Spotty Internet Service

I just built a computer for my brother, and he is having a problem with his
dial up ISP service. Many sites will just not come up, including many
common ones like MSN and others, even
Google at times. He just gets a message saying the server cannot be found.
It happens erratically, but often, and it's hard to know if the ISP is at
fault or not. He was on a cell phone with them for a long time trying to
fix the problem, and they said they could ping him ok, and they finally
told him that his anti virus software must be preventing him from getting
some stuff. Does this make sense?

I'm going over this weekend to try and help him out, but I'm not sure what
to try. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jack

let me take a wild guess "Norton"? has been known to cause this


"Jack Bruss" wrote in message ...
I just built a computer for my brother, and he is having a problem with his
dial up ISP service. Many sites will just not come up, including many
common ones like MSN and others, even
Google at times. He just gets a message saying the server cannot be found.
It happens erratically, but often, and it's hard to know if the ISP is at
fault or not. He was on a cell phone with them for a long time trying to
fix the problem, and they said they could ping him ok, and they finally
told him that his anti virus software must be preventing him from getting
some stuff. Does this make sense?

I'm going over this weekend to try and help him out, but I'm not sure what
to try. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jack

" I just built a computer for my brother, and he is having a problem with
his
dial up ISP service. Many sites will just not come up, including many
common ones like MSN and others, even
Google at times. He just gets a message saying the server cannot be
found.
It happens erratically, but often, and it's hard to know if the ISP is at
fault or not. He was on a cell phone with them for a long time trying to
fix the problem, and they said they could ping him ok, and they finally
told him that his anti virus software must be preventing him from getting
some stuff. Does this make sense?

I'm going over this weekend to try and help him out, but I'm not sure
what
to try. Any ideas?


Turn off the antivirus program and see if he can access the internet sites.
Is he using Internet Explorer or another brouser ? I was usiing Netscape
and it would not acces certain sites , especially if I had an antivirus
program running.