Warhunt wrote:
> Sorry DL was busy yesterday. Weekend was good though cheers ;)
>
> Based on the latest info I don' t think I need to chase up as
> I'm 99% sure Hmmm... has hit the nail on the head there. I would
> not be too concerned over it.
>
> As for system restore you considered a fresh install? May be a
> nightmare but you know computers.... :( Also I remember you
> saying its fairly new. Should still have discs and that.

Hi Warhunt et all  - a progress report on said problem. No matter how many times you use system restore or repair vista....this problem recurs and seems to be deep seated within IE8 itself...the introduced new version of Protected mode.

Using Task Manager to view 'processes' on every internet access, I discovered an additional process running during the time when access was unavailable.....end this process and there is no problem closing and then opening a browser session until the cows come home or until this 'pesky little microsoft process' appears again.....what process you ask.......drum roll....

ielowutil.exe

Running Vista64 it appears within both 32 and 64 bit versions of IE and appears to be useful as described below by the MS IT Team:

"IElowutil stays around for 5 minutes (for performance reasons) and is working as designed. This utility allows cookies to be shared across integrity levels. You can read more about this at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc848890(VS.85).aspx. Although it doesn't mention this exe specifically, it is used for this purpose.

Best regards,

The IE Team. "

However, this is a load of boll*cks and if internet access seems to fail, just after you have been browsing, then check Task Manager and see if this process is running. If it is...end it!

You could always delete it from the IE folders but MS don't seem to sanction this action, but some web info suggests, yes you can..it is 'spyware'!

Anyway, thanks to you all for your assistance over a rather long period of time.....:-)

Sorry DL was busy yesterday. Weekend was good though cheers ;)

Based on the latest info I don' t think I need to chase up as I'm 99% sure Hmmm... has hit the nail on the head there. I would not be too concerned over it.

As for system restore you considered a fresh install? May be a nightmare but you know computers.... :( Also I remember you saying its fairly new. Should still have discs and that.

Hmmm... wrote:

> Sounds like you might need to check your System Restore settings
> - I like to be able to go back a few months 'just in case'.

I agree, have always made sure I've got restore points but doesn't 'windows' automatically delete restore points after a certain period, which kind of makes it impossible to go back to the year dot! I'll check Vista settings, but I'm sure it follows previous windows incarnations - most of Vista does anyway ;-)

Hmmm... wrote:

> Regarding your other problems, as you seem to be trying all
> sorts of things I would still recommend trying a System Restore
> to before the problems started. You can then start to
> troubleshoot from there if the problem then returns after
> applying Updates etc.
>

Morning Hmmm, and thanks for the explanation. As you say, it's probably bad luck and yes, others in the household were active during that day - wireless access. However, not in such a way as to cause this problem.

Tried two system restores about three nights ago and both inexplicably failed!!!! Another problem is that the restore points don't go far enough back - which in the light of what I've just mentioned wouldn't matter if they did. However, will try again.

Thanks DL

Further research seems to indicate that this sudden loss within IE is not unheard of. Pages won't display, yet internet is fine, ping works and so does email.

Microsoft tech help suggests resetting winsock2 and provides a manual or automatic fix. It also provides a list of the ten items winsock should contain - anything less and winsock is corrupted.

My winsock contains eight items! I have manually reset winsock and also let Microsoft reset winsock - and guess what, it still contains 8 items and not ten!

Question, is this correct for Vista64 winsock or has nothing actually happened?

Any ideas?

Just off for the weekend myself ;(

Will pick it up Monday if no-one else does before me.

Oh I see. Well I can imagine what you have said is quite true after looking into it.

Can not imagine it will cause problems anytime soon, although it still seems a mystery if you were not performing "high end" stuff.

Ha Ha, well Think Broadband is not a competitor, so its ok. Or at least our marketing say so ;)

Jut noticed the Enta thing. Did it make it any clearer for you?

I recently went through the ALT "learning process"  myself Hmmm... and it's needlessly complicated to say the least.

I will try and track down the 200+ thread I used on some forums to learn as much as I could. In fact it even turns into a rather heated discussion about how needlessly complicated it is at one point 0_o

The general feel of it was however... When ALT is applied the "high end users" have their connections reduced by 10% first off. This seems the fairest way to do things, as being reduced from 8mb to 7mb pales in significance from the same drop on a 512kb line.

If that does not help, then all users have their connections lowered at intervals.

I assume your comment was from ThinkBroadband Hmmm.. as it is listed there word for word ;) So I'll link that thread for the moment. Here

Was myself who you spoke to. Glad to hear you thought I was helpful, as I really could not help as it was such a strange problem :S

Anyway I will talk to our OM about your bandwidth and see if I can find anything further. As I mentioned its generally quite accurate and is not handled by ourselves but I'll delve as deep as I can.

