Hello. We are attempting to install our first Windows7 client to our SBS 2003 (SP2) network. We were able to join the machine to our domain without issue, but we cannot access any external websites. Internal websites work fine. We can access files on the network server fine. Ping of external URLs work fine. Attempts to reach external websites via URL or IP address fail 100% of the time.

Can you log on Windows Live Messenger? I suspect that this is an IE issue. Please temporary disable antivirus and firewall then check the result. If the issue still occurs, reset IE to default settings. How to reset Internet Explorer settings http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Is there any restriction set from the SBS 2003 to the user or lan which is why you can't access the net. What about the SBS 2003, is it able to access the net?

I do not believe that this is simply an IE issue because I cannot log in to Windows Live Messenger. I have not installed any antivirus software yet, and I have manually disabled the Windows Firewall. I was incorrect in my previous post about external ping. I can enter a ping command to a URL and the DNS will return the appropriate IP, but the actual ping requests always time out. Because we use DNS from our network, I can only view this as further confirmation that traffic within the network works at all levels, but nothing that originates from this particular client leaves the office network.

There are no restrictions from the SBS 2003 that I am aware of. All other clients (all XP machines) are able to connect properly to both internal and external sources. The SBS 2003 machine also has full access to the net.

Hi, this seems as the exact kind of problems I after migrating our computers to W7. As soon as I made them members of a domain, that's when internet dropped for external websites. After discussing back and forth with our IT-department in Germany who couldn't identify the problem and gave some really strange suggestions. The solution I found that finally solved the problem was to hardcode the routing tables for the different DNS servers in the correct order and also adjust the settings for the DHCP relay routing, but this of course depends on how your network topology is. I don't know if this will help you or even applies, but maybe it's a start for your troubleshooting. Good luck dude!

@ MJE - Thanks for relaying your experience. Unfortunately I don't really have the knowledge or IT resources to be able to test your solution "to hardcode the routing tables for the different DNS servers in the correct order and also adjust the settings for the DHCP relay routing." What I do know is this: 1) My new Win7 client does pull its IP from DHCP running on my SBS2003 machine. We also use the SBS2003 machine as our DNS server. My default gateway is set to our router. Many of my properly functioning XP machines have the exact same configuration. 2) I see the same behavior on the Win7 machine whether I log in as a user on the office domain (domain/user) or as a user on the local machine (machinename/user). Not sure if this provides insight about our DNS/DHCP setup or not. I'd love to attempt your solution. Can you (or someone else) either give me guidance on how to enact it or point me to a resource that might show me?

OK, so let me see if I get this right: Computer 1 = SBS2003 acting as DNS and DHCP server, right? Router = Gateway, is this a software gateway or a hardware gateway? Try setting the routing table in your router (i.e. your gateway), add the route to your DNS in there and make sure they are on the same subnet. Then add the IP to your DNS server on your Win 7 computers, just for the sake of it. Also, do you get your internet access through your DNS server on a leased line, or do you get your internet access by an ISP?

Yes, Computer 1 = SBS 2003, running Active Directory, DHCP server and network DNS. Router = a physical Cisco router. Win7 Client = brand new laptop. Internet Access comes via a T1. Not sure how to modify the routing table on the Cisco hardware, but it doesn't seem like that should be required since all other machines on the network have no problems with traffic being sent external. Some of my other research is pointing to the possibility that this may be an IPv4 vs IPv6 issue. I've tried disabling IPv6, but that doesn't seem to have much effect. Thanks again for any insight.

We still aren't having any luck with this brand new machine. Everything works flawlessly on the Intra-office network, but no communications to/from the external internet are possible. Does anyone else have any insight on this issue?

Check the DNS settings on one of the working XP machines, see if they've got a secondary DNS set up that's pointing to a server besides your internal DNS. Since your internal names are being resolved properly it sounds like your internal DNS is working. Is your internal DNS using forwarding for external resolution?

Both the new Win7 machine and all XP machines have DNS settings such that the clients only look to my 2003 SBS machine for IP resolution. The Win7 machine is able to resolve a ping to www.google.com by routing to the same IP as my XP machines, so I don't think this is a DNS issue. Edit for clarification: The Win7 ping of www.google.com does not actually return any packets. It simply identifies the correct IP.