Internet/Computer help needed asap

I'm at my mom's and we're having some internet issues. She uses a mobile broadband card to connect to the internet. She's able to connect - but only to certain sites. For others, she gets an error message (it's running about 50-50). I tried renewing the ip address (about the only troubleshooting thing I know how to do) and it won't let me - says something about not being able to when the media is disabled. I know this is all kinda sketchy, but does anyone have advice? She's running XP and using IE 7 (and no, she won't get a Mac).

 

Get her off IE first. Try Firefox or Chrome.

 

I know...I know. She won't do it. She knows how to do what she wants on IE and I don't think she could handle a switch to another browser. There is no bigger creature of habit. She really needs a new laptop but she refuses. Her cell phone is like 7 years old - it's gigantic - but she won't get a new one.

 

I have exponentially more problems with my Macbook than I do with my Dell, so I highly doubt a switch would be the answer.

Always try restarting first, as that will knock most things out of a bad loop. If that doesn't solve the problem, what is the specific error message? And have you run a virus scan to make sure everything is clean?

If the problem is new and she's installed a windows update recently, you can also try to system restore to a previous point before the issues stated.

 

Thanks, Smash. It seems to have resolved itself. Fingers crossed, it won't happen again. Earlier, I rebooted several times and that didn't help. My mom's in her mid-70s, not tech savvy at all, but she's a big emailer and has a whole routine for sites she reads. Anyway, thanks for the help. Maybe someone sent good karma and that's what did it.