Browsers quit after 1/2 hour...

Both IE and FF stop cold...

[chicagoastronomer]

Hi all,

I have this most aggravating problem. After about a 1/2 of surfing, my browsers cease operating, and display a blank page/or the MS unable to find note.

I disable my virus/firewalls, but to no avail. If I'm on a chat, like yahoo messenger...I can still chat, but cannot navigate elsewhere. I empty out my temp folder, and that seems to give me about two or three more navigations, but then I am stopped, and cannot proceed to surf any longer.

I'm about ready to re-format, but don't look forward to it. Any ideas?

Thanks all.

[kaled]

Which browsers and what version of Windows?
Are you running out of disk space?
Dialup or cable?

It's always better to find the cause of a problem than just bail-out and reformat. I've never resorted to reformatting.

Kaled.

[chicagoastronomer]

Hi Kaled,

Thank you for your reply.

Here are some stats...

Win98SE

Dial-up

Firefox V-0.9.2

I.E V - 6.0

480 Ram

19 Gig Hard Drive - 13 Gigs free

Pentium 3

800 mhz

And something pecular as well. I have been using Statcounter for my website for a few months with no problems, and then two days ago I could no longer access my account after the statcounter homepage. It just goves me a blank page. Others tell me that statcounter is alive and well, but I just can't get on. And also, as I choose to use ther invisible counter on my site, it was just that...invisible. But now, I have a place marker on my site with a red x that has mysteriously appeared...similer to a broken link or non-suppoerted image.

I am stumped, but I like your attitude of not reformatting as a solution. At this point, it's all I can come up with.

Thanks for your sage wisdom.

Joe

[edited by: tedster at 7:26 am (utc) on Jan. 28, 2005]
[edit reason] remove extended signature [/edit]

[kaled]

Most likely causes are spyware and ISP issues. After that, any Norton/McCafee stuff you might have installed.

Try to think back - have you installed any software recently?
Have you ensured your anti-virus software is uptodate?

ZoneAlarm may be essential but I have yet to encounter a bug-free version. However, this doesn't sound like a firewall problem.

The red x suggests the image is being blocked by something - I never use it but Norton firewall does this sort of thing.

Kaled.

[chicagoastronomer]

I have the usual compliment of spyware/adware on the machine. But even after closing them down, still the same. So something has altered some root setting, and even after re-installing the os again on top of the old one...no change. Only a re-boot will allow me to roam the web again...until it stops me. one 1/2 hour later...give or take.

So I guess I'm destined for another re-format procedure. But I can't figure out why I just can't navigate thruout the Statcounter site.

Thanks again Kalad for your input.

Joe

[rocknbil]

I have been using Statcounter for my website for a few months with no problems, and then two days ago I could no longer access my account after the statcounter homepage.

You may also search for and use a program called HijackThis, this could be a page hijacking malware.

[nahdoic]

Sorry to drag this 2 week old thread back from the dead. But if you are still having problems it is possible that you have installed some anti-virus software that has added the following line to your hosts file on your computer.

------------------------------------------------------
www.statcounter.com 127.0.0.1
------------------------------------------------------

Your hosts file can be found in the following locations.

Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts

Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Open it up with program like notepad and remove the line.