Sbs 2011 not displaying webpages

do you really need to browse web pages from server directly?
what about clients in your LAN enviroment, do they have also this problem?

Hi

What kind of webpages? like OWA?
If you have tried ->    https://mail.yourdomain.com/owa  what does it say?

Else, if you open inetmgr  on that server and browse to default website-> OWA rightclick and explore. Does this raise an error or what is happening?

Ideally you don't want to access the web from the server. This will reduce the exposure to malicious sites.

client PCs are not displaying webpages either, that is why I tried the server. I can browse to remote.mydomain.co.uk/owa and it works fine

When you say you can ping google from the server - is this using the ip (8.8.8.8) or via the hostname (www.google.co.uk/www.google.com)?

via host name

have just tried to ping 8.8.8.8 and that works fine

If you set one of the workstations to use a static IP and specific an external DNS server (i.e. Google - 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 or OpenDNS - 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220) is that able to to access websites? (Just trying to narrow down where the exact issue lies).

will try this, things have been working fine until a few days ago?!?

Check command tracert www.google.com if it will pass.
Is it problem to browse web pagee on port 80 (www.google.com) as well as on 443 (https://www.google.com)?

tracert seems to pass, not sure what you mean port 80 or 443?? just cannot browse internet on an pc connected to the domain? or the server

can you browse this:
https://www.google.com
http://www.microsoft.com

if tracert also ping is working, if you ping a page and get back also its IP then DNS is working, so then it seems port 80 for browsing net is blocked. It could be a malware/virus infection or just configuration on your firewall/router?
can you test - take PC which is not able to browse web page to another LAN - friends LAN, your home LAN etc and test the same web page? if you are able than your network is problem and needs to be investigated, if you are not than it´s related to PC(s)

the PCs are at clients site at the moment, I have noticed that when the vpn is connected, our own internet stops?? this always worked before, could this be related?? could it be an issue with my clients isp??

do you have different IP range than client has? (VPN problem question)

yes, it could be ISP issue, but I would prefer to ask ISP if they are not experiencing such a problem and in meantime investigate also client´s LAN so not to waste time if ISP answers they are fine

Yes we are on different ip range to client, this has been working fine for months until a few days ago, will check client PCs when I can

Can you try doing a telnet on port 25 to another (external) mail server to see if it connects or RDP onto a different (external) system.

I've seen this kind of behaviour before (port 80 and 443 traffic prevented) and it ended up being a payment issue with the ISP. Many ISP's will block traffic on port 80 and 443 if they think the account is not up-to-date but things like Pings, tracerts, dns, etc seems to work fine.

As for your VPN - depending on how it's setup it may be passing ALL traffic (including internet) to the problematic site when it's connected which will explain why you lose internet connection when the VPN connects.

If this happens only in Internet Explorer and you can open web pages normally in other browsers, then you have the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration enabled. You can change this in server manager.

Was ISP Issue, not related to server or setup

Please note ISP issues and suggestions were made by myself and Helpfinder, please assign solution appropriately please.

Helpfinder:

"yes, it could be ISP issue, but I would prefer to ask ISP if they are not experiencing such a problem and in meantime investigate also client´s LAN so not to waste time if ISP answers they are fine"

Myself:

"I've seen this kind of behaviour before (port 80 and 443 traffic prevented) and it ended up being a payment issue with the ISP. Many ISP's will block traffic on port 80 and 443 if they think the account is not up-to-date but things like Pings, tracerts, dns, etc seems to work fine. "

This would also explain why email/vpn/rdp worked and just web browsing was not - BT don't block all traffic, only HTTP/HTTPS when there's a payment/billing flag on the account.