Internet issue
 

I'm on holidays and using a wireless connection. All of a sudden I can't get either Firefox or Explorer to connect to the Internet. I get a "Firefox has crashed..." etc. message as soon as I click on it. (My home page doesn't appear.) I also get "Explorer has encountered a problem..."

I can connect to hotmail and then to other sites once I'm on hotmail. Another computer in the same residence can connect to Explorer at the same time I can't.

The wireless connection is rated as "excellent" and seems to be fine. Everthing was working properly earlier today.

Any possible explanation or suggestions would be appreciated!

LA

How on Earth do you get to hotmail if you can't open Internet Explorer or Firefox? Got another browser, just for hotmail?

What antivirus and firewall do you use?

I had a similar problem with a desktop machine this week. It's wired to the router.

Email working fine, but no Internet. I re-installed Firefox and that worked fine. IE did not wake up, though. For some reason, I did not bother to reinstall that.

Tarq57, I have AVG Free. As dumb as this sounds, I'm not really sure how I first managed to get into hotmail--I tried so many things...looked for installed programs that might take me to the Internet. But the interesting thing is that hotmail now seems to be linked to Outlook Express, which never worked before. I have always used hotmail exclusively on this computer.

Vitesse, I tried reinstalling Firefox but to no avail. It still tells me it crashes as soon as I try to open it.

This is one of the weirdest things I have experienced on my computer. In the meantime, I'll just keep hotmail open because then I can get to Pprune, and other sites like Google.

Try downloading MBAM (free version) install it, update it, run a quick scan. Have it remove anything found. If it prompts for a reboot to complete removal, do so promptly. Post the details of anything found.

There are other tools that can be used, depending on the problem, such as LSPFix; you might want to flush the DNS cache. Easy way to do this is to right click the connections icon in the system tray, select 'repair'. The flush takes place as part of the repair, unless something doesn't want it to.

[edit] I guess you use the Windows firewall? That shouldn't be the source of the problem, if so.

Shame. Would have been an easy fix.

Good luck.

Late - I'm obviously (again) behind the drag curve here.:confused:

How does 'Hotmail' - which is 'linked to Outlook Express' - let you surf the internet?. Cna you describe exactly what happens when you visit Hotmail? Are you using Windows Live?

Latearrival,

Maybe your Windows user profile has gone haywire.

Try creating a new profile and see how that goes.

Tarq57, I clicked on the MBAM ink you kindly provided but since I can't get into Explorer, it wouldn't connect to the site.

BOAC, once I'm on hotmail, I can type an Internet address into the address bar and that's how I'm able to get on other sites. I've also discovered that I can get onto regular hotmail by typing the address of my homepage (Sympatico) into the hotmail version that I'm keeping open. Then I can get into my regular hotmail that way.

Everyone, I'm pretty close to being computer illiterate so that compounds the problem. I thought there might be an obvious solution or a quick fix but I should have known better...never my experience with computers. I have to leave this for a few hours since I am on holidays and can't dedicate most of the day to cursing my computer. Will play with it again later and report back if I make any progress.
Thanks very much for your input. Much appreciated!

LA

Late - it sounds to me as if you are ACTUALLY using hotmail through a browser! What does the top left of the screen say (normally a blue bar running across there).

Why not cut and paste Tarqs link into your 'address bar' and see what happens?

Back in after trying to do some holiday stuff...

BOAC, at the moment, the blue bar says PPRuNe Forums-Reply to Topic-Microsoft Outlook.

It appears that I can get into Internet sites like PPRuNe and Google but not those that have any affiliation with Explorer or Firefox. For example, I received a stock alert from a site affiliated with Explorer but when I tried to click on the link to that site, it wouldn't open.

I did try to copy and paste Tarq's link into the address bar but it didn't open. So it appears that site has an affiliation that my computer doesn't like.

mixture,

Forgot to address your suggestion in my last reply. I'm not sure how to create a new Windows user profile. I also can't get into any Windows-related sites.

It sounds as if something has altered a thing called 'file associations' on your machine - probably best left until you are back from hols and have more time to fix.

Anyone else concur?

I don't un-concur, but darned if I know. We'll have to find out for sure what program is being used to view hotmail, I guess.

I have (but don't use) Outlook 2003 and I can access any site through the web address bar there, no restrictions (with the same 'blue bar' wording) - very odd.

F Associations for me are set for htm and html to Firefox.

But does the address then open a browser, or can you display a web site using Outlook?
Pardon my ignorance, I've never tried this.

