A weird problem when I surf internet with IE 6, Can anyone help?

[Andy Lee]

I didn't meet this problem until several days ago. Can
someone tell me what the problem is?

System configurations:
Windows XP, IE 6
I updates Windows regularly. I update antivirus software
and scan my computer regularly.
I access internet from our university LAN.

Symtoms:
After I launch IE 6 and browse internet for a while,
suddenly webpages just can not be downloaded and I get
a "page cannot be downloaded" error message. (I can see
in the status bar that IE tries to connect to the IP
address of the website before the error message is
shown.) Then IE cannot visit ANY website outside of our
university. (I do be able to browse perfectly the
university's web site.) I shut down IE and re-launch it,
it still doesn't work. The only way to make it work is to
restart my computer. Then it works again and the problem
occurs again. I use netstat -n, it shows that the
connection like this:

TCP 128.xx.xx.xx:3455 207.xx.xx.xx:80 SYN_SENT

It looks like that there's no response for this SYN_SENT
package, so the connection hangs there and eventually
times out.

I first suspected that IE was not configured correctly,
but I ruled out this possibility later. Then I suspected
it was system software failure or virus, so I formatted
my computer and reinstalled the system, but it didn't
solve the problem either. I then checked the hardware and
found no problem.

Does anyone know what is wrong with my computer?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Don Varnau]

Andy,
Scan for adware, spyware, parasites:

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Don

 

[Guest]

I have seen the same problem that he describes, but it does not at this time to be a spyware / adware problem
can ping and resolve DNS, can still chat on MSN Messenger and Yahoo chat as well
just unable to bring up web pages and outlook express email with out rebooting
then will only surf for a few minutes.

 

[Don Varnau]

David,
I'm not sure that this is the fix for you, but see:
LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Don
--
Newsgroup replies preferred, but e-mail address is...
don_04[at]varnau[dot]org
- - - - - - - -

I have seen the same problem that he describes, but it does not at this

time to be a spyware / adware problem.

 

[Guest]

When the winsock file is corrupt, normally you will be unable to surf no matter how many times you reboot.
With my current problem, if you reboot you can surf for a while, then after 2 to 10 mins you will no longer be able to surf, you can still ping and do a nslookup just fine, even chat on MSN messenger, but you will not be able to surf for 15 - 30 min or untill you reboot.

so I really doubt that it is a corrupt winsock file.

 

[Andy Lee]

Don,

Thank you for your help.

I still haven't found the reason and solution for the
problem. It doesn't look like some spyware or adware
caused it. I had the firewall recorded all traffics and
checked the log carefully. I didn't find any suspicious
connections. It doesn't look like a corrupt TCP stack
problem because I can surf websites inside my university.
Any more suggestions?

Thanks a lot,

Andy

 

[Andy Lee]

David,

It seems we meet the same problem. Could you please post
the solution if you find it? I will do the same thing if
I figure it out.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Guest]

It has been suggested by an ISP that these steps be tried

Turn off any software firewalls,

Scan the computer with Ad-awar

Turn the Software firewall back on

I personally do not feel this will fix the problem, but the ISP that is using these steps, say they are having a 70% success rate.

 

[Dave Brodin]

I read this thread and was wondering if anyone ever found out what
caused this problem. We had about 100 of our ISP customers who had this
same problem beginning around 1/30/04. They could view a few web pages
and then just get errors that the pages couldn't be loaded. After
restarting the computer, they would get the same. At first, I though it
was virus related, but all of the virus scanning, spyware removing,
etc., did nothing. As of 2/2/04, the problem just went away.

The only theory that even has made sense is that it was broken by some
kind of automated updates to their computers possible new updates to
their virus software.

I would just like to know why it happened for my peace of mind. Huge
thanks to anyone who has the answer.

 

[G2S]

I am experiencing exactly the same problem as you describe. Until you
mentioned it, I didn't realise the university pages still worked but
you are right - they do. Maybe we go to the same uni. Anyway, am
desperate to find a solution. Currently I'm having to restart my
computer every few minutes.

