Internet Explorer 8 does not connect

[Borg20001]

I have been having problems with my older 754 chip set PC.

Here's the info on my PC

AMD Sempron CPU (I think its the 3200)
2 Gigs of RAM
MSI MS-7228 motherboard
Windows XP SP3 OS
BIOS is AMI 080012 1/12/06
nVidia GF8600 GT

On ocassion, when I try to connect to the internet via IE 8.0, I get the following error message:
-------------------------------------------------
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.
etc.
-------------------------------------------------

I've run AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG anti-virus and all have found nothing.

This pc hooked to a cable internet modem via a LAN cable so its not a wireless connection issue. On the same internet server, my newer duel core pc connects fine to the internet via wireless LAN connector and I can open multiple IE8.0 windows.

On this older pc, I'm lucky to open one window then after a bit it gets laggy. Especially if I click on any links in the window that pop up new windows for the linked page.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is this an issue with IE 8.0?

Would I benefit from loading FireFox browser onto this older PC and run that instead of IE 8.0?

Can I have both browsers (IE 8.0 and Firefox) on the same PCwithout having any conflicts? Can I run one at a time while having both installed on the PC?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Borg20001

 

[Reincus]

You can run IE 8, Firefox, and Chrome all at the same time without any issues.

The problem is intermitant? If you reboot does it work fine?

 

[Borg20001]

You can run IE 8, Firefox, and Chrome all at the same time without any issues.

The problem is intermitant? If you reboot does it work fine?

It has been intermittent but of late sometimes a reboot only helps for a bit and then the problem comes back. In place of restarting the OS, I will sometimes right click and repair the LAN connection which clears out the NBT cache etc. and it can work better but nothing is sure-fire in fixing this.

 

[Aknosis]

Try other browsers to see if it is software (ie8) related or related to hardware/config issue.

Compare the ipconfig /all on both computers, everything should be the same for the respective Ethernet adapters except the MAC and IP Address.

Maybe it is a dns issue? Can you navigate to a website via ip? (forums.anandtech.com = 208.65.201.106)

 

[Reincus]

Is your connection wireless?

 

[Borg20001]

Try other browsers to see if it is software (ie8) related or related to hardware/config issue.

Compare the ipconfig /all on both computers, everything should be the same for the respective Ethernet adapters except the MAC and IP Address.

Maybe it is a dns issue? Can you navigate to a website via ip? (forums.anandtech.com = 208.65.201.106)

I have installed Firefox and we will see how that does. I had to reboot for it to take the first time. It seems like its only when I start popping new windows that I run into problems with IE 8.

So far Firefox is running smoothly, I am able to open multiple windows and they all run with out hanging up right now.

I don't think its a dns issue because I can get to anandtech fine just using the url you posted.

I also ran ipconfig on both PCs and they are identical for the key items.

I tried pinging yahoo.com from each pc and the dual core pc (which is hooked up wirelessly to the internet) was much faster with the pings - the roundtrip Min=23ms, Max=33ms and Avg=28ms

Where as the 754 PC which is hooked up by the lan cable pinged a roundtrip of Min=62ms, Max=64ms and AVG=62ms.

I'll have to keep track and see where it goes and get back to folks here if there is something else I can find.

Thanks!

 

[Borg20001]

Is your connection wireless?

No, I am hooked via LAN cable directly to the cable modem so its not a wireless signal issue as far as I can tell.

 

[nboy22]

I'm a tech support agent and sometimes I see this problem in either proxy settings or dial up settings.

Go to IE -> Tools menu -> Internet options -> Connections tab -> Make sure there are no dial up connections listed in the white box at the top, if there are, delete them. Also click the LAN settings button and make sure all boxes are unchecked.

 

[Borg20001]

I'm a tech support agent and sometimes I see this problem in either proxy settings or dial up settings.

Go to IE -> Tools menu -> Internet options -> Connections tab -> Make sure there are no dial up connections listed in the white box at the top, if there are, delete them. Also click the LAN settings button and make sure all boxes are unchecked.

Thanks nboy,

I will check that out and see if there's any boxes that need to be unchecked etc.

 

[Borg20001]

I'm a tech support agent and sometimes I see this problem in either proxy settings or dial up settings.

Go to IE -> Tools menu -> Internet options -> Connections tab -> Make sure there are no dial up connections listed in the white box at the top, if there are, delete them. Also click the LAN settings button and make sure all boxes are unchecked.

Well I checked the connections tab and there are no dial up connections listed nor are any of the LAN settings buttons selected so no problems with proxy settings or dial up settings.

I loaded both Firefox and IE8. IE 8 loaded my home page first then when I selected Anandtech's site from my favorites, its been Waiting for Http://forums.anandtech.com/... to load all the time while Firefox was loading up. I then went to the firefox browser and clicked on my bookmark for Anandtech and it loaded right away and I logged in and am now typing this response in the Firefox browser connection to AT - where as IE8 is still waiting for AT and is now at 5 bars in the loading icon. Stilll not loaded.

I did however have to close Firefox and then find it running in Task mgr. I had to stop it in TM even though I could not see it on my desktop. Then clicked on Firefox browser again and this time it loaded everything fast and here I am now.

Maybe it is an issue with IE8 vs. Firefox.

Any feedback?

 

[nboy22]

I highly doubt that this is an issue with both IE8 and Firefox being installed on the same system.

I think there might be some sort of hi-jacker on your system or some other firewall or internet security software that is keeping IE8 from getting on.

Another suggestion would be to download the program called "ComboFix" and run it on the computer, I know that it sometimes fixes issues with Hijackers

 

[Borg20001]

I highly doubt that this is an issue with both IE8 and Firefox being installed on the same system.

I think there might be some sort of hi-jacker on your system or some other firewall or internet security software that is keeping IE8 from getting on.

Another suggestion would be to download the program called "ComboFix" and run it on the computer, I know that it sometimes fixes issues with Hijackers

Thanks, I'll take a look for ComboFix and see if it helps at all.