have to restart to access internet

[Bryan]

I have cable internet-motorola cable modem, D-link
router, with 2 pc's running xp-host is xp pro and 2nd pc
is xp home. occasionally while on the internet the pc
that is being used will have to be restarted in order to
access the web. The pc is still connected to the
internet...I can even ping a server at a remote location,
but internet explorer can't access any website as if it
has no connection. there is no pattern that I can detect
to this behavior. It occurs with either pc.

Any Ideas?

 

[Tom]

I experienced a similar problem when using my comcast.net
email...all internet use to my knowledge is working fine,
but composing, forwarding or replying to emails within my
comcast.net account I get an IE error saying that if the
problem persists to restart. No error code or indication
of the problem is given. I am not networked like Bryan
though. Any one identify a fix? I've repaired and
reloaded IE to no avail. Comcast has not offered a
solution to the problem either blaming the issue to my
browser.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I can even ping a server at a remote location,

but internet explorer can't access any website as if it
has no connection.

Could be a malware effect. (E.g. hijacker forcing you to visit
either an unserviced location or hijacker which has corrupted
the HTTP prefix values.)

XP Pro contains netcap in its Support tools package; so you
could use it to do packet capture and check on the first possibility.
The resulting .cap files are binary but because HTTP is character
based you can see some of the protocol in there just by browsing it.
Otherwise use something like Ethereal to format the .cap files.

There is another tool which might help at least identify the DNS request
which would occur from such a possibility:

<title>KB837243 - Availability and description of the Port Reporter tool</title>


If you're lucky you might be able to fix the second possibility
(at least temporarily) with a repair. The one I am recommending
for NT5 users in particular (because their IE Repair either isn't available
or isn't comprehensive enough) is KB831429. I.e. do all the regsvr32
commands suggested in Method 1 of that article.


For more complete solutions to malware see the suggestions from
any of the other MVPs and frequent responders.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle