Three weeks ago there was a storm that caused a power outage causing my computer to shutoff and turn back on 5 hours later when the power came back. Since then ive been unable to login into secure sites like Hotmail,Ebay and am unable to login in to MSN Messenger also having problems with yahoo. I get Cannot find server DNS Error.

I uninstalled Zone Alarm,Norton lowered security settings this made no difference. I disconnected the router and hooked up modem straight to the computer it also made no difference.

I called shaw and they had me pull the power to the modem and plug it back in and try logging in. This worked and I was able to login so I got off the phone with customer serivce but two minutes later it stopped working. Everytime I wanna go into hotmail I have to unplug the modem and plug it back in and it works for a couple of minutes.

Do you think I need a new modem or is something else wrong? All the modems lights work fine Power,Receive,Send,Online,PC Activity.

The power went out last week and my DSL modem died. I think it was already on its way out but there must have been some sort of surge that finished it off. The modem is probably the weakest link in the setup. On the one side it has the electrical ground and on the other, telephone/cable lines that can carry surges or stray voltages when there are storms or power problems. If it's under warranty, it will probably be replaced but that can take weeks. Best to get a new one and toss the old one, or keep it as a spare it it is replaced.

It's not really the power outage that is causing this..
It's when they put back the power, it's causing a surge in the line. It's not suppose the be high enough to cause damage, but I've already seen Hydro-Québec putting back power to a house, but they plug the house directly to the main source, not the wire that is 120 volt ;)
So, they send 50 000 volts into the house and every electric equipement just died at the very moment :P

But this is really rare because they suppose to know how to do there job. But sometime, a electric charge is going up in the wire and when they plug back the wire, it's causing a burst of courant...

(Sorry for my poor english explaining that!!! )

Are you using a router? DNS error would make me suspect your routers gateway which usually provides DNS may be flaky. If so, try doing a hard reset on the router.

;482934']It's not really the power outage that is causing this..
It's when they put back the power, it's causing a surge in the line. It's not suppose the be high enough to cause damage, but I've already seen Hydro-Québec putting back power to a house, but they plug the house directly to the main source, not the wire that is 120 volt ;)
So, they send 50 000 volts into the house and every electric equipement just died at the very moment :P

But this is really rare because they suppose to know how to do there job. But sometime, a electric charge is going up in the wire and when they plug back the wire, it's causing a burst of courant...

(Sorry for my poor english explaining that!!! )
H-Q feeding 50,000 Volts to you is not possible. A surge may be in the area of 150 volts which "can" do damage if the duration is long enough

Power went out the other day again and the comp shutoff and on twice in 10 minutes and the router went dead. It dosent work in any plug no lights nothing. I guess I should go buy a surge protector. Am I doing something wrong? I have a regular powerbar for all the comp stuff (modem,router,printer,monitor,speakers) thats switched on 24/7. When I need to turn the comp on I just hit the power switch on the desktop.

Anyways shaw customer service isnt helping me much and saying its not a modem problem. They wont even come look at it or replace it so im switching to telus. Ive had ppl bring there notebooks over and hook it upto my modem and they had the same problem not being able to login into secure sites but Shaw is being stupid.

I disconnected the router and it made no difference. Lowered all security setting and uninstalled all anti-virus/firewall programs and I still get dns error at all secure sites. This all started after the original power outage during a wind storm in late dec here in BC. Router is dead now anyways after another wind storm two days ago so my sis cant use her notebook. Telus is coming next week to set up adsl.

I work for a major ISP and yes, they can damage modems but more likely a power surge will damage your NIC (port on your PC that ethernet connects to).