Connection working, but no browsing possible

**BogdanV** · February 6, 2009

More exactly, I'm using RASPPPOE in order to connect to my ISP. For several years, I've had no problem in connecting to the internet (with win98), but now, after deciding to go back to win98, I've ended up with a weird issue.

Basically, I'm able to create my connection and login with my ISP, but when I open Firefox I end up with a blank page after some time. (IE throws out 404 after trying for some time).

For those who are from Romania and their ISP is RDS, well, usually I receive their default "how-to-connect" page (with no instructions for 9X), but now, regardless of how I set the IP (auto/manual on both TCP/IP entries), I only get a blank page or a 404 after some time.

Also. the connection is OK since I'm using the same PC on dual-boot with Linux to write this message.

If anyone has any idea on how to solve this, please tell me.

Thanks in advance!

**BogdanV** · February 7, 2009

Well, does anyone know anything regarding this issue or are there any parts of my post that aren't understandable ?

Any reply is welcomed.

**noguru** · February 7, 2009

Without having any info on your network settings it's hard to say, but I suspect a broken winsocket or wrong DNS settings. Do you get a response on a ping? And check if your internet-settings in the configuration screen is not set to look for a connection. (Obvious perhaps but often overlooked, Win98 is old enough to expect you to have a dial-up connection by default)

**BogdanV** · February 7, 2009

Thanks for your reply! I'll be sure to check.

Also, are there any settings that I can "print-screen" that could further help in solving this problem ?

**submix8c** · February 7, 2009

If you have clean-installed the Win98, you probably need some Updates. Go to the "Complete List of Hotfixes"... at least one of them is probably necessary. Also, these will be English, but the necessary fix(es) may be language-neutral.

HTH

**BogdanV** · February 8, 2009

Thanks for your reply! I got and applied several of the fixes that seemed related to network/communications, but my problem persisted. I also tried pinging my ISP according to its DNS server address. I got a reply, which is good.

Anyway, after several good hours of head-bashing, it seems that my problem is infact ISP-related. I'll be calling them Monday and see exactly what's the problem. (it seems that there are discrepancies between what I've got and the type of service specified in the contract).

All in all, thanks everybody for your kind help!

**Drugwash** · February 12, 2009

If your current connection is old, try running RASPPPOE.EXE from the PPPoE upgrade package again and create another connection. I've had a problem myself with Win98SE suddenly unable to connect and after wasting time with their useless support over the phone I managed to find out the issue by myself: Access Point's name had been changed.

Yes, this may seem harmless and indeed XP doesn't care about it but 9x needs that name and can be seen in the Phone number field of the Dial-up connection dialog.

Also make sure there are no other connections in Internet Options > Connections and that Never Dial a Connection is not enabled. TCP/IP settings should all be automatic in regard to IP and DNS.

You may be better off buying yourself a router and setting it up properly.