Question : Websites frequently fail to load despite solid internet connection?

My mom in another part of the country is telling me her computer frequently fails to load web pages. The PC is running Windows 7 and is less than a year old. I remote into it using logmein.com and check her network settings. Everything appears to be in order. She's got Comcast cable internet. The modem is connected to a Linksys router which is hardwired to a box which streams internet programing to their TV. Her PC connects wirelessly to the router as well.

I know she isn't losing internet connectivity because my remote access session does not get terminated, but I see both Internet Explorer and Firefox load a page one minute then fail to load the same page again a minute or two later. The box streaming video and sound to the TV doesn't get interrupted at all, according to her. I disabled Windows Firewall on the PC to eliminate that as the possible culprit but the problem still happens.

I've also asked my mom to reset the cable modem and router on her end. She assures me that she has. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing the sporadic page loading? What steps can I take to troubleshoot this remotely since my mom isn't very tech savvy?

The error her browser gives is something like "Could not connect to server" and the Network troubleshooting wizard in Windows 7 does not find anything wrong.  Anyone seen anything like this before? It's a new one to me...

Answer : Websites frequently fail to load despite solid internet connection?

Hmmm... check her DNS settings.

If she goes to 66.102.7.104 (one of google.com's IPs), does she still have the problem or does it work every time?  If it works fine, then something's going on with the name resolution.

Try that first and let us know.