Windows Firewall stoping IE, but not other browsers

[Chris]

As a standard disclaimer - my computer has been working fine, and my network
works with other machines.

During the past week I've noticed that IE has been having problems
connecting to sites. At first I thought my connection had an issue, then I
tried other browsers on my computer and they all connect fine. I've found
that I need to disable, then reenable the windows firewall to get IE working
again. This even occurs if I leave the firewall turned off, I will need to
change the status of the firewall to get IE going again.

Any thoughts???

 

[Malke]

As a standard disclaimer - my computer has been working fine, and my
network works with other machines.

During the past week I've noticed that IE has been having problems
connecting to sites. At first I thought my connection had an issue, then
I
tried other browsers on my computer and they all connect fine. I've found
that I need to disable, then reenable the windows firewall to get IE
working
again. This even occurs if I leave the firewall turned off, I will need
to change the status of the firewall to get IE going again.

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what changed
between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Also you can try running IE in no-add-ons mode to see if a recent add-on is
causing the problem.

MS webpage explaining add-ons: http://tinyurl.com/2tro8f

Right-click on the blue IE desktop icon and select Start without Add-ons; or

Start > (All) Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No
add-ons).

Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer?s (No Add-ons) Mode -
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/25/678113.aspx

Malke