IE6 won't browse WEB

[Guest]

I have a problem where IE6 won't browse the WEB. I'm running XP Pro SP2. I
have NOD32 for AV. Spysweeper is active on the system and I run Adaware once
a week.
I also run firefox without any problems.

When I open IE6, the home page doesn't load and gives the standard DNS error
page. If I type www.yahoo.com in the address bar I get the popup error that
it can't access the search page. Also, when I type www.yahoo.com in the
address bar, the status bar at the bottom of the browser says
"www.www.yahoo.com.net".

I can access windows update just fine when I access it through the control
panel. If I explore "my computer" and type www.yahoo.com in that address bar,
the web page opens fine.

Any ideas?

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

....

when I type www.yahoo.com in the address bar,
the status bar at the bottom of the browser says
"www.www.yahoo.com.net".

That's a symptom of a poorly performing DNS server.
Unfortunately IE seems to have an undocumented timeout
we have no control over. The only solution that I know of
is to improve the connection so that DNS requests are
satisfied in a timely fashion. Check with your ISP for help.

If you have a dial-up connection you can force this symptom by setting
it to Never dial... Make sure you don't have a proxy set on the LAN.
(I just tried this and forgot that I happened to have Fiddler active. Oops.)

It also helps to either use a protocol prefix on your URL
or otherwise have search from the Address bar disabled.

Hmm... it looks as if IE7 has removed this case
so now we can't see the idiocy of it working its way through
all the possibilities defined for the old AutoScan feature.


AutoScan was a precursor to AutoComplete for web addresses.
Unfortunately because people still like using its Ctrl-Enter keyboard
shortcut in the Address bar some of its implementation is still present here

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate

and that is what is causing the extra strangeness in your symptom.


More information:

<title>KB221754 - How to Search the Internet from the Address Bar in Internet Explorer</title>

<title>KB182291 - How to Add Domain Types to Autoscan List in Internet Explorer</title>


FYI

Robert Aldwinckle