The latter - I'm also an 'Outlook Virgin'.:) NB You do need the web toolbar enabled.

LateArrival

Sounds like you might have inadvertently changed a setting somewhere. If as you say the computer was working fine a day or two ago, then I suggest you try a system restore.

If you are using XP, click on:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, then select "Restore My Computer to an Earlier Time", then Click on "Next"

Use the calendar to choose a date & time a little prior to when your computer last worked properly, then select "Next" and it will ask you to confirm the restore point selection.

Click on "Next" and watch it do it's thing. As part of the process it will re-boot your computer, and when finished it will tell you if the restore process was successful or not.

If successful, after it has booted up, try the internet again.

Let us know what happened. If not successful there are one or two other things we can try.

Good Luck.......LC

BOAC, that's what I've concluded. I need a few hours of uninterupted time to curse at my computer.

LastCall, thank you very much for the suggestion and detailed instructions. I will try that at the first available opportunity and report back.

Thanks everybody!

Late- take a 'rain check' before you just 'Restore' - it can be a bit of a 'shotgun' approach and you will lose settings and programmes that you have changed/installed since the date you select for the restore.

Gents,

Just to throw another cat amongst the canaries: I have had a very similar problem for nearly 3 weeks, with a range of websites inaccessible via Firefox or Safari yet Mail sometimes still works, and a ping to the offending site shows good connectivity. PPRuNe and online newspaper sites seem to be the worst!

I run Mac OSX10, and the issue is on two Macs connected to the same network. I've bought and installed a new modem (old one was due for replacement anyway) and a new Airport Express to extend the wireless coverage. Apple have spent a lot of time helping, as have my ISP, all to no avail. Data package loss seems to be a possible culprit, but what is causing it?

The 'outages' tend to be around 2300Z and 1100Z, I now just get away from the infernal machines and wait for the problem to resolve itself.

Until something positive fixes it :hmm:

I had similar problems to yours Senior P. though I am on a Windows machine, using ADSL2 and a router. Huge amount of trouble shooting by Telstra/Bigpond etc. and it turned out to be excessive 'noise' coming from a set top box that my next door neighbour had for a huge satellite dish antenna he had bought to receive up to 32 non English speaking programmes! As soon as the box was off everything back to normal. Maybe a piece of electrical equipment near you comes into play around 11.00 and 23.00?

Sorry LateArrival, can't help.

pb,

Thanks: I'll follow that up, as I did check stuff around the house such as portable phone frequencies, etc. There's a bit of development going on nearby with new houses, goodness knows how I can check them all!

Like BOAC, I can use the full Outlook client (not Outlook Express) as a browser. It is not clear how independent it is of IE - certainly in my case I find that the browsing history in Outlook is identical to the copy of IE7 I occasionally use for testing. But it is a different executable, so that may explain why it has not been crippled alongside IE and Firefox.

The fact that this behaviour started for the OP on a network other than his own (possibly with no firewall), targeted web browsers to the extent that he can selectively no longer navigate to their websites while other sites (like PPRuNe) are accessible (albeit using a mail client as a browser), makes me think MalWare.

LateArrival - until you can get the PC disinfected (or worst case, rebuilt), I would strongly recommend that you don't connect to the internet, and certainly don't conduct any online transactions, banking etc.

The full link to Malwarebytes is Malwarebytes - you could try entering that (cut and paste) into the address bar of your mail client, rather than clicking on the link.

If you can get to it and download and run it, that should help. If the site is blocked, then it would tend to confirm it's a malware problem.

SD

Before I logged onto PPRuNe this morning and saw BOAC's and Saab Dastard's cautionary posts, I tried System Restore (have used it a few times over the years but didn't think to try it this time.)

It worked!And since I hadn't installed anything on my computer since the restore date I chose, I didn't lose anything. I would still like to know what caused the problem in the first place (I did run virus and malware scans as soon as the issue started) but I'm glad it seems to be resolved. So, thank you to LastCall and everyone else who contributed to this thread.

Since I have been throwing my computer issues into this forum I have always been grateful for the advice and information I've received...a great spirit of generosity here. It's such a valuable resource and one I appreciate very much.

Latearrival

Brilliant! Yes, I too have received enormous assistance here.

Don't forget to run an updated Malwarebytes scan just in case! System restore is excellent at also restoring a virus if it was present at the chosen restore date.

Latearrival,

I'm delighted that you have got back to a working state, but I still recommend that you exercise caution on the wifi network you are visiting.

At least run the Windows firewall, and preferably download something better, like ZoneAlarm.

Otherwise it may happen again!

SD