Browser(s) lock up when two different sites sessions time out

[videobruce]

Wasn't sure where to put this.

Using;XP Pro w/sp2
Browsers involved; Firefox V2 & Opera V9.25
Sites involved; Ameritrade & Yahoo Games
ISP; Earthlink DialUp
Modem; Built in Wintel on a Foxconn built MB (Dell). Latest driver

Being logged into either one of these sites, after they 'time out' for a session because of inactivity (by design), either browser seems to freeze up. You can open another site, hit the back button or log back in to that site. It happens with either browser. (IE has not been tried yet.)

This is NOT my system and the info posted here was just was I was told over the phone as I have not seen the system acting up.

There is NO issue with anything except when either site times out. While 'active', everything seems ok. He has to close either browser and re-open it to get back in his 'session'. He mostly uses the PC to do on-line trading and play on-line games in between his 'trades'.

What I did notice when I had the box here (I upgraded it w/ memory & a replacement burner and from XP Home to XP Pro) using this Ameritrade, when went in to sign in using hisaccount for the first time, there was a massive download of some program (?) that has to do with streaming stock quotes. I don't know if some program was installed as I wasn't able to complete the action while he was here since his other PC (at his house) was still logged in to Amertrade and the site wouldn't let him log in while the first session was active. He did this at home.

When I first saw this huge d/l coming, my only thought was 'I can't wait to see if this works'. It did work with Firefox before.

I did install Java before this 'extra data' arrived (for lack of a better term). I'm wondering if there is some conflict here.
BTW, the dialup connection does NOT drop according to his report.

Anyone have any idea what is going on??
I hope all of that made sense.

[videobruce]

Update;
All three browsers do the same thing. It's the O/S that 'locks up', not just the browsers. He has to reboot to recover.
I still haven't gotten my hands on his system yet, but will this week.

Any other ideas?
(There are no viruses).

[videobruce]

I now have the box here.

Observations:
1. The Ameritrade site maxes out the processor (99%) using Opera, but doesn't 'lock up' the browser or the O/S. The streaming quote page shows, but it is blank.
2. This works in Firefox, the streaming does show (the usual BS reply; they don't support Opera).
3. If he doesn't respond (in Firefox) for the time duration, the site apparently logs him off, but by doing so it appears to 'freeze' the page and possible the browser. He can't go back and log in again or open any other bookmark. He has to close the browser.
4. The same holds true for Yahoo Games. If he is playing a game he sometimes gets 'kicked off' or he he is inactive in the site he gets kicked off. All of the above applies. It's not just Ameritrade.
4. When tries to re-open either browser he would get either "POP server unavailable" in Opera (because there is no ethernet connection) and with Firefox he gets a "Modem already in use" 633 error even though the dialup is still active (or shows it is).
5. If you click on the Modem icon in the system tray, the dialog box pops up for a split second and disappears. He can't disconnect. He then has to reboot the computer.

[mairving]

He is using Dialup?

Has he loaded the latest version of flash?

What add-ins does he have loaded?

[glc]

Set the Internet options to never dial a connection and drag a shortcut to the connection out to the desktop and/or the quick launch bar.

[videobruce]

He is using Dialup?ISP; Earthlink DialUpPlease read before asking. It was the 6th line in the OP.

After looking over these two sites and watching the data stream, after the initial download of the pop-up box for the streaming stocks quotes, there is little data comming down the pike. A 14.4 modem could easily handle this traffic. Same goes for Yahoo Games. After both sites load, there isn't much going on.
When I mentioned "streaming" everyone probabaly thinks of video streaming. This isn't the case here.

The dialup adapter is called up first. Then the browser. Both manually in that order. There is no problem here.
To me, it appears the browser seems to loose contact with the modem (or the other way around). The dialup is there, but the browser(s) seem to think it isn't.

I swapped that POS Wintel software modem for a real 3Com hardware modem and I'm trying it now.

[mairving]

Please read before asking. It was the 6th line in the OP.

After looking over these two sites and watching the data stream, after the initial download of the pop-up box for the streaming stocks quotes, there is little data comming down the pike. A 14.4 modem could easily handle this traffic. Same goes for Yahoo Games. After both sites load, there isn't much going on.
When I mentioned "streaming" everyone probabaly thinks of video streaming. This isn't the case here.

The dialup adapter is called up first. Then the browser. Both manually in that order. There is no problem here.
To me, it appears the browser seems to loose contact with the modem (or the other way around). The dialup is there, but the browser(s) seem to think it isn't.

I swapped that POS Wintel software modem for a real 3Com hardware modem and I'm trying it now.
I read but must have missed it.

There could be a lot of things happening. A lot of programs go out and check to see if they need to be updated on a regular basis. They could all be looking to download an update. I am somewhat doubtful that Yahoo games can be played well on a dial-up connection. What I would probably do is to hook the computer up to a broadband connection somewhere else and see if the problems go away.

[videobruce]

Set the Internet options to never dial a connection and drag a shortcut to the connection out to the desktopI already did that when I set the box up.
I am somewhat doubtful that Yahoo games can be played well on a dial-up connection.He plays card games. trust me, a 14.4 modem would work (after the page loads). ;)

As far as add ons & plugins (according to the Add./remove Program panel);
Adobe Flash Player V9
Adobe Shockwave Player V10
Java 6 Update 3

I didn't install those Adobe programs and neither did he. And NO, there aren't any viruses etc.

[videobruce]

Is there some difference between Home and Pro, or is there some difference between sp2 and sp1 regarding this??

[videobruce]

I got these replys from another forum;Any chance this is related to XP's network session limit? I believe there's a limit of 10 TCP/IP connections. There's a registry key to edit somewhere. BitTorrent users often have to increase it.

It's the limit on number of half-open tcp connections. Here is the site;
http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=tools

Comments?