IE6 wont find any websites if idle for and hour or so.

[MattMJP]

Hi,

first posting here so apologies if i dont make sense/provide enough info. Will really appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Since a week or so ago, (can't remember installing anything specific), i have been having an intermittant problem whereby i am using IE6 very well, all working hunky dory, but then when I leave my PC, sometimes for 15 mins, sometimes a couple of hours, when i comeback ive lost ability to find all websites.

My msn works, but not my browser.....thought it might be related to DNS, but if i do a dns flush its still not solved. However, if I choose 'repair' in my TCP/IP settings, or reboot its the fine for a while. Thought this might be an issue with my wireless router but ive not changed any settings (have been working fine for 6 months previously)...

Have run spybot and ad-aware and have nothing that could seem to cause probs, also have run virus checkers etc...

OS = Win XP SP1
Browser = IE6 SP1
Dell laptop in docking station
BT Voyager wireless router
Linksys wireless adaptor using win xp wireless settings.
sygate firewall = when disabled still a problem

ARGH, please help, its driving me mad !!!

Cheers

Matt

[DMR]

Hi Matt- welcome to the site!

- Can you find websites by their IP address as opposed to URL? For instance (using Google as an example): if you enter http://64.233.167.99 into IE's address bar instead of http://www.google.com, can you reach the site?

- When IE craps out, can you still ping sites either by IP or URL? Again using Google, open a DOS box and try the following two commands:

ping 64.233.167.99
ping www.google.com

- Also ping the IP of your router.

- "Have run spybot and ad-aware and have nothing that could seem to cause probs..." Are you positive about that? I'm assuming the programs did find and fix some things, yes?

[MattMJP]

Hi,

Thanks for the response......

yes, spybot and adaware did find a couple of things, mostly cookies, i do tent to keep on top of that sort of stuff and run those programs fairly regularly.

in command, when I ping googles ip i get a response no problem. However, if i ping the domain name www.google.com i get the following "Ping request could not find host www.google.com. Please check the name and try a
gain."

Must admit, i forgot to try the ip in the browser but will remember next time it happens (again, its intermittant). I suspect using the IP will work as it seems to be something wrong with the DNS smewhere.

Oh, also pinging the router was fine, my connection to the router seems fine, as I said my msn messenger works even when the browser doesn't (presumably because messenger deals with IP's)....

Anywhoo, any ideas very gratefully recieved.....ready to throw my laptop accross the room (which thinking about it, might fix the problem....certainly plan B)...

Thanks again

Matt

[MattMJP]

Just happened again - only after 10 mins or so this time....

checked ip in browser and thats fine..........

hmmmmm..... :( argh

[DMR]

Given what you've told us, it really does sound like a DNS problem. Have you contacted your ISP to see if they know of any problems with their DNS servers? The problem might be on their end; can't hurt to check the possibility...

[MattMJP]

Yeah i thought that, but my other wireless device connected to the same router works fine so s'pose it cant be ISP related.....thought this one might stump people :)

anyway, i'll keep trying things, you never know the windows SP2 release might fix it........? ? ?

guess there can't be any rogue programmes doing bad stuff if spybot etc doesn't detect them ?

Cheers

Matt

[Mike Feury]

Have a peek at
Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab
There should be nothing there. If so, click on "LAN Settings" and it should be set to "Automatically detect..."

[Mike Feury]

I don't think this is related, but fwiw :)

Tools > Internet Options > Security > Internet > Custom Level

At the bottom of the "Miscellaneous" section there's a setting for "Userdata Persistence" which I have set to Enable.

It probably refers to cookies, but maybe...?

Oh, always worth deleting temp Internet files if you haven't done so in a while--they can cause a multitude of problems if allowed to build up.

[MattMJP]

Thanks Mike,

Yep, done all that....have actually spent the last two hours trying to 'repair' my pc after the rather cool windows XP restore function caused a few issues.....as a result have sort of messed around with network settings so will see if it makes any difference...........hmmmmm

keep you posted.....

Thanks

Matt

[DMR]

guess there can't be any rogue programmes doing bad stuff if spybot etc doesn't detect them ?

Unfortunately, that's definitely not true- there is no single utility which can reliably detect and remove all of the malware out there. At the very least, you should run Ad Aware in conjunction with SpyBot.

[MattMJP]

Very true, thanks.

Seem to be making some progress with it actually....when i lose my connection, if I check my details on my TCP/IP i can see that my DNS server, where normally my ip of my router, has changed to 0.0.0.0.

No idea where its getting that from but am tarting around with my router DNS settings to see if that has any joy...if that doesn't work, then i'll reset my router to factory defaults....you never know, it might be that after some time my router (BT voyager) is sending my PC a new dns ip ? ? ? ?

Don't know if any of this sounds likely, but seem to be on the right track...its just finding out what is changing my DNS server.

Thanks all.....

[DMR]

Try this: Instead of having the router dynamically assign your IP/DNS info, set the IPs statically instead and turn off DHCP in the router. For the DNS entries, use the IPs of your ISP's DNS servers; you can probably get that info from their website. Unless you've got a large network, DHCP isn't necessary, and in this case it might be the root of your problem.

[MattMJP]

Ive changed some other dns settings and seems to have fixed the problem :p however, if not...I will definately change to static ips and enter the manual DNS as you suggest

Thanks for your help all....

[DMR]

Alright- keep us posted either way. Can you tell us what exact settings you changed that (hopefully) fixed teh problem? If you can post that info here it couldl help others who might be having similar problems.

Thanks.

[MattMJP]

No probs, all working now...

On the router within DHCP server settings i entered the ip address of my router as the Primary DNS server within the Domain Name Server (DNS) bit.

This should have been the default and not require me to enter it but ho hum, there you go...i think that was the bit that got it fixed.....

Thanks again all...

Matt

[DMR]

OK- thanks for that info.

[hurchin]

Yes, please post, step by step what you did. I have the same problem and don't appear to have nearly as much computer expertise as I do. Thanks.

Joyce

Alright- keep us posted either way. Can you tell us what exact settings you changed that (hopefully) fixed teh problem? If you can post that info here it couldl help others who might be having similar problems.

Thanks.

[DMR]

Hi Joyce, welcome to Daniweb :)

You should start a new thread of your own and post your problem in that thread, for a couple of reasons:

* This thread has been marked as "solved" because the person who started the thread has indicated that their problem is now fixed. Our troubleshooters are less likely to re-examine solved threads, so your question may go unseen.

* Our posting format follows a "one-members-question-per-thread" format, because it's very difficult to help two or more different members within a single thread; keeping track of which suggestions are in reply to which problems/questions quickly becomes confusing for all.

* Although one member's symptoms may appear similar to another member's symptoms, the root causes (and therefore, the solutions) of two seemingly similar problems are actually not the same in the majority of cases. That being the case, trying fixes suggested for someone else's problem may actually cause you further problems.

If you're unsure of how to start your own thread, we have a good tutorial with a pictorial walk-through of the process posted here:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/faq.php?faq=daniweb_howto

When you post your thread, please give us as much specific info as possible regarding the problem (the circumstances surrounding the occurence of the problem, the exact error messages you receive, troubleshooting steps you've already tried, etc.). The more information we have up front, the faster we'll be able to help you get the problem solved.