Hi,

I am running Windows Vista. Sometimes my browsers will abruptly stop displaying webpages. The error on Mozilla says- Unable to Connect, on Safari - Winsock Error 10013

I am able to ping, my DNS servers are working (so its not a connectivity problem- other computers on the same network are able to access the internet), and the hosts file is in order. When I reboot, all works well for sometime before this problem strikes again.

The error reported by Safari seemed to suggest a WinSock problem. So I even re-installed TCP/IP by cleaning up the registry entries for WinSock and Winsock2 and putting in fresh copies. The problem still persists.

I used a port scanner program to see what apps are running on them, and several report- "An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions".

My checks with ESET A/V and Spybot suggest that the system is clean.

How can I troubleshoot?

Thanks for your help, this problem is really irritating me.

Look, Vista does have a connection repair wizard, which may give you some more in-depth error reporting. I'd also be inclided to check that you have the latest drivers, as that issue gave me a few headaches of my own when first moved to Vista.

More likely though, if you are getting reports of forbidden access, you could look in two directions:

Get hold of a decent firewall, and take note of incoming and outgoing activity, especially around the time of a disconnection event.

Also, are you running any applications on your system that is not on any of the other systems?? Had a little dig into the error and it seems that certain applications were either not updated to properly work with the newer Winsock /2 builds introduced in Vista, or require available patches. Access conflicts can also cause the lock-up.


Really, without more info, there are just too many possibilities to give you more specific guidance

This is quite possible. How should I troubleshoot this?

What other info should I supply?

Thanks for help, and sorry for the delayed response