Hey there! I'm turning to this relatively computer literate community with my network woes. :(

So, I live on the premises of a school in France. I access the Internet, through wi-fi, to the school's general network (the school doesn't have
wi-fi generally, just in my apartment so I can get on the network). I use a static IP address - I don't know if that's important. Outside of school hours, I normally have to 'authorise' myself as someone who works at the school every four hours. Previously, when it was time to authorise, the authorisation page would just pop up in Chrome, I'd enter my credentials, and away I'd go. A few months ago it stopped redirecting me properly in Chrome - it would just say "waiting for xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" and then time out with Error 101, connection reset. I already had Firefox installed and that was redirecting me fine, so I used that. About a week ago, Firefox stopped redirecting me. I opened IE, but that didn't work either. Just by chance I happened to open Steam, which apparently has an in-built browser. That redirected, which was great! However, that's suddenly stopped working too. :( I don't understand why the browsers would start dropping out as I use them.

Weirdly, even while I'm not 'authorised', pages that are already open seem to continue working, e.g. Facebook, YouTube and GMail. Any time I try to load a fresh URL, though, it's no good.

My roommate, who accesses the Internet through the same wi-fi connection, has no trouble getting Chrome to re-direct her.

The completely jaded tech repairperson in me says uninstall/reinstall windows. :P

On a serious note, try cleaning out your browsers (most of them have a reset option if doing the typical delete cookies, temporary internet files, etc. doesn't work, but that can get rid of bookmarks I think). Beyond that, I'm pretty terribad with networks, so one of the smart folks around here is going to have to help you.

Oh, have you tried contacting IT at your school?

Echoing Lilija's suggestion to clear cache and cookies. School IT might be able to assist too.

There may also be an option to put the password in when connecting to the Internet, with a wireless network profile on your computer. Then you don't have to wait for that redirect in the browser. It depends on if they've set up the network to expect a password at that point, so again, have to talk to IT.

Yes, but he doesn't speak English and my French, especially technical, is not always up-to-scratch. Also, he kind of has the attitude that if it's working right now, there's no problem. Except my problem only exists after hours. :( I've tried clearing my cache and everything. Anyway, I don't think I'd used IE since Day 1 when I used it to get Chrome and Firefox. I'd never used it to authorise before, definitely.

I would run a full virus and spyware scan as well. Many university systems will not permit you to use their network if they detect that your computer is infected.

New information that makes no sense: I opened Firefox in Safe Mode with all add-one disabled, and now it's just working without even asking me to authorise. Problem remains in Chrome and other non-browser programs like Steam and online games.

EDIT: Virus scan turned up nothing.