Hello all. Here's one for all of those of you who are far cleverer than me. I didn't know quite where to post it since it covers a variety of software manufacturers

Up until recently I was with AOL and on a 56k connection, with a pay-per-minute scheme that was done through a place of WORK which allowed a certain amount of people to be registered with them (so as to stop paying any additional flat-rate subscription fee). Anyway, after years of it playing up, AOL finally died so now I have broadband via Tiscali and as far as I know I am nothing to do with the connection to the workplace anymore. However, the AOL symbol still appears in the top right hand corner of my browser (it looks like Internet Explorer). I am very sketchy on the details of how this whole AOL thing worked though, as it was a parent who set it up from where they worked, and she doesn't know either, having got someone else to do it for her many years ago.

The internet itself works fine, but other programs just don't seem to recognise my connection. Automatic updates for Windows aren't working even though I've told it to update automatically, AVG (the free one) can't connect to update itself, MSN Messenger states a problem with connecting to the network, iTunes can't get on to the Music Store (because "the network connection was refused" and Windoze Media Player 10 can't get the codecs it requires to play files. Also, although when I type in an address on the internet it works fine, when it initially loads up it is unable to establish a connection, even though I have set a valid homepage.

My firewall is active but has been set to allow Messenger, etc. to be allowed through, but even with the firewall off the problem persists.

Control Panel > Internet Properties > Connections has Tiscali Broadband as my default and 'dial whenever a network connection is not present. I don't know about LAN settings because unless I'm HORRIBLY MISTAKEN I'm not on any network, and anyway, beyond knowing what LAN stands for, I know very little about how it works.

A couple of things I've searched for in the internet have suggested something about proxy settings, but I have no idea what this means. I'm presuming that either the computer cannot seem to connect to the internet automatically, and this may be to do with my previous set up being connected to a sort of network previously. Or something else entirely. However, whilst I have explored the various options of connecting to the internet on the programs in QUESTION, the fact that it is occurring with many of them would suggest a change needs to be made to my internet connection as a whole, wouldn't it?

Anyway, if anyone is still awake after that lengthy description, I promise if you know how to solve my problem I'll, umm, er... I'll tell you a very funny joke! Honest...Quote

Control Panel > Internet Properties > Connections has Tiscali Broadband as my default and 'dial whenever a network connection is not present. I don't know about LAN settings because unless I'm horribly mistaken I'm not on any network, and anyway, beyond knowing what LAN stands for, I know very little about how it works.

You should remove all Dial-up entries and configurations.

If you are using broadband, there is no reason to keep the Dial-up settings.

I noticed today that when going on to the internet it says at the bottom of the screen that it is trying to connect to a proxy server related to the old connection of my mum's workplace, which we should have nothing to do with anymore.