Thanks for reading this post and possibly helping out. So here is the scenario:
OS: MS Windows XP SP3 (all updates performed)
Problem: IE + Firefox do not work after a few hours of not using/using my computer.
So I first noticed the problem one morning a few days ago when I went to my computer to go online. I use the computer every single day and never turn it off and for some reason I could not log into google or yahoo. I restarted the computer thinking that it just needs a reboot to clear VM. It worked and I was able to continue to work. At night, I noticed the same issue and this was just getting weird because I never have to reboot 2x in one single day so I did some snooping around the computer. Im a pretty tech savvy so this situation is completely odd to me.
FACTS:
I am definitely connected to the internet as I opened up command prompt and pinged yahoo sucessfully. This also means that DNS is working properly as it was able to resolve during the ping. I shut down IE and Firefox completely and made sure that they are both not running in the task manager and launched both applications and still cannot go online. This is not a anti-virus program issue as I do not have any antivirus software. Not a firewall issue as it is completely open. Whats strange is that both browsers wont work as they are independent of each other. There must be either a file/protocol that both the browsers share that is blocking port 80 or it could be a winsocks issue.
THOUGHTS:
I think this could be a spyware/malware/virus issue and I was thinking about running kaspersky or something similar. The issue with this theory is that if it is one of these, the problem would be continuous and a reset should not fix the browser issues and should actually make it worse. Not sure what to do at this point and I am looking for some guidance here. Anything anyone needs me to try will be done. Thank you.
OS: MS Windows XP SP3 (all updates performed)
Problem: IE + Firefox do not work after a few hours of not using/using my computer.
So I first noticed the problem one morning a few days ago when I went to my computer to go online. I use the computer every single day and never turn it off and for some reason I could not log into google or yahoo. I restarted the computer thinking that it just needs a reboot to clear VM. It worked and I was able to continue to work. At night, I noticed the same issue and this was just getting weird because I never have to reboot 2x in one single day so I did some snooping around the computer. Im a pretty tech savvy so this situation is completely odd to me.
FACTS:
I am definitely connected to the internet as I opened up command prompt and pinged yahoo sucessfully. This also means that DNS is working properly as it was able to resolve during the ping. I shut down IE and Firefox completely and made sure that they are both not running in the task manager and launched both applications and still cannot go online. This is not a anti-virus program issue as I do not have any antivirus software. Not a firewall issue as it is completely open. Whats strange is that both browsers wont work as they are independent of each other. There must be either a file/protocol that both the browsers share that is blocking port 80 or it could be a winsocks issue.
THOUGHTS:
I think this could be a spyware/malware/virus issue and I was thinking about running kaspersky or something similar. The issue with this theory is that if it is one of these, the problem would be continuous and a reset should not fix the browser issues and should actually make it worse. Not sure what to do at this point and I am looking for some guidance here. Anything anyone needs me to try will be done. Thank you.
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