Browser Problems

[larry39]

Lately, I have had problems with certain web pages not loading with IE8 and FireFox 3.6.10. Research has not found anything.

 

Some Examples:

 

-Gmail will load in an eye blink sometimes or quite often it will time out. When navigating within Gmail, it will often time out.

 

-I can get to apple.com but clicking on the store icon will eventually time out, always. Even if I click on an apple store search link.

 

-Navigating within BestBuy,especially on a search, will often time out.

 

-Atlanta Braves site will often time out, but before it does, if I click the stop button it will usually finish loading. It's the only web page where this will work.

 

 

 

Most of the time a page hangs, I will see the progress bar get to 90+% before it times out.

 

MY connection is good. Speed Test shows 11.32Mb/s down and 0.85Mb/s up and Ping is 134ms. I've cleared the temp files with TFC.

Malware bytes and my antivirus detect nothing.

 

My PC is 7 years old, so no laughter at the Sys Info. Pentium 4, 3.06 Ghz, 1Gb Ram, plenty of free disk space, Windows XP SP3 with all updates. I have a Realtek RTL8139/810x ethernet card connected to an AT&T U-verse router.

 

 

Normally, I would say the web site or server is just very busy, but the problem is not linked to a particular day or time of day and the problem is persistent..

 

I cannot tie this to any change I have done on my PC but I was wondering if some parameter on my PC changed in some not so apparent way.

 

Is it just a very busy internet or is there a problem?

Ideas?

[redhawk]

Do you have any Anti-Virus, HIPS or Firewall software installed??

 

If you start Windows in Safe Mode with Networking (F8 before the XP splash screen) do you see any noticeable difference??

 

Richard S.

[larry39]

Do you have any Anti-Virus, HIPS or Firewall software installed??

 

If you start Windows in Safe Mode with Networking (F8 before the XP splash screen) do you see any noticeable difference??

 

Richard S.

 

I have Anti-virus, Anti-Spyware and a firewall but no HIPS (IPS?). I have started FireFox in Safe Mode with no difference but not Windows.

 

Additional Info: A google search will often hang but if I go to Yahoo or Bing, the search completes.

[hazelnut]

Do you mean Firefox in firefox safe mode or Windows safe mode?

 

What about running IE8 in no add ons mode, do you still have problems then? (start>all progs>accessories>system tools>IE no add ons.

 

What AV and anti-malware apps are you using?

[larry39]

I believe I have fixed the problem. I found a utility, TCPOptimizer from SpeedGuide.net. It shows your current settings, optimal settings and default settings. I selected optimal, applied the changes and rebooted. Its only been a couple of hours, so the jury isn't back yet, but so far so good.

[Andavari]

I've had that stalling issue with Firefox for the past few months and it drives me insane, whereas with IE (which I refuse to use daily) doesn't do that.

[larry39]

Update:

 

Just to verify, the optimizer did in fact fix the problem.

 

I don't know how, but evidently, my ethernet card settings got out of whack (technical term) and I was able to correct the settings with the TCP Optimizer utility.

 

Thanks to all who responded.

[mr don]

I've had that stalling issue with Firefox for the past few months and it drives me insane, whereas with IE (which I refuse to use daily) doesn't do that.

 

That's weird.

 

Firefox 3.6.11 works fine for me. So did prior versions. I am not sure what causes yours. Too many possible variables such as:

 

- OS / Service Pack / MS conflicting updates?

- 3rd party apps such as antivirus/firewalls/registry entry blockers/etc

- Firefox has been known to cause problems in profiles such as settings from older versions not properly working if you do a lot of consecutive updates with no clean firefox profile. Over time, as firefox changes the way it works, the settings may get to where they do not work so well. You can use Moz Backup to backup the bookmarks + passwords etc, then reimport them into a new profile.

- Windows 7 has a wait to kill hung application timer setting that immediately kills off apps that are considered "hung". There is no warning when 7 decides it is "hung". App just dissappears POW! XP did not do this. You can edit the 7 registry if that is a cause of problems.

- Vista & 7 had TCP + DRM + other tech built into the OS that may "helpfully" cause problems with, ahem, certain things you do. Although they can work nice, sometimes they do weird things that drive you bananas.

- TCP settings can be changed by programs such as programs that "tune" your TCP settings for "optimal" performance. The shorter time out settings can cause problems.

 

Anyway, it would be very difficult to troubleshoot without seeing your machine. But hopefully, this can give you some ideas that may possibly help such as:

 

- Try backing up your firefox bookmarks + passwords, then do a clean install & reimport the settings

- Be sure you are not connecting through a proxy server in the connection settings. Auto usually works.

- Be sure you don't have multiple internet "connections" such as dialup. Delete the ones you do not use. 1 is usually best.

- If you have to, adjust the Vista/7 wait to kill hung app timer.

- Reset your TCP to normal settings instead of shortening the time out & other problematic settings.

- If you are on XP, a right click/repair may auto-fix your internet connection (tray, near clock).

- Occasionally, a DSL box reset or power off/power on can help.

- Verify your Ethernet card is properly working & check the settings that it doesn't auto shut off features when "not in use". Device manager makes it easy to untick the "Allow Windows to shut off power to this device when not in use" box.

- If you know everything was working at a certain point, sometimes a system restore can help.

- Uninstall/remove things that may be causing problems. For instance, 2 antivirus programs may cause a conflict or crash because of both of them monitoring the boot sector of the harddisk you are using.

- Occasionally, old active X & class issues from programs that used to be installed can cause windows to attempt to load items that are no longer there & result in slowdowns or even crashes depending on if the items still exist in the System32 folder. A registry cleaning may do good, just back it up before removal. Be careful what you remove.

 

There are many other potential variables, but be sure to have a backup before proceeding with any of this. That way, you can recover if you do something you wish you didn't.

 

There are many other variables, but maybe these will at least give you some ideas.