IE cannot display the webpage BUT able to ping website

[charlygiraffe]

Every few minutes I receive the message IE cannot display the webpage, this even occurs if I attempt to connect to the router web interface on the LAN IP. Give it 30 seconds or so & a refresh will load the webpage. Occasionally the webpage will open but images will be missing or text in wrong sizes.

 

I am running WinXP SP3, IE8, with a Netgear DG834Gv4 router (Firmware v5.01.14)

I have similar connection errors on email & other internet reliant applications.

While the error occurs I am still able to receive a reply if I ping a website or the router eg ping BBC - Homepage, ping 192.168.0.1

 

I have tried the following:

The router, I have reset to factory, replaced the patch cable, used an alternative ethernet port, used automatic DNS & fixed DNS (My ISP & OpenDNS)

The PC, I have used an alternative USB network adapter, used automatic DNS & fixed DNS (My ISP & OpenDNS)

Disabled Windows DNSClient Service, reset WinSock

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

Although I am no network wizard and will have to leave you for someone else to help you, could you tell us who your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is, as that may be of some relevance to your problem.

Nev.

[charlygiraffe]

My ISP is TalkTalk.

[Poconos]

I don't have a solution yet but this problem seems somewhat similar to a problem I and friend are having, both running XP SP3 on laptops. She runs Firefox, I use IE8. Sometimes pages will not load or partially load and usually hitting the redX and stopping the load and refreshing will let the pages complete. We have two different ISP's, different locations, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, different Netgear routers, and so far I can find nothing in common except the OS. We've seen it using the OpenDNS server and her ISPs DNS server.

 

Right now I'm at my home and dropped the MTU size setting on my router from the default of 1500 to 1300 and my problem seems to have gotten a little better but doing the same on her router seems to have had no effect. dslreports.com has some good info on MTU sizes. I don't fully understand some of this stuff but have seen some strange results pinging varous websites and seeing what packet sizes can be handles without fragmentation.

 

Unlike the original post I don't seem to see problems with email or direct PC-PC interfacing using VNC. Only with browser usage. Maybe data packets aren't getting reassembled correctly or packets are missing, or a timing issue, but that doesn't explain everything. This was my thinking when I started horsing with the MTU size.

 

I've tried going back to the default advanced browser settings....no different. During my last visit to WV I set my browser to us a proxy server at my home in PA and that slowed up accesses but did seem to reduce the problem. One particular website, poolforum.com, using an older version of VBulletin software wouldn't work for me at all from WV unless I went through my proxy server in PA. Still can't explain that.

 

I have images of my OS going back 3 years and restoring to one of these may be my next step. Or maybe even the factory 'as delivered' configuration. When I get time I'll look into the firewall (ZoneAlarm) and killing other cryptic things that run in the background.

 

It isn't my intention to hijack the thread but the problems seem similar and just thought commenting on what I've done and where I'm going might give someone some ideas. I'll keep an eye on this thread and post anything more I learn.

 

PLEASE stay focused on the original posters problem and not mine.

 

Thanks,

Al

[charlygiraffe]

Thanks for the info Al, I forgot about this MTU setting, but suspect this may be the the way forward.

The MTU for my PC is set to 1500 & router to 1492.

I read somewhere 1432 was recommended on the a Netgear router with my ISP. I also read the PC MTU should be set +8 on the router, so I changed this to 1440. Not sure if this is correct but its made little difference, may require some tweaking, I'll follow dslreports.com info, like you say this looks helpful info on the matter.

Charly

[Tootech]

Talktalk MTU is 1432. Set it, save it and reboot your router and PC.

 

Forget the +8, thats only for testing MTU using the ping command.

 

this even occurs if I attempt to connect to the router web interface on the LAN IP

 

That means the problem is with your LAN connection, not your Internet (WAN) connection.

 

IE cannot display the webpage BUT able to ping website

 

Your title of the problem adds confusion - if you can ping websites, DNS is working correctly.

 

Open DNS is a nice tool and it can solve webpage loading problems, but I don't think it your problem here.

 

Stick with an ethernet cable rather than wireless for the moment if you can.

 

Do you know how to run an ipconfig /all from the command prompt? I guess you do judging by the amount of work you have done already.

 

When you lose your webpages, run an ipconfig /all and look at the IP/DNS and Gateway settings and post them please.

 

It is possible your router is playing up - I've seen them work and then lose LAN, reset and work again, but for now post the ip settings.

[charlygiraffe]

I have set the MTU back to the suggested 1432 on the router & PC.

I have removed OpenDNS Servers. The router is set to obtain automatically, returning the servers

62.24.139.139

62.24.139.140

The PC is wired so I am not using the wireless functionality at the moment, except for a printer.

Ipconfig /all

 

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

 

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-D3-F6-B2-54

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.248

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 20 March 2010 07:35:55

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 23 March 2010 07:35:55

[Poconos]

To follow up on my earlier post, the problem seemed to be AVG Antivirus free. Have no idea why it would get confused accessing the internet directly but not through a proxy server but at this point I don't care. Probably something to do with accessing multiple IP's v.s. a single IP to the proxy server. Uninstalled it and installed AVAST instead and all is well. Been running for a couple days now and no hangups. Advice, turn off firewalls and AV programs to see if the problem goes away. If it does, then you have found the culprit.

Al

[charlygiraffe]

Hi Al, I also came across your suggestion this week and tried disabling both AVG Antivirus & PC Tools Firewall. This made no difference. As you say, I have now uninstalled AVG and installed Avast!. I have only tested for a short while but looks promising, Thanks for the advice, Happy Surfing! Charly

[Poconos]

Charly,

Hope things stay working OK. I tried killing AVG using MSCONFIG so it wouldn't even start but it didn't like something as the laptop hung partway through a boot. As in your case, something was still active. Uninstalling did the trick.

Al