Member Avatar for tumpy119

Hello, as you will see I am new, and I would like to be honest with you all and say have joined this forum for the express purppose of getting some help as I am desperate - BUT - if anyone is kind enough to help me out please be assured I fully intend to stay a member and try and help others too.

I am having some real problems with my browser. My PC runs Win XP and I use IE, I work online all day across a variety of sites, but two for the majority of the time.

The problem I'm having is that after a certain amount of time on the sites that I'm on all the time, when I've been online and working for a while, when I refresh my internet freezes initially and then shows an 'Page cannot be displayed' message. The site will then not reload, even if I try a differnt page, nor will any other pages and I have to restart my machine.

On an average day this happens maybe five times, today it seemed to be every hour which has made me so desperate.

My PC is not amazing, but fairly up to date (bog standard Dell Dimension) and I have upgraded the memory to 2MB DDR2.

My internet is 4MB broadband with ethernet connection.

I delete my temp internet files, defrag my hard drive and run basic Windows prompted maintenance from my control panel on a weekly basis.

If anyone has the time or patience to help I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance, Tumpy119

  • 2 Contributors
  • 1 Reply
  • 318 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Pl3aseH3lpM3

Dani AI

Generated

Quick, practical summary for and (Firefox works for , so this looks IE‑specific). Common causes for the "Page cannot be displayed" pattern after a period of browsing are: a bad proxy entry that IE cycles through, a damaged add‑on or BHO, or a networking stack/Winsock problem that builds up over time. Microsoft documents the bad‑proxy behavior and the restart/registry workarounds. Page Cannot be Displayed — bad proxy list. (learn.microsoft.com)

Prioritized troubleshooting (fast → deeper):

  • Test IE in No‑Add‑Ons mode and, if that fixes it, disable toolbars/BHOs or reset IE (Internet Options → Advanced → Reset). If Firefox is fine but IE fails, this often isolates the problem to IE settings or add‑ons. Manage add‑ons & Reset IE. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • If the problem remains, repair the network stack from an elevated Command Prompt and restart the PC. Typical commands:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

Run these as administrator and reboot; back up the system or registry before making persistent changes. See Microsoft’s NetShell TCP/IP reset guidance. Reset TCP/IP / NetShell docs. (support.microsoft.com)

If failures happen only after long sessions, consider port/socket exhaustion or a buggy add‑on that opens many sockets. Gather a snapshot with:

netstat -anob

Look for many TIME_WAIT or a single PID owning many connections. Temporary mitigations (registry) include increasing MaxUserPort or reducing TcpTimedWaitDelay, but those require caution and a reboot; the Microsoft guidance explains the symptoms and registry keys (KB196271) and full port‑exhaustion troubleshooting. WSAENOBUFS / MaxUserPort guidance. TCP/IP port exhaustion troubleshooting. (learn.microsoft.com)

Notes and cautions: back up the registry before edits, run the network commands from an administrator prompt, and use a clean‑boot (disable non‑Microsoft services/startups) to isolate third‑party conflicts before removing security software permanently.

Member Avatar for Pl3aseH3lpM3

Hello, as you will see I am new, and I would like to be honest with you all and say have joined this forum for the express purppose of getting some help as I am desperate - BUT - if anyone is kind enough to help me out please be assured I fully intend to stay a member and try and help others too.

I am having some real problems with my browser. My PC runs Win XP and I use IE, I work online all day across a variety of sites, but two for the majority of the time.

The problem I'm having is that after a certain amount of time on the sites that I'm on all the time, when I've been online and working for a while, when I refresh my internet freezes initially and then shows an 'Page cannot be displayed' message. The site will then not reload, even if I try a differnt page, nor will any other pages and I have to restart my machine.

On an average day this happens maybe five times, today it seemed to be every hour which has made me so desperate.

My PC is not amazing, but fairly up to date (bog standard Dell Dimension) and I have upgraded the memory to 2MB DDR2.

My internet is 4MB broadband with ethernet connection.

I delete my temp internet files, defrag my hard drive and run basic Windows prompted maintenance from my control panel on a weekly basis.

If anyone has the time or patience to help I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance, Tumpy119

Crikey, Tumpy119! Have you been reading my mind?!!! This is EXACTLY why I joined, 'cause I'm having the same problem. In my case I've recently upgraded to IE 7.0.5730.11 and downloaded all the support bits, new Java VM, etc I also run XP on a custom built 'puter. This is a BAFFLING, FRUSTRATING problem ... because the error message - something like 1209, but that's not exactly it - says I'm not connected. But I am. I can ping and everything. And Outlook still works. Thank goodness I've also got Firefox, which seems okay.

Can someone help Tumpy119 and me. Please!!! [begging smilie]

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.