Browser poops out randomly
 

Every once in a while, my web browser stops working. It just say's it's unable to find the site, no matter which one I go to. I use Firefox, but when I try IE it does the same thing.

Restarting the computer fixes it, but that's a hassle.

It seems to randomly happen, I'll be using it, it's working fine, than all of the sudden it stops.

Everything else works though. My IM programs, Thunderbird, and P2P programs work, so it's just the browser.

I have a Norton Firewall, anti-virus, and I run Search and Destroy weekly.

Any solutions?

Try hitting Crtl-F5, to force a refresh. Does that load the site? If so, it is a cache problem.

To fix, if this is the issue (and hey, I recommend this anyway):
Type 'about:config' in the URLbar.
Start to type 'frequency' into the Filter bar; you will see a preference for
'browser.cache.check_doc_frequency'

Change that setting to '1', which means "never load cached version of page".

It could also be a minor dns issue, I have had a similar problem and refreshing seems to work (both IE and firefox). For whatever reason, it seems like sometimes the dns request just gets "lost" somewhere along the way, and refreshing usually fixes it.

I refreshed many times, and cleared my cache and all temp files, still didn't work.

Here is another suggestion, maybe you want to check if your winsock is slightly screwed up? http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Note: spybot (v1.3) by default doesn't remove new.net (which affects the winsock) , because it is in the ignore list. you can acces the ignore list from the advanced menu. here is a thread that explains what is in the ignore list http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=33199

I'm not sure what else to check, considering that it seems like your initial connection is fine, but after a while, you "lose" internet access to new site (browsing) but, stuff that is connected when it was working aren't disconnected (im, p2p, etc).

That proggy didn't find anything. Thanks though. Luckily this doesn't happen too often, so I'm not too worried about it.

I asume you have a lan connection and are running windows 2000 or XP and get your IP address from a DHCP server. (its a little differnet if your running 9x or ME)

Start > Run > Cmd.exe

check and see if you can ping the site:

c:\>ping yahoo.com

renew your DHCP connection:

c:\> ipconfig /release
c:\> ipconfig /renew

flush your dns:

c:\> ipconfig /flushdns

When I've seen these, it's been spyware. I've seen spyware try to rewrite host files to redirect anti-spware sites to localhost. If you've been saddled with one of these, try cwshredder, and adaware in addition to what you're currently using. check the stickies on this board for info on them.