Although I can send and receive email and access the BigPond home page, when attempting to access any other web page through Internet Explorer the page does not display. Interestingly, when I checked the Phone and Modem Options control panel there seems to be no modem installed, and the Device Manager says that the computer only has a PCI modem. The computer is running Windows XP and connected to the internet through a Speedstream USB broadband connection to BigPond. The computer is also running Kapersky for internet security. How can I restore access to web pages?

The fact that there are no modems installed within the Phone and Modem Options control panel is nothing to be concerned about, since you are connected to the internet through a USB broadband modem. This does not appear within the Phone and Modem Options control panel, as only dial-up internet (analogue) modems are visible within this control panel. As you have a broadband modem, this creates a new permanent network connection and will be visible within the Network Connections control panel.

However, the location of the modem is more for interest than being particularly relevant in resolving this problem. Since you can send and receive emails, and also visit the BigPond website, this indicates that the internet connection itself is working correctly, thus we do not need to investigate the connection itself. Instead, it seems that you can access the local BigPond servers (as you are essentially connected to the local BigPond network, since they are your ISP) but cannot access any servers or services outside the BigPond local network. This may indicate that you need to configure a proxy server within your web browser, that some of the other network configuration settings are incorrect, or there is a conflict with your security software on the computer.

We will first consider the scenario where the Kapersky security software is interfering with access to different web pages. As a starting point, try disabling the security software to check whether the problem persists. Be aware, this will likely disable the Kapersky firewall which is protecting your computer from external attacks. Therefore, before disabling the security software you should enable the Windows Firewall to provide a basic level of protection while the Kapersky firewall is disabled. To enable the Windows Firewall, go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Windows Firewall” control panel (you may need to first click the “Network and Internet Connections” category). In the window that appears, click the “General” tab and ensure that the firewall has been configured to “On”. Click OK to save and close the window. Now, disable Kapersky and see whether the problem persists.

Should the problem not continue after disabling Kapersky, it seems the configuration of this security software is causing the problem. In this case, you will need to check and verify the settings to see whether any of the configuration items could be causing this behaviour. Unfortunately I can’t provide further specific advice, since I am not familiar with your Kapersky configuration. However, please let me know if you are able to resolve this issue.

In the event that the problem continues even with Kapersky disabled, it appears that this software is not causing the problem. Before proceeding further, you should re-enable Kapersky to ensure that your computer is protected from any threats. Another likely cause of the problem is a misconfiguration in the setup of your internet connection. Again, this would be very difficult for me to diagnose since it requires a large degree of trial and error, and also looking at the existing configuration. Therefore, I suggest that your best option is to contact BigPond to help resolve this problem. They will have the best knowledge about the required configuration and system settings to verify whether your settings are correct, and suggest any modifications to get the internet connection working properly.