Selective internet connections

[reibow]

Have been having trouble for a few days with loading some sites which I use frequently. I have tried as many different ways of connecting that I can think of but no luck. Have also gone through a whole range of modem/com and internet option variations but none seem to help. Just downloaded IE5.5 to see if that would help but nothing improved.
Here are some of the sites which are giving problems : Windows update(whole system hangs on connection), All Microsoft sites except MSN, Whitepages Australia, 32bit.com, Hardware Central(works about one in three attempts but locks up system eventually), Populus.com, CNet, ZDnet, Leisureplanet.com.
Problems range from not loading to slow loading(like 30 minutes) to locking up Internet Explorer to total system lockup. Same problems happen with Netscape. Does anyone know of anything different about these sites which might explain.
I suppose the loss of Microsoft sites might be a blessing in disguise but some others such as Whitepages I need on a daily basis.
Last time I had serious system lockups they were traced back to a faulty graphics card. But although the symptons appear the same would a faulty graphics card affect sites selectively.
Have done all I can for the moment but if anyone has any ideas would appreciate. Off to the club for a beer now.

[Statica]

When you get a problem with a site .. say 32bit.com

open up a dosprompt [am assuming u are on Win9x] and do a tracert to the site ..

tracert http://www.32bit.com

you should be able to get a rough feel for the network addresses your packets travel through .. look at the resolved names and you should be able to get a decent idea on where the problem is ..

say you are a subscriber of diallup.com for ur internet
and you get something like
icecream.diallup.net etc etc .. and you get astoundingly long delays at those nodes then its obviously a prob with your ISP. Somewhere in the middle would mean its a problem with the backbone or a routing issue. and towards the end would mean the problem with the site u are trying to connect to.
Now you should also note that u neednt get an acknowledgement/time from a server becos it would be configured not to respond to your tracert. Again its just a generic solution but with intuitiveness it should help you.

The fact that u are getting quite a few sites that arent responding, i'd assume that its a prob with the ISP or the immediate route from the ISP. either way a call to them should do wonders.

As an alternative .. u can try http://www.visualroute.com .. go to the demo and u can get a grafical concept of what i mean. uses the same theory as with tracert

[BlackHoleSun]

Delete and resetup...
Dialup Networking Adapter
Modem Driver

Leave everything default
Make sure that its using the right modem driver, if you have had a different one installed it may still be using the old drivers init strings.
Make sure you have the error and compression settings right.
Try running the packet size at the "small" setting. That's all I can offer. Had a similar problem, turned out that the modem was using my "OLD" modems INF, therefore the old init strings, etc.

[reibow]

Zone alarm was the guilty party. Disabled ZA and voila missing links started to reappear slowly. Had to shut down and restart IE a few times to get most of it working but still do not have pictures - any suggestions (yes I have ticked show pictures in internet options).

Thanks for your help.