firefox works but system programs requiring network don't

[bcbob]

I just installed PCLinuxOS 2011.6. It seemed to work OK but I am having trouble with the network. I connected the computer to my typical home network that has a DSL modem and a router.

I ran Firefox and am able to access the internet OK. But when I try to run a program such as the LibreOffice Manager that needs to access the internet, I get an error saying it cannot access the internet and suggesting I change to OpenDNS.

This does not make sense to me since Firefox works.

Any ideas on what is going on?

Bob
edit:
I tried again today. At first, libreOfficeManager worked OK. It did some downloading. I went away from the computer and when I returned it had quit. I tried to start it again and this time it said it could not find the network again. But clearly the network is OK since I am typing this entry from PCLinuxOS!

This is the start of the error dialog box:
----------------
Problem accessing the Internet! You have either:
 a) no Internet connection, too bad :-(, or
 b) you use a proxy sever, or
 c) you have a dns-lookup error.
---------------

I tried the ping as suggested with these results:

[bob@localhost ~]$ ping -c 1 google.com
PING google.com (74.125.224.81) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 74.125.224.81: icmp_req=1 ttl=53 time=52.9 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 52.980/52.980/52.980/0.000 ms
[bob@localhost ~]$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
[bob@localhost ~]$

[Old-Polack]

I just installed PCLinuxOS 2011.6. It seemed to work OK but I am having trouble with the network. I connected the computer to my typical home network that has a DSL modem and a router.

I ran Firefox and am able to access the internet OK. But when I try to run a program such as the LibreOffice Manager that needs to access the internet, I get an error saying it cannot access the internet and suggesting I change to OpenDNS.

This does not make sense to me since Firefox works.

Any ideas on what is going on?

Bob

Linux error messages are usually pretty good at getting to the heart of the matter. Were I you, I'd try the OpenDNS servers.

[YouCanToo]

What LibreOffice Manager now suggests which DNS one should use 

[Old-Polack]

What LibreOffice Manager now suggests which DNS one should use 

It must sense some problem with the one now being used, and offers a suggestion. I just ran it here and got the installation without any issues.

[YouCanToo]

Now that is interesting!

[muungwana]

An idea of what you have on your system will be helpful.

can you open the terminal and then run these two commands and give their output

ping -c 1 google.com

cat /etc/resolv.conf

[bcbob]

Thanks for the suggestions. See my edit of the original post.

Bob

[muungwana]

you should have posted the results on the above post because it will be easier for others to follow the tread. Going back to a post and edit it after replies are made to it breaks continuity and critical information added in the edit may be lost.

ping command works. That means your computer can access its DNS server and can successfully resolve addresses and can connect to google.com and send information and receive them. This suggests your internet is working fine and the problem could be with that particular program.

How many other programs have you tried to go online with and they have failed? Do you experience this problem with libre office alone or there are others too? what are they?