Cannot open any website but connected to internet

Question

I cannot open any website on my Windows Vista machine though I am connected to internet ( can make calls using Skype). I am connected to a wireless network. Everytime, when I open a URL, it shows error that name could not be resolved. I tried to ping the dns server and it successfully pinged.
Also, when I reboot the machine in Ubuntu, I am able to open websites.

Solution

This is a DNS issue.

Go to your network settings and see what DNS is currently used. It is most likely set to obtain one from your router. Try putting in 4.2.2.1 which is a free public verizon DNS and see if that makes a difference.

As a test, try putting in http://72.14.204.147 into your browser. That should get you to google.com.

Comments

[DMA57361]

You don't happen to have your browsers configured to use a proxy?

[Kez]

I think the key is whether you can access websites by IP address, as mentioned in answers below... if you can, DNS is not the issue and it is something else like misconfigured firewall software, proxy settings or a high MTU setting.

[Tanuj]

yeah I tried chrome and firefox but faced the same issue