No Internet after VPN failure. Help appreciated.

I've tried to find the answer to my problem by searching the 'Net but have got nowhere, sadly. Apologies, then, for having to pestering folks on here.

My desktop computer is no longer connecting to the Internet. I am unable to visit any webpages and also unable to receive any emails. Help appreciated. Here�s the info:

The situation began yesterday morning when a VPN client I use � Tunnelbear � failed to open properly. Instead, the app hung, reporting that it was �checking drivers�. The app wouldn�t close so had to be killed in task manager (with difficulty, it wouldn�t budge.) I tried three times to get it to work but without success. The attempted Tunnelbear run was simply a check to see how much was left of my monthly allowance: I don�t use this VPN when I�m at home here in the UK, only when I�m travelling outside the UK. I�m leaving for France on Friday.

Immediately prior to trying to run Tunnelbear, I was online. My ISP is BT Infinity and working fine. My system is Windows 7 x64, my browser, Firefox. My desktop email client is Windows Mail, which I run instead of Microsoft�s Windows Live Mail. I have had no problems with either Firefox or Windows Mail and had none, either, before attempting to turn on the Tunnelbear VPN. However, when I went back online after the VPN failure, the problem started: no webpages, no email.

In case the Tunnelbear app had done some kind of damage, I ran an sfc scannow and Windows subsequently reported that it had found some corrupted files but had successfully repaired them all. But that made no difference to the problem. I Revo�d out Tunnelbear and tried again. Still nothing.

Today I have been able to come to a friend�s house and use his computer to send this post. I am not at my home computer because, obviously, it won�t connect to the Net. (Thought I�d better make that clear: I�m not at home; I�m not using the affected computer right now.)

The intricacies of DNS and everything related to it are unfortunately beyond me (put it down to age.) I wondered, then, if someone could (a) diagnose the problem based on the above info and (b) perhaps suggest some changes I could make to my home computer to get me back on the Net again and restore my desktop email functionality.

Advice / help would be greatly appreciated -- thanks.

What modem/router do you use with BT Infinity?

It may be worth using Windows system restore to go back a few days to when it worked

Windows restore is reporting an error and has failed three times. I've gone back a week or two but really wouldn't wish to go much further because a pre-restore scan of likely-to-be-affected programs is bad news indeed.

I was thinking that the Tunnelbear crash had done *something* to the settings needed for me to get back to normal. I'm taking it that a VPN alters those settings for its own purposes but then restores 'em back to what they were for non-VPN Internet usage.

My router is a BT Home Hub with the Infinity add-on. I've recycled the power three3 times but it's making no difference. The router appears to be working abolutely fine -- it's linked to our Sky TV for catchup programming, and both my wife's smartphone and mine are connected to the Internet without difficulty. It's how I got my emails today.

However, I really need my desktop computer to be functioning as it should. It seems clear to me that installing a VPN is NOT a good idea if something as well known as Tunnelbear can seemingly run amok.

Found a couple of things with a little googling. Might help, might not.

"Go into your network and sharing center, get into the local area connection properties for your default network device in there. In here, click the properties button, and under the area which says "This connection uses the following items:" Look for a CyberGhost entry and uninstall it."

Replace Cyberghost with TunnelBear in that one I would think.

And this from MS themselves, refers to inability to connect after connecting to a VPN, but there may be something useful in here settings wise.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/317025

Many thanks, azrael -- much appreciated. I've actually been busy over on a different forum that has more to do with Windows than broadband internet so I may have come to the wrong place. Sorry, then, for any inconvenience caused here.

The solution to my problem, and perhaps a solution to anyone else's if they have connectivity problems, turns out to be here::

http://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=6653

a University of Wisconsin-Madison "quick fix" guide covering the how-to of (a) re-setting the TCP/IP; (b) re-setting Windows Winsock and (c) re-setting Windows Firewall. The tutorial takes no more than a few minutes to read (it's nearly all pictures) and covers operating systems from XP through to Windows 8. Implementing the solution took me 2 minutes.

I wish I'd known all this yesterday and most of today. Ah well. I'm now back up and running again as from 5 minutes ago. All best and thanks to all for their help.