I can connect to https, but not to http sites

[didjital]

Hello,
I would deeply appreciate any help with this. I'm very close to reinstalling
windows, which I'm trying to avoid.

My desktop browser can't seem to connect to http sites, while there seems to
be no issue wth https sites. I can view http sites very briefly after a
router/modem reset or windows reboot, but within less than 5 minutes, those
sites stop working again. I've scoured many websites trying to address this
issue, but the fixes don't seem to do any good.

The PC has worked fine for a long time. I'm running XP SP 2, newly
installed. It's hardlined into the router. All the laptops in the house have
no problems connecting to normal sites, so I figure it must be just on this
desktop. All firewalls are disabled, I've set IE security to it's lowest
setting. I have full email/p2p functionality. Ping seems to return no losses.
Here's what I've tried so far, roughly in the order I performed them:

*netsh/winsock/reset catalog
*windows file protection sfc
*desktop browser can’t connect to router http://192.168.1.1 or
https://192.168.1.1, but laptop can
*upgraded router firmware, switched laptop/desktop connections at router,
desktop still doesn’t connect
*per netgear support, changed mtu size to 1400 with Dr. tcp. Didn’t work
*lsp fix didn’t detect a winsock problem

Thanks

 

[John Wunderlich]

My desktop browser can't seem to connect to http sites, while
there seems to be no issue wth https sites. I can view http sites
very briefly after a router/modem reset or windows reboot, but
within less than 5 minutes, those sites stop working again. I've
scoured many websites trying to address this issue, but the fixes
don't seem to do any good.

The PC has worked fine for a long time. I'm running XP SP 2, newly
installed. It's hardlined into the router. All the laptops in the
house have no problems connecting to normal sites, so I figure it
must be just on this desktop. All firewalls are disabled, I've set
IE security to it's lowest setting. I have full email/p2p
functionality. Ping seems to return no losses. Here's what I've
tried so far, roughly in the order I performed them:
[snip]

This sounds like a firewall problem. You say that you have disabled
the firewall, but even when disabled it is still in the chain.
Before you resort to re-installing Windows, try completely un-
installing any firewall programs that you have and then reboot. If
that fixes it, then try re-installing the firewall program.
Sometimes VPN Clients (such as Cisco's) contain a firewall program as
well. So try temporarily un-installing any VPN client too.

HTH,
John