Internet connectivity problem

[Joe Boy]

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

I am connecting to the internet through a router with one other
computer connected to the router as well.

I am having a problem in that after the computer has been on for a few
hours it will no longer connect to web sites. Either the progress bar
stops or I get the "web site cannot be found" type of message.

I usually use IE7 but when this start I find that Firefox cannot
connect either.

After rebooting the computer all is OK again for a few hours.

After the problem starts I can ping the web sites with OK responses
and the other computer on the router has no problems connecting to the
same web sites.

HijackThis, spyware and virus checker all show no apparent
infestations.

Nothing untoward in the hosts file.

All suggestions for a fix will be gratefully received!

 

[Questor]

--->

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

I am connecting to the internet through a router with one other
computer connected to the router as well.

I am having a problem in that after the computer has been on for a few
hours it will no longer connect to web sites. Either the progress bar
stops or I get the "web site cannot be found" type of message.

I usually use IE7 but when this start I find that Firefox cannot
connect either.

After rebooting the computer all is OK again for a few hours.

After the problem starts I can ping the web sites with OK responses
and the other computer on the router has no problems connecting to the
same web sites.

HijackThis, spyware and virus checker all show no apparent
infestations.

Nothing untoward in the hosts file.

All suggestions for a fix will be gratefully received!

Are you using ZoneAlarm as your firewall? If so, then uninstall it.
There is a bug in ZA that will cause this sort of problem on Vista machines.

Questor

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

--->

Are you using ZoneAlarm as your firewall? If so, then uninstall it.
There is a bug in ZA that will cause this sort of problem on Vista machines.

Thanks Questor

Yes I am - I will give that a try.

Cheers .............

 

[Questor]

--->

Thanks Questor

Yes I am - I will give that a try.

Cheers .............

Be sure to let us know if that worked. Some really hot debates are
focusing on this problem - here and both Mozilla and ZA forums.

Questor

 

[Joe Boy]

Thanks Questor

Yes I am - I will give that a try.

Thank from me to - the OP! Stubbo must have the same problem!!

What Firewall would you suggest I use instead?

 

[Questor]

--->

Thank from me to - the OP! Stubbo must have the same problem!!

What Firewall would you suggest I use instead?

How about the Vista firewall? It works well for me here. It is
bi-directional if you want it to be.

Questor

 

[Gordon]

Thank from me to - the OP! Stubbo must have the same problem!!

What Firewall would you suggest I use instead?

If you connect to the internet via a NATS Router then the built-in Vista
firewall is more than adequate...

 

[Clark]

--->

Be sure to let us know if that worked. Some really hot debates are
focusing on this problem - here and both Mozilla and ZA forums.

Questor

If Zone Alarm was blocking the connection, wouldn't something show up in
it's logs around the time the interruptions started?

I am currently using Zone Alarm paid version and have not experienced
such blockages.

Clark

 

[Questor]

--->

If Zone Alarm was blocking the connection, wouldn't something show up in
it's logs around the time the interruptions started?

I am currently using Zone Alarm paid version and have not experienced
such blockages.

Clark

Well, ZA, itself, isn't really "blocking" connections but something is
making web-access programs start acting as if they cannot connect to the
internet - no matter if you've allowed their access through ZA.

Firefox is a good example. I had it on both my laptop and desktop Vista
machines. Once I put ZA (which I've used since it's infancy on Win98
machines) on them, my FF connections on BOTH machines began to
experience 'outages' that didn't affect Thunderbird, or my FTP programs.
When FF failed, I would have to go to Task Manager to kill it because
although the user interface had closed, there was a "ghost" copy of
'firefox.exe' still listed in programs. Task Manager could NOT kill it,
nor could Process Explorer, as it appears that ZA had somehow elevated
the task to a system task instead of a user task. This meant you had to
reboot to clear FF for use again. It would run once, then when you
closed the interface, the ghost would appear again.

This may very well be a red herring in this case, but certainly
something to be aware of. Both the Mozillazine forum and the ZA forum
have lots of posts on this problem.

Questor

 

[Joe Boy]

If you connect to the internet via a NATS Router then the built-in Vista
firewall is more than adequate...

Pardon my ignorance but what is NATS?

My router is SMC Barricade Plus 7004FW

I have uninstalled Zone Alarm and activated Vista Firewall but it
failed the leak test that I got from
http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

 

[Clark]

--->

Well, ZA, itself, isn't really "blocking" connections but something is
making web-access programs start acting as if they cannot connect to the
internet - no matter if you've allowed their access through ZA.

Firefox is a good example. I had it on both my laptop and desktop Vista
machines. Once I put ZA (which I've used since it's infancy on Win98
machines) on them, my FF connections on BOTH machines began to
experience 'outages' that didn't affect Thunderbird, or my FTP programs.
When FF failed, I would have to go to Task Manager to kill it because
although the user interface had closed, there was a "ghost" copy of
'firefox.exe' still listed in programs. Task Manager could NOT kill it,
nor could Process Explorer, as it appears that ZA had somehow elevated
the task to a system task instead of a user task. This meant you had to
reboot to clear FF for use again. It would run once, then when you
closed the interface, the ghost would appear again.

This may very well be a red herring in this case, but certainly
something to be aware of. Both the Mozillazine forum and the ZA forum
have lots of posts on this problem.

Questor

I'll keep my eyes open for the problem.

Clark

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

Pardon my ignorance but what is NATS?

My router is SMC Barricade Plus 7004FW

I have uninstalled Zone Alarm and activated Vista Firewall but it
failed the leak test that I got from
http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

I tried Comodo Friewall but it failed the same leak test :-(

Zone Alarmdid not fail the leak test.

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

I tried Comodo Friewall but it failed the same leak test :-(

Zone Alarm did not fail the leak test.

I have now installed PC Tools Firewall Plus and it passed the leak
test.

So far all going well!

 

[Gordon]

Pardon my ignorance but what is NATS?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation



My router is SMC Barricade Plus 7004FW

I have uninstalled Zone Alarm and activated Vista Firewall but it
failed the leak test that I got from
http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

I would take the results of that "test" with a huge pinch of salt.....as
long as you have adequate AV and Malware applications, the fact that
something can "reach" a web server is NO indication of a problem - all
Internet pages are on a web server, so I am not convinced by that "leak
test" at all. There is no information displayed on how this "leak" test
actually works...

 

[Joe Boy]

--->

Be sure to let us know if that worked. Some really hot debates are
focusing on this problem - here and both Mozilla and ZA forums.

OK - I've been using my computer with Zone Alarm uninstalled for
nearly a week now and no more of the problem that I described earlier!

Thanks for the tip, Questor

 

[Questor]

--->

OK - I've been using my computer with Zone Alarm uninstalled for
nearly a week now and no more of the problem that I described earlier!

Thanks for the tip, Questor

Glad to be of help Joe. Maybe some time ZA will work out what causes
this and it can then be re-installed on Vista.

Questor