Browser Problem?

[phrog]

I'm having a problem with my browser, I think. About 2 months ago, ATT accidentally cut my phone/DSL connection while installing new "neighborhood boxes." The fixed after a few days. The following week it was cut again. 3 x altogether in 2 months. They have now finished migrating all the connections to the new boxes.

This may be a coincidence - about the same time I started having a problem with my connection to the internet. When I click on a link - I get the "Connecting" message and a swirling circle. It never finishes. If I click the back button on my browser and then try to connect again, it makes an immediate connection on this second attempt. It's always on the second attempt. Any ideas on what the problem could be?

I'm running Win XP and using Firefox as a browser. All are up to date (as far as they can be updated). And I have run antivirus software continually for years. (Comodo)

[Eric]

Try using a different browser and see if you get the same thing. If it's still doing it has nothing to do with the browser.

Might run some anti-malware software I use malware bytes from time to time.

[gsmittle]

TCP/IP stack reset?

g.

[Cochese]

Most of my intermittent connection problems are usually solved with a dns flush.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

[LCHIEN]

Try using a different browser and see if you get the same thing. If it's still doing it has nothing to do with the browser.

Might run some anti-malware software I use malware bytes from time to time.

yes, try a different browser. Probably not the borowser fault. clear cache or DNS

[mpc]

how-to DNS flush for Windows systems:
Win8: Press Win+X to get the WinX Menu, right click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator. Type "ipconfig /flushdns"

Win7: Start -> type "cmd.exe" in the window, when things start listing right click on Command Promp and select Run As Administrator. Then type "ipconfig /flushdns"

WinXP, 2000, Vista: Start -> Run. (or type Run in the SEARCH bar). Type "ipconfig /flushdns"

In all cases, you hope to see a message similar to "Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache."

Do this "ipconfig /flushdns" command with your browser shut down, then restart the browser. In theory the browser can be running during the flush but it's safer if the browser is off.

When you enter a website URL (www.whatever.com) a "Domain Name Server" (DNS) converts that into an IP address (145.234.343.333 type of thing) Your computer keeps its own list of translations to websites you've visited (this is what "cache" means) and Windows tries to use this local list first - figuring it'll be faster than some remote DNS server. However... this local list can get obsolete leading to browser sessions going nowhere. When you retry, Windows figures "cache entry for this site sucks" and it goes to a real DNS server.

If you keep having problems with the same web sites over and over, it's probably something else causing the problems - your computer's cache entry for that web site will get updated the first time you actually connect to it. Many web sites though link to a zillion other web sites for ads, flash animation ads, etc (often randomly picking a couple from a much larger pool) and any of those could also be invalid in the DNS cache. Since web sites generally won't display their stuff until after the ads display... any ad web site DNS that's invalid leads to what appears to be a totally unresponsive web page. Also, with so many ads being flash based now... those can take a while to load and often bomb or otherwise lock up because there are so many versions of the flash player now - is your browser using the latest? Not all ad sites check to see if your flash player is current enough to run their crap... they just assume so and end up locking up. When you re-try your connection to the web site, it picks different ad sources and the "stupid" flash isn't picked this time.

mpc

[phrog]

Thanks, guys. I flushed the dns and it seems to be working okay now. I should have asked this question a month ago.