Networks lost internet, strange problem

so background first, I left my computer with my mom for a while, something went wrong and she had a tech guy come over instead of calling me, he uninstalls the onboard network device then the computer basically dies and he leaves it as is
I come over and re-install the drivers ... to an extent, can never finish the installation process
but I got it back up to a working condition anyway, unfortunately updated drivers don't seem to help that part of the problem and there's no point to recover to with system restore

but then about a week ago the net stops working, computer isn't dead slow like it was when the device was uninstalled, but I tried re-installing it anyway
the strange part of the current situation is that the computer thinks everything is fine, I can connect to my router and my modem, I've confirmed they work as desired and that the cord is also fine
the hardware is a pc chips M848A (V5.0) 462(A) SiS 746FX ATX AMD Motherboard with an sis900 onboard network interface
I've tried adding in another generic network card which I confirmed to work on another computer and it gives me the same problem
checked different browsers, and dhcp service as well as its dependencies, tcp/ip seems to function
no http or ftp functionality however
I have a valid ip address and have flushed all net files and pinged to a few outside sites which come back fine, I've also reinstalled firefox3 and ie7
checked to see if apipa could have been a problem
on the rundown, all settings and o.s. details are in working order and everything draws me back to this being a hardware problem of some strange kind, other than the fact that a replacement card didn't fix the problem but I figure its possible that there's some interference there or something I've overlooked

any help with this would be greatly appreciated
I've almost tried everything I know to fix it but what I haven't tried I doubt would work simply because it's so unrelated to the problem at hand

 

Try this....

Does this take you to the homepage of the British Red Cross:

http://83.138.137.17/index.asp?id=39992

If so....

It's your DNS

You'll gets loads of other ideas as well, but I repeat... it's your DNS

 

Sounds like a DNS issue.

Another thing to try is look at your hosts file for any peculiar entries.

go under windows\system32\drivers\etc and open the hosts file with notepad. There should only be your localhost entry there.

If there's any other entries, delete them and save the file.

You can also prove for sure that this is a DNS issue by adding an entry to the hosts file. If you add google's site to the hosts file, save it, and if that works. That will tell you that it is in fact a DNS issue.

Add these entries to your hosts file.

72.14.205.104 google.com
72.14.205.104 http://www.google.com

Now go to your browser and try navigating to Google's site. If you do get there, make sure you hit refresh a few times, in case the site is still cached.

If it works by adding those entries to the hosts file, it's a DNS issue.

 

I guess I forgot to mention the computer I'm using to post is one of my others
I can't get to this site or any other on the problem computer
and I use various programs that append to the host file in addition to my own entries to prevent anyone using my computers to access myspace unless they go through a proxy, which can still be difficult

anyway, I can't get to google to see if the hosts file would make a difference, other than perhaps redirecting me to home(127.0.0.1)
so what I did is I made a copy real quick and deleted the hosts file recreated it with one entry and tried again, no such luck in fixing the problem
so if its still a dns issue, I need another way to test it
I ran a couple more tests to make sure everything else was fine by moving another computer up next to it and using the cord, tried a console, and then tested other computers on other lines from the router and all is fine so I'm still convinced it's on that computer
and having it be a dns problem sounds like a solid answer so I'll see what I can do about checking into it between today and tomorrow
I'll also be trying a clean uninstall and install of a new NIC and blowing away the onboard and see how it behaves

 

new card didn't help, uninstalling the old onboard ate the cpu, took me till now to finish reinstalling, at least it completely installed this time!
alas no internet on it though

 

no change in status after going through these problems
considering full system flush and clean install of all
unless new advice comes

 

from bad to worse
no ping outside modem and router
in addition to no connection

giving up, clean format and install on new hardware, getting rid of this old P.O.S. it wasn't good for much other than net surfing anyway
any suggestions on what I should do with the scrap heap?

 

it was a router problem, total failure with ipv6 and problems with ipv4
all ports were good as well as cord
inexplicable why it wouldn't work with my computer
but tested direct connection with modem again and was good, replaced router and all is well

oh, and I took a torch to the old stuff, making a new case with it
I might put up project log later

 

you might want to consider getting on to that "tech guy" and giving him an earful of some description... xxxx