I have been called to repair a problem with a computer connected to the Internet using Windows XP and a Westell DSL modem which also provides 4 port router and wireless internet access. Yesterday there was a lightning strike which disabled the DSL filters on the line. The problem was noticed when the computer was turned on. The phones started making noises. I swapped out the filters which removed the noise on the phone line. Then I discovered that the Internet was not operating as expected. Whenever I attempted to access a web site the web browser opened to a blank page and the logo began it’s animation. Internet explorer (version 7) has been reinstalled on the computer but did not help with this problem. Access to the internet does not seem to be affected, only presentation of the page on the screen. Ping and tracert both function as expected from a command prompt. In an attempt to further narrow down the problem I attempted to use Firefox. Firefox also fails to present the requested pages. I attached a web server to the Westell and tested local internet access. I could view any pages being presented by the server except those which pulled part of their information from the Internet. When the portion of the page was to be displayed that contained off-site content the browser stopped showing anything on the screen.
I removed the CAT-5 cable from the back of the computer and attached it to a different computer. This computer was able to view pages both on the local server and on the internet with no problems presented.
I am unsure how to continue from this point and would appreciate any suggestions that might be helpful.