 

[Don Varnau]

Andy,
Well, here's the last of what I have...
A 2nd (unused) NIC can cause a freeze about every 10 minutes.

Or... http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/erriexpl.htm#IERRCONNECT

Search each of these pages for "connect" Sandi's site contains a lot of
information, but it's not easy to search.
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers2.htm#connection_freeze
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/internetexplorer3.htm
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers4.htm
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers_5.htm

Don

 

[judithk]

This has happened to me twice. Both times it was after I downloaded
and installed an update to my Windows XP Professional system. Both
times I did a system restore back to the point prior to the updates
and everything worked fine.

 

[Guest]

I have tried system restore with a few computers, and that did not make a difference, they still had the problem.

 

[Andy Lee]

I found this problem a few days earlier than 1/30/04 and
it disappeared on 2/1/04. I am still looking for the
answer just for my peace of mind.

It doesn't look like some automatic update interrupt IE
either, because I disabled any automatic updates and my
firewall was set to block anything except IE.

It was so weird problem. I checked everything: hardware,
software, virus, internet traffics, system logs, and the
like, but didn't find any answer. I am very eager to know
what caused it.

Huge thanks to anyone who has the answer.

Andy

 

[Andy Lee]

I don't think it works either because I formatted my
computer and reinstalled the system from scatch, but
still couldn't fix it. If it was caused by some
adware/spyware, they should have been wiped out when I
reinstalled my computer.

-----Original Message-----
It has been suggested by an ISP that these steps be tried.

Turn off any software firewalls,

Scan the computer with Ad-aware

Turn the Software firewall back on.

I personally do not feel this will fix the problem, but

the ISP that is using these steps, say they are having a
70% success rate.

 

[Andy Lee]

Don,

Thanks. My computer has only one NIC.

This problem disappeared a couple of days ago
mysteriously just as it occured mysteriously one week
ago. I am still looking for answer for my peace of mind.

Thanks,

Andy

-----Original Message-----
Andy,
Well, here's the last of what I have...
A 2nd (unused) NIC can cause a freeze about every 10 minutes.

Or...

http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/erriexpl.htm#IERRCONNE
CT

Search each of these pages for "connect" Sandi's site contains a lot of
information, but it's not easy to search.
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers2.htm#connection_ freeze
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/internetexplorer3.htm
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers4.htm
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers_5.htm

Don

"Andy Lee" <anonymous[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

Don,

Thank you for your help.

I still haven't found the reason and solution for the
problem. It doesn't look like some spyware or adware
caused it. I had the firewall recorded all traffics and
checked the log carefully. I didn't find any suspicious
connections. It doesn't look like a corrupt TCP stack
problem because I can surf websites inside my university.
Any more suggestions?

Thanks a lot,

Andy

.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your answer. However, I didn't update my
system recently. My computer worked fine after my last
update and this problem occured abruptly one week ago and
disappeared mysteriously itself a couple of days ago.

Thanks.

Andy

 

[Andy Lee]

After I did a search online, I found many poeple met this
problem in the past several days. Everybody is desperate
to find the answer, but so far it seems nobody knows why.

 

[JP]

I am experiencing exactly the same problem as you describe. Until you
mentioned it, I didn't realise the university pages still worked but
you are right - they do. Maybe we go to the same uni. Anyway, am
desperate to find a solution. Currently I'm having to restart my
computer every few minutes.

Greetings from Finland!

I had that same problem. Our ISP had blocked ports 3127-3198 in their
router because of that Mydoom-virus. After boot Windows XP starts to
use ports from ~3000 and when that port number grows to 3127,
connection hangs at SYN_SENT state. Try to type "netstat" at command
prompt so you can see if this is the problem. I think you must ask
your ISP if they have blocked those ports in their routers or
firewalls.

There is also a temporary fix. Press refresh-button of your browser so
many times that those port numbers 3127-3198 are passed. I got my
connection working when Windows started to use ports from 3199. Now
the connection is working all the time, because our ISP removed those
port blocking rules.

(Hopefully you understand my bad english, it's not my native language)

 

[G2S]

Thanks for the info. I tried hitting refresh many times and it worked.
So it's a good short-term solution.