Annoying Internet Explorer connection issue

Factual Questions
1

I wonder if anyone else has run into this?

I have a couple of PCs connected through a wired router to a DSL modem. I am running XP Pro SP3, AVG 8.5 (but using the XP firewall), Firefox 3.5.3, and IE7 on both of them.

For a long time, I have noticed that for no apparent reason, IE7 will just stop connecting. It doesn’t matter what web site I’m on or what web site I try to navigate to. It just sits and then says it cannot connect to the site.

But if I use Firefox, it connects with no problems. I mean, IE7 fails and Firefox works at the same time.

:confused:

The IE7 problem happened before I installed Firefox, by the way. And the problem usually happened at different times on the different PCs. But now that I have Firefox, it is even more apparent that my web connection itself is okay.

(And please, don’t advise me to stop using IE7.)

Thanks!

2

Nothing to add, other than to say I’ve had the exact same problem for over a year

3

I really dislike AVG. Its bloatware that puts its hooks into everything. Its poorly coded and is notorious for bugs and false positives. The first thing I would do is uninstall it and go with Microsoft’s better, lighter, and better QA’d Security Essentials virus scanner. Yes, its free.

Secondly, I would uninstall ALL toolbars from IE7. These third-party programs are often just as bad as AVG if not worse. Yahoo, Google, etc. Then I would upgrade to IE8 as IE7 is now old news.

Then I would reboot the dsl modem, the router, and when they are back up, reboot the computer.

4

I will consider your advice about AVG. There are other folks who swear by it. :dubious:

I don’t have any toolbars for IE7 installed.

As I said, Firefox has no problem connecting even when IE7 can’t, so it can’t be the modem and router. Can it?