Hmmm... wrote:
> Dragonlance wrote:
> ...Zone Alarm is Zone Alarm Pro, not free edition...
>
>
> My suggestion would still be to test with Zone Alarm out of the
> equation - free or pro!

Sorry about the delay, but was in the process of describing a 'null' ping test to bbc.co.uk when ...... pear shape!

Have now totally blitzed router and here we are again. Number One son is happy now, wireless working again. But that is the strange thing - that always worked - as did direct links from individual programs - except Steam, which seems to be stuck at 27% update forever.

I'll try another ping test......

This is now strange, ping test to bbc.co.uk, before 'bombing' returned four packets lost! Now....all OK with 4 packs sent and received at the speed of light....good job I'm going on holiday soon!!! :-D


PS @ cjh....ISP is Freeola.....you can draw your own conclusions...:-)

The saga continues,,,,Steam update sticks at 27% completed on every attempt. Searched Steam support and find that AVG and ESET are recommended to be uninstalled before Steam is run! I've been running Steam and ESET with no problems for 6 weeks and now this advice seems to fall into place...just uninstalled ESET and Steam has updated as quick as you like!!! There is something not quite right here Hmmm....


Star Date 22.20

Re-start necessary to add to this post.....Accessed a few sites and then returned to Freeola Chat...moving between posts...freeze..there are one or two script problems here....

Star Date 22.23 Logging out before I freeze....

Additional information: ESET v3 now uninstalled and replaced with AVG at the moment. Not happy about ESET full stop. Had email problems with ESET v4 and ESET have now admitted that there is a 'conflict' with Zone Alarm, after admitting that there was a problem with Thunderbird which they claim to have fixed. I reverted to V3 and now this seems to be the culprit again. Have run ESET on both XP and Vista64 - neither v3 or v4 work happily. The only version which seems to be at home with any OS is v2.7. It's ok running a 'recommended' anti-virus and one that requires a purchased licence, but it's not ok when it causes conflicts and problems. Ok, you may argue, it works for most people - that isn't the case - it should work within any environment. In the case of ESET v3 and the new v4, what have they done - v4 download is nearly twice the size of v3!

After that 'rant' IE7 now seems to be behaving :-)

cjh wrote:
> When this happens, can you get any response if you use
>  the ping command? Click "Start", then
> "Run" and type in CMD, and try ping
> www.bbc.co.uk.


That's what I said! :¬P
"When the problem occurs can you bring a command prompt up and ping a website to see if the PC is still communicating?

NB. I think www.bbc.co.uk is blocked these days - try bbc.co.uk or ping any other known website.




^{Search Freeola Chat}

Hmmm... wrote:
> Hi DL,
> If it was just the one browser I would say it could be malware -
> but for two to do the same maybe not.
>
> Anything interesting happening in Task Manager?
>
> I would also try testing things with your firewall and
> anti-virus turned off.  Zone Alarm can do some very strange
> things!
>
> When the problem occurs can you bring a command prompt up and
> ping a website to see if the PC is still communicating?
>
> You could also try a Windows Restore back a couple of weeks
> before the problem started to happen to see if the situation
> changes.

Hi Hmmm, Task Manager reveals 2 instances of iexplorer and 1 ieuser*32 - under no circumstances can you end these processes.

Internet connection is live and kicking all the time this problem is happening - that's why I find it so odd!

Thought about a system restore but would rather try and solve problem once and for all. Not really that happy with Vista64, XP never gave me any problems :-)

(Zone Alarm is Zone Alarm Pro, not free edition)

Thanks for the ideas Hmmm and Warhunt, but everything I've read in that thread doesn't solve the problem - everything suggested is as it should be or as is suggested :-)

Hi DL,
If it was just the one browser I would say it could be malware - but for two to do the same maybe not.

Anything interesting happening in Task Manager?

I would also try testing things with your firewall and anti-virus turned off.  Zone Alarm can do some very strange things!

When the problem occurs can you bring a command prompt up and ping a website to see if the PC is still communicating?

You could also try a Windows Restore back a couple of weeks before the problem started to happen to see if the situation changes.

EDIT:
Here's a Zone Alarm thread which could be similar to yours...


^{Search Freeola Chat}

A problem that is driving me 'nuts' at the moment and any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Using either IE7 or Firefox the following scenario occurs:

Starting either browser, access is quick. Browsing the net, back and forth, when suddenly pages won't load. No way no how. Close either browser and then try again and it is as if no browser exists. The only way to continue browsing is to re-start the machine.

Has been happening now for about a week. Nothing  appears to have been changed or installed during this period of time.

Suspected Nod32v4 as it has already played havoc with email, but no. It doesn't appear to be Zone Alarm either. Have reset IE a number of times.

Running Vista64, Quad core.

Any ideas?