I've been having a frequent problem where I have a strong internet connection, but neither Firefox nor IE will connect. I get either timeout errors or "can't find the server" errors. This sometimes happens from boot up, but more often happens while I'm surfing. Rebooting usually corrects the problem and I have resorted to using the "netsh winsock reset catalog" command, which helps. However, I shouldn't have to do that everytime I want to use the internet.

Any ideas on what's causing that? Any suggestions for a permanent fix?

I'm running XP. The computer is running on a wireless home network. I have a cable connection.

are you typing in the correct URL?
If not this could be the source of ur problem.
Change your homepage to something new maybe, or install the latest Firefox, version 2.4 i think.

What happens if you bypass the wireless router and connect directly to the cable modem?

Has nothing to do with the url.
I'm having the problem with both Firefox and IE.
Haven't tried bypassing the router. It occurs randomly and may go days without happening.

I've got the same problem. It works for a few hours and then stops browsing. When it quits, it won't connect with IE7, NetCaptor, Firefox or Safari. Outlook continues to work fine and I can ping anywhere. It's just the browsers that quit working. A re-boot is required to get it working again. Turning off the browser and starting it back up doesn't help.
I notice that when I am using Goggle maps or Google Earth, it occurs more often.

ok clean up your cache, temp files and if this does not fix the prob, find out from your ISP if ther is an outage on your node that would affest you.

PS if this only happens whe u surf maybe a bug, in your pc. do a scn now before it gets worst.

I worked with the ISP over the weekend and while the problem seemed to go away while we trying to slove it, we think the problem is with my virus software (Panda). I disabled the firewall and Panda and it seemed to come back. I enabled the firewall and it still worked and then i enabled Panda and it still worked. I am waiting for the problem to occur again and I will some further testing but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Panda Internet Security 2007. More later.