ie cannot connect but firefox connects

[rams]

could you techies help me sort out this problem.
Iam using windows xp home and aol broadband connection. On attempting to connect to any site using internet explorer, it says "page cannot be displayed". I can browse using firefox and aol without any problem. i have tried running adaware and norton and antivir, without any luck. the internet settings seems to be ok. firewall is set to allow ie. thanks.

[(51)]

I would keep Firefox and install the extension, "IEview." When you right click on a page you can choose to view it in Internet Explorer. Try it and see if that works for you.

http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=50

[rams]

I have the ie extention installed, still ie says it cannot connect. As many of my program updates run on ie, the problem persists. Is it possible that ie browser could have been changed to any other proxy setting, but the change does not show on tools> internet options> connections> settings > proxy server.(the proxy server choice is still unchecked).

[digitalfreedom64]

I have the same problem I believe it is something to do with AOL, because IE seems to work fine until aol is install. Firefox works fine. I'm affraid I can't help you with this problem because I have yet to figure out a solution to this. I just know it has something to do with aol. What kind of broad band connnection do you have dsl, cable, satellite and do you have the backup dialup connection set up that AOL for broadband provides ?

[sataraid0]

Hmmmm, try this........open IE then click on tools then sycronize then when the box comes up click on sycronize again near the bottom.

After it finishes try connecting to a site?

Have found this works, when using aol and folding@home trys to acess the internet and cant. So I hookup to the internet with aol and then open IE and sycronize.......then folding@home connects ok. Dont understand it but worth a try. Hope it helps.

Regards...........................Sterling

[digitalfreedom64]

I have also noticed something else and want to know if you are having the same problem. Well to add to the befor ementioned problems every time I close IE it says that it has encountered a problem and needs to close and asks if i want to report it to microsoft. This also didn't start happening until I installed AOL.

[rams]

hi,
I have got a dsl cable connection and a aol dialup as a back up.
IE doesnt freeze up when it is shut down. Regarding the synchronisation I tried that and ie could not synchronize bcos it could not connect to any of the sites.
Firefox still working fine. Has anyone come across a specific bug that does this to IE alone?

[ktkendall]

What are the settings set at under IE>tools>internet options>connections tab> Lan Settings ??

[digitalfreedom64]

Originally Posted by ktkendall What are the settings set at under IE>tools>internet options>connections tab> Lan Settings ??

Also is how is it set to dial the backup. Never when a connetion isn't present or always.

[rams]

None of the LAN options are selected. I thought I would select the Automatic detection of Lan setting, nothing changed.
Dial up connection is not enabled as i do not use it.
I tried "winsockxpfix" tool. It changed my winsock files, but IE still does not connect. I also went through the troubleshooting section in xp. the "ping" test returned all 4 messages. there were no duplicate files either.
Still trying!!!!!

[ktkendall]

Here is a suggestion to see if it is a DNS problem:
From Command line:
ping www.pcmech.com
It should resolve to IP address 209.68.45.231 first then succeed in the ping replies. If that works OK, then use that IP address in IE's nav bar to try to reach pcmech site and see if that succeeds.. It does sound like you are correct in that AOL has hosed things up again..

One other thought would be to set internet options back to default..

[rams]

hi ktkendall,
i pinged www.pcmech.com from command prompt and it resolved to the correct ip address 209.68.45.231 and returned all 4 pings.
Could u tell me how to type that ip address in the nav bar.
I tried to type 209.68.45.231 where I usually type any web address and it did not work.
Should I uminstall my aol and reinstall it to see if it corrects the problem?

[ktkendall]

Yes you did it correctly, If you know a websites IP address you can just type that in the navigation bar it it will go to the site even quicker cause it does not have to resolve url to IP address via the DNS servers. I suppose the uninstall of AOL is something to try if your willing and able..

[glc]

When you type a raw IP into the address bar, you have to preface it with http://

[ktkendall]

Originally Posted by glc When you type a raw IP into the address bar, you have to preface it with http://

I do not have to type http:// with IE or Mozilla using IP address but perhaps that is a setting found somewhere, but anyways all this would determine is if we have a DNS problem, but it is sounding like something else has corrupted IE somehow.. I have not worked much with AOL, but the few people I have seen use it usually have to connect with AOL software but once connected then can use IE or any other browser to browse the web..

[rams]

The problem was due to Ghostsurf(vcom utilities). I had installed ghostsurf and then had removed it from the startup folder. Seems that even when ghostsurf is not running it had changed the proxy server setting somewhere( as my ie connection settings where always correct). Even now i have to keep it running cos when i exit it ie cannot connect, while firefox settings can be easily reversed. I have still not tried uninstalling ghostsurf.
Thanks everyone for ur suggestions, but still cannot understand exactly where my ie setings where changed when ghostsurf was not running.