Internet Explorer Browser problems

[The Colonel]

I'm using Windows Vista on my laptop, and the browser is causing me trouble.

When I load the browser about 50% of the time the page doesn't load. It simply says page cannot be displayed etc. (My browser is set to Google as the homepage). Usually, I refresh it once and Google appears. Sometimes it takes more than one try.

It isn't just when the screen starts - it also happens with loading any new webpage - for example if I google something and then come here to FF the FF page will say "cannot load page correctly" which I then have to refresh.

My internet is working 100% fine, so it is a problem with my browser/laptop.

Anyone know how to correct this as it is annoying the hell out of me.

Thanks.

[boingo]

Have you had problems with other web sites too, or just those two?
Not that I can really help if you do, it's just that I also found Google was playing up for me about a day ago. Not just Google.com, but Google.com.au & Google.co.uk.
Female first is always stuffing up. It's very rare that a day goes by without FF giving me a heap of error messages.
All other sites seem to load fine for me though.

[micky-m8]

I use IE7 as little as possible because it is full of spyware and adverts. The browser I am viewing this FF page with is Flock1.2, an open-source borwser available free to download from their website. Being free from spyware and adverts, it just gets on with the job of browsing the internet.

[The Colonel]

It is a problem with every page I view - no matter what site it is.

[PlasticAnnArbor]

if firefox 3 (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ ) has the same problem then it is yous isp that has the problem .
how do you connect with the net .
dial up, dsl ( 256k or 1 meg) cable (- usa 1 meg to 10 meg , or 56 meg )
if cable or dsl you might want to can/fire/get rid of your isp's dns look up and install OpenDNS http://www.opendns.com/ and click " get started "

[monosodium]

It's unlikely to be DNS as if it were then sites would fail consitently, which colonel already said it isn't. If a DNS response is received, it is cached by the OS so once an incorrect value was received then a refresh wouldn't fix it for a while.

That means it's not getting a DNS response at all, or the request couldn't be made. A typical symptom of this would be that the error comes up pretty much instantly.

My first port of call would be if you have a 3rd party firewall. Turn it off and enable the one built into windows and try that. Otherwise you need to determine if it's your browser or your laptop - so I hate to say it but installing FF3 might be your best bet for testing.


* Just a note for those who have multiple browsers installed - if it is installed you still need to remember to keep it up to date, regardless of what it is. There are various documented attacks which use a vulnerability in one browser through another.

[PlasticAnnArbor]

still think that it is a look up problem .My isp's lookup would quew me then sometimes lose it .This was causing me to get 404 errors after 350 sec.Once i got rid of the isp provided dns ,it cleared up .

[cruze]

hmm I had a similar problem a while back but it was reversed, I lost all routing with firefox I had to open and close it several time just to get a page up that might fix it upto 30 mins max, IE 6 worked ok, my dns was fine my wifes pc was getting web pages ok, I found out that I was infected vundo trojan, after running a program my AV software said it was clean but it was'nt.

I dunno if there was more on there but I tried the vundo cleaner from nortons and it removed it the first time but it came back everytime, so I reformatted and all is ok.

if your using AVG try using another scanner that may fix it or bite the bullet and format it and reinstall the OS