Browser issues and Vista.

This is seriously bugging me now...

[g1smd]

After a few hours using the net, connectivity seems to peter out, and no web pages can be loaded.

At the same time, ZoneAlarm starts popping up warnings that Mozilla, and Firefox, and Safari, and Opera are all trying to act as a server.

As fast as you close the warnings, another one pops up.

Any ideas what is going on?

The only way to get back to normal is to close Vista and restart the machine.

It started out as an an occurrence every few days, then almost daily, but today it's happened four times in less than ten hours.

The ZoneAlarm website suggests it is safe to allow them all to act as a server, but under normal operation those warnings aren't popping up.

It doesn't appear to be anything to do with the router or the wireless connection. Status for those looks to be OK.

[bill]

ZoneAlarm is one of the software packages known to have issues when running on Vista SP1.
[support.microsoft.com...]

[g1smd]

I updated ZoneAlarm to the required level way before SP1 came out. I currently have 7.1.248.000 loaded.

I haven't yet installed Vista SP1 (and I have seen no mention of it being available for download on this machine so far).

Has SP1 arrived by stealth? Is it some other issue?

[jdMorgan]

Some video services such as Yahoo Videos, try to open a back-channel with your browser as a server. I assume it's to do with quality-of-service, but have never really investigated it. And of course, on today's dumbed-down Web, it's not documented.

The other possibility is that you've got some malware in there.

Jim

[g1smd]

Spybot Search and Destroy, and AVG, and Windows Defender have found nothing.

I'll keep looking.

[bill]

Has SP1 arrived by stealth?

No reports of that at all. SP1 is fairly new [webmasterworld.com] on the public release side, but I don't think they've been forcing upgrades at this stage.

Is it some other issue?

Is this condition replicable, or does it just happen sometimes? Would it be possible to run the machine without ZoneAlarm to see whether that is the culprit?

[g1smd]

It happens after a few hours of usage.

It always does it at a time when I least need to be spending time rebooting the machine.

[bill]

I haven't heard of similar complaints with Vista alone. There's got to be some other software or hardware that's impeding your connection.

Does the connection completely stop or just get slow? Are you certain that re-booting the router wouldn't fix things?

[g1smd]

Rebooting the PC (laptop) always fixes it.

I think I rebooted the router the first time it happened - without it fixing the problem, and so rebooted the PC - which did fix it.

[bill]

My best guess is still ZoneAlarm, but I don't know what else you've got installed. It doesn't sound like a Vista or Browser issue to me.

If you could run the machine in safe mode, or limit start-up items in an attempt to see what was causing this it might help.

[g1smd]

Guess what!

Since starting this thread, it hasn't failed again since.

[cowst]

i have the same problem, browserS stop browsing after a while and only rebooting vista sp1 works.
i use kaspersky 6

[g1smd]

Interesting, though I am not yet using SP1 Vista.

[cowst]

this started when i upgraded firefox to 2.0.0.13 and vista sp1.
i would blame the second since i proofed it's not browser or connection dependent, but it's a Vista issue. (changing browser or rebooting router doens't help, rebooting windows yes)

[cowst]

i think it's a problem of kaspersky.
everytime i notice it is blocked at 39% of update, and now i tried to end it, it just restarted itself but now i can browse...