Sometimes browser won't connect to urls

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Sometimes browser won't connect to urls

Postby Jeff Leites » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 11:22 am

I've had this occur on both NS 7.x and 4.x.
The Modem will connect to the ISP, but the browser will act as if the connection does not exist. I know there is a connection, because I can open a different browser, and everything will be fine with the 2nd browser.
Closing Netscape and restarting Netscape, either with or without restarting the connection will not work either, once this problem occurs, the only way to make it work again is to reboot. Anyone know what is wrong, or how to reset it without rebooting?
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Postby Fulvio » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 11:46 am

What type of connection do you have? The way you describe it, I would interpret that you may have broadband, but if you have dialup, the story is different.
You say, also that it works if you reboot the computer, so it must work in first place, and then quit. It would help if you would tell us how things go wrong. It is very confusing the way you put it.
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Postby Jeff Leites » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 1:12 pm

I have a dial-up connection.
I don't really know "how things go wrong". As you say, it does work fine at first. I may connect and disconnect several time a day without a problem, put once in a while, when I connect, Netscape well act as if the computer is not connected, and will not be able to "locate the server" ( I believe that is the message I get). It doesn't happen everyday, just enough to be annoying.
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Postby Fulvio » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 3:01 pm

It sounds like an ISP problem. And, to be honest, you have a problem, because most ISPs do not support Netscape, meaning that they have no one trained to answer questions. And, some are worse than others, making it next to impossible to stay connected.
But, it is a real problem when you get disconnected, just like that.
If this is happening every day, you should try to connect with Internet Explorer for one full day, and, see if it disconnects, as well.
I had a problem like that with my cable connection, over five years ago, and nothing staid on very long, and forget about it in a wet day. The service people came over, and they found out that squirrels had been sharpening their teeth on the insulation.
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Postby humpd » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 3:59 pm

I had a similar problem when I had dial-up and once not that long ago with my DSL service. It was a problem in the phone line -- for the dial-up it was squirils and with the DSL it was a bad connection within my home.
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Postby Fulvio » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 9:13 pm

Those darned squirrels. In other words called the ISP.
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Postby humpd » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 11:13 pm

You can call the ISP or the phone company. The ISP may be able to do a line check to see if they pick up any interference on the line. I know that even the least bit of interference on a phone line can knock out DSL connections but I am not sure about a dial up connection other than the time I had the line problem caused by chewing on the line. I think, however, that Fulvio's suggestion to use IE for a day will give you the answer. Good luck.
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Postby Fulvio » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 11:56 pm

Yea, are the squirrels pro-Microsoft, or impartial. But, kidding aside such glitches should be universal. That's why I was thinking to use an entirely different browser.
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What you need is an internet dial-up connection utility

Postby RogueCantenna » Wed 18 Jan, 2006 2:41 pm

I had the same problem with Internet Explorer 6.0.
I switched over to Netscape Browser 8.0.4, which solved the problem for about 2 weeks, before the same connection issues resurfaced. A thorough virus scan turned up nothing.

What did work is Stay Live 2000, Version 3.1 (actually updated May 22, 2005), an internet dial-up connection utility that prevents your Internet Service Provider from dropping your dial-up connection.

Works with MicroSoft Windows 95/98, ME, XP, 2000 or Windows NT.

Go to:

http://www.gregorybraun.com/StayLive.html

and download "STAYLIVE.ZIP" A lean and mean 163K Byte file.

Unzip to a temporary directory and run SETUP.EXE

- After installation, double-click the Stay Live 2000 icon on your desktop, and the icon will also appear in the task bar, since it's now active.
- Double-click the Stay Live 2000 task bar icon to open the program and enter your defaults.
- Select the "General" tab.
- Specify that Stay Live 2000 Refresh at "15 Second" intervals.
- The internet connection status indicator (the two video monitors icon), in your task bar, should now both be lit (when there's activity), indicating full 2-way communication between your computer and the internet.
- I've noticed that opening the Stay Live 2000 settings window, while online, can sometimes conflict with the internet browser. So make the setup and settings changes while offline.
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Postby Fulvio » Wed 18 Jan, 2006 4:12 pm

It is worth trying, with dial-up, before going after the squirrels.
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Postby RogueCantenna » Thu 19 Jan, 2006 2:58 pm

Another trick you can try, and it's quite simple, is to create a dedicated phone line for dialup internet use. To do this, simply unconnect your phone, answering machine, etc, from your phone jack, before going online.

This should leave only your computer modem connected to your phone jack, which will now function as a clean, open line out to the street, and directly to the phone company. The connection should now allow the best dialup connection possible.

All these new phones -and phone gadgets, have internal circuitry that can sometimes bog down really critical connections, such as internet communication. And you can easily plug everything back in, when you're through with the internet.

The above issues were not the cause of my dialup problems, but it is a quick and simple thing to isolate -if it was.

As for squirrels on your phone line, a good pneumatic pellet rifle, with scope, should take care of those pesky, chewing miscreants.
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Postby Fulvio » Thu 19 Jan, 2006 4:15 pm

In the pre-cable days, I used to have two lines. One for phone, and the other for internet. and, also carry AOL. And, then, one day I woke up.
One line for phone, cable for internet, no AOL. the expense was almost the same.
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