Vista may be corrupt, but I don't know if the root problem is hardware-related or due to an MS update.

 

usually when you do an install and have the problems you are, it's a driver issue of some type, usually hardware.

what updates did you download recently? they should show in your update list.

 

what router do you have, type of ISP, DSL...cable...and make and model of the modem...sounds to me like your having data collisions somewhere in your set-up...hmmm...you use system restore...whimp...j.k...have you ran a virus and spyware scan with system restore turned off...just another hunch

 

I gave up on it because I was getting a lot of BSOD's, which started appearing around the same time as the DHCP/DNS problems.

I am suspicious of the Windows Media Center update that I installed shortly before the problems started. The update didn't call for a reboot, and I turned the computer off that night. The next time I started it up I had no DHCP or DNS.

Using the restore partition, downloading new drivers, running updates to get SP1, and installing all my programs took about 5 hours, but the computer is acting normally again. I'm going to steer clear of that Media Center update though. I wonder if it was supposed to prompt for a reboot and didn't.

 

I've installed the VMC update on all of my Vista machines and haven't had any issues. If I were a betting man, my money would be on a corrupt operating system that happened to melt down when that update was installed. I doubt one had any effect on the other.

 

If that's the case, I'm still left with figuring out what made it corrupt, unless it was corrupt to start with. As far as I could tell it was working fine before I shut it down that night.

 

been a while ago...upgraded from WMP V.9 to V.10...f/u my machine too...i think sometimes computers just like to play headgames