browser freeze ups

[Virtual Patient]

Hiya folks ltns.

having problems with browsers this week. Windows Vista Home Premium service pack 1.

Both firefox and IE are freezing up and computer will not reboot without taking out the power.

The message says .... "www.google.com" is not set up to establish a connection on port "world wide web service (http)" with this computer.

The www.google.com is interchangeable with whatever site I have tried to access.

msn messenger doesn't always freeze up at the same time, and if I am playing a web game that window doesn't always freeze either ....

Another problem with the same computer is that firefox.exe doesn't always close out of the processes running even manually. this stops me from using ccleaner and also from shutting down the computer.

Are these problems related? Have you any ideas on how to stop this?

[Broni]

Was/is Norton installed?

[Virtual Patient]

most certainly not .. lol ... the trial version that came with the computer was never activated and all traces removed as soon as the box was unpacked.

[Broni]

See, if same thing happens in Safe Mode with Networking.

[Virtual Patient]

ok will try that next .. ty ... will report back after a while

[Virtual Patient]

no further forward with this one .... my hubby doesn't want to run in safemode because his avg and zone alarm don't seem to load in safemode..... still getting the freeze ups ...very frustrating

any other ideas?

p.s. have run anti virus scans by avg and online through housecall .. no infections found on either

[jdc2000]

Posting a screen capture of the actual error message that says "www.google.com" is not set up to establish a connection on port "world wide web service (http)" with this computer" might help. However, that looks like a firewall related message. The firewall (or something) appears to be blocking all access to port 80 (http).

[Broni]

my hubby doesn't want to run in safemode

Does he have better ideas?

[Virtual Patient]

thank you for the replies Broni,

lol nope he doesn't have any better ideas ... he is just paranoid about surfing 'naked' ....he has checked all his settings although he hadn't changed anything in any of the browsers. He has run scans and even tried a restore to a date prior to the problem arising but still no joy.... we have three computers set up in the same way same operating systems same browser versions same firewall same anti virus as his and the other two are working just fine with no errors ....

I will get a screenshot of the error when he goes online tonight

[Virtual Patient]

Ok I worked on the idea that the firewall was at fault and it seems that is the problem. He had a whole evening surfing the net with the zone alarm firewall turned off and had no problems. To check to see if it was an adjustment he had made we uninstalled it completely, then reinstalled a clean version and allowed it to run with default settings, and the problem came back.

Do you have any suggestions for a different free firewall for that computer? All the other computers are working just fine with zone alarm free edition.

[burgert]

PCTools Firewall Plus (Free) works great for me, Zone Alarm never did.

[HAN]

IMO, there is nothing wrong with using the built-in, inbound firewall that's bundled with Vista. It's not 2-way protection by default, but for the average user, that is probably a good thing. IMO, the average PC user does not (or can not) spend the time needed to run a 2-way firewall. Some automated 2-way firewalls (that use white lists) can be seemingly simple but even they can sometimes ask questions that a user doesn't know how to answer. Or even worse, as in this case, they can block something outbound and the user has no idea what may be causing it.

I have set up PCs for lots of users and for most, I set them up using the built in Windows (Vista) firewall. Windows firewall, along with a broadband router that uses NAT (network address translation) is a very safe firewall combination. (NAT helps to protect an internet connection by making the IP address of the router (the address facing the outside world) different from the IP address of the PC. This "translation" obscures the PC from direct attack.)

FWIW, this is not meant to say that 2-way firewalls are bad. They aren't at all. (I use one at home.) But running one does require more interaction on the user's part. And in some cases, a fair amount of knowledge of how firewalls in general work.

[Virtual Patient]

Thank you for your replies.

We have now uninstalled zonealarm and installed PCTools Firewall Plus. Hopefully this will have resolved the problem.

Thanks all...

[Broni]

Good going