# Gah! SP2 blocks all webpages. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814 "2005-01-20T23:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/1 "2005-01-20T23:32:15Z")
I’m helping a neighbour upgrade a computer. Part of it was changing from WinMe to XP. Problem is, XP discs now ships with SP2, so there’s no choice there. Fore some (omittedlong line of really creative profanity) reason, it’s impossible to get IE to show a single webpage. Yes, it has internet access. I’ve pinged a lot of servers and everything works smoothly. I’ve checked the settings in the firewall, and have allowed IE and OE to get access to the net. Do I have to download ZoneAlarm on my computer, burn it and go over to the next apt to install it there? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/2 "2005-01-20T23:41:19Z")
XP with SP2 on disk is the same as XP with SP2 downloaded; a patch. MS warns that any or all software that was installed prior to an upgrade may have to be reinstalled afterwards or at least have drivers upgraded. Try reinstalling IE6. How about Firefox? Zonealarm won’t make access available to anything that wasn’t already available; it only blocks access to some things. I would suggest uninstalling zonealarm, upgrading, then reinstalling the latest ZA. Hope this helps. MS doesn’t make it easy; Bill’s a monopoly. ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/3 "2005-01-20T23:48:02Z")
What specifically makes you think SP2 is the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/4 "2005-01-20T23:58:07Z")
Because I rebuilt my own computer some three months ago and got XP with SP1, and it worked like a charm. Doing the same thing with XP and SP2 and it doesn’t work. This is what I did today: New processor (intell 2.53), new board, new hard drive, the old board durned out. The idea is to get the computer up and running, attach the old hard drives and move files, then reformat the newest (120gb) and ditch the old 6GB. It’s a fresh install on a new hard drive. Everything is working just fine and since I _can_ ping remote servers, there’s connection to the outside world. Only… IE won’t display any websites. None. Firefox is a new solution, but It’d be very nice to actually be able to get to some sites and do the downloads. I don’t mind helping my neighbour, but downloading all software here, buring it, walking next door and installing it from a CD seems like a roundabout way, if there’s just a setting I’m missing. I’ve checked the forum at [computing.net](http://computing.net), I’ve read the help file, I’ve checked the MS knowledge base. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, but damned if I can figure out what it is. ---
**Author:** ![kpinocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e57/32.png) [@kpinocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kpinocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/5 "2005-01-21T00:00:50Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > Fore some (omittedlong line of really creative profanity) reason, it’s impossible to get IE to show a single webpage. Do you currently have any 3rd party firewall installed? (eg Norton, ZoneAlarrm). If so make sure that you disable the SP2 firewall. > [@Musicat](#): > > MS doesn’t make it easy; Bill’s a monopoly. This is not correct. A monopoly means that there is no other choice. Anyone who doesn’t like Windows has the choice of switching to Linux. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/6 "2005-01-21T00:09:53Z")
Trying Firefox would be a good test. Depending on what was installed before and after the upgrade, you may want to check on two possibilities: [Winsock corruption](http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811259) - If Winsock is broken in some way, you could be able to ping a site w/o IE being able to access it. You may want to [reregister some dlls](http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=5311). That link was one of the first I found on Google, so by all means check for more, but if IE isn’t working this is sometimes a quick fix. If all else fails and you don’t want to restart from scratch, give MS support a call. Early in the morning you should get someone pretty quick, and your copy of XP gets you 2 free calls (IIRC - it’s been a while). They’ve got quck access to the MS KB and more, so chances are they can help you on this. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/7 "2005-01-21T00:12:29Z")
I recently fixed a computer that had similar symptoms and I found the computer’s internal modem was selected as the default connection even though the actual connection was DSL via a NIC. How does this computer connect to the Internet? Is it part of a home network? You can always try the brute force approach and delete all connectoids, remove the modem or NIC from device manager and then refresh so it finds the new hardware and asks if you want to setup a connection. ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/8 "2005-01-21T00:29:52Z")
If you can ping servers, that’s a good sign. Here’s a good troubleshooting technique you can use to help determine if the problem is with the browser or with networking in general: perform an HTTP request from the command line. It’s not that hard, and will impress the ladies (well, certain ladies :)): 1. open a cmd shell 2. type “telnet [www.google.com](http://www.google.com) 80” and hit enter At this point, you’ll either get a connection to port 80 on the web server, at which point the screen will clear, or it will say “Connecting To [www.google.com](http://www.google.com)…” for a bit and then error out (if it can’t connect, it will usually error out immediately, or it will wait 30 seconds or so and then spit out an error). 1. Assuming you got a connection, you should be looking at a blank terminal window now, at which point you won’t be able to see what you’re typing, but you should type “GET / HTTP/1.0” (there are spaces after the GET and the first /), then hit enter, then type “Host: [www.google.com](http://www.google.com)” and hit enter **two more times**. If you make a typo, you have to terminate the telnet session and start over, so type carefully. So to reiterate, what you’re typing is: ```auto GET / HTTP/1.0 Host: www.google.com ``` When you hit enter that third time, the web server should respond with an HTTP response, which is not that complicated, but rather than describe it here, I’ll just say that if you see a bunch of HTML source, everything is working. So if that works, your problem is in your IE settings (check the proxy server in Tools -\> Internet Options -\> Connections -\> LAN Settings). If that doesn’t work, the problem is with your network configuration. I seriously doubt this is an SP1-vs-SP2 problem. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/9 "2005-01-21T01:34:41Z")
> [@kpinocchio](#): > > Do you currently have any 3rd party firewall installed? (eg Norton, ZoneAlarrm). If so make sure that you disable the SP2 firewall. No. Let’s start again. New board, new intel processor, new ram, OEM disc with XP (incl. SP2). It’s basically building from scratch. This is all, _all_ there is. Nothing else. And I can ping servers. But not access websites. **Nanoda** Yes, it would. But I still think that with all settings as should be, getting to a website shouldn’t pose a problem. **galt** - good advice. I’ll try tomorrow. Maybe it’s not SP1 vs. SP2, but I don’t know what else there is. Sleepy time for me. Will check in later tomorrow (today). ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/10 "2005-01-21T23:42:26Z")
By report, there are lots of problems with modems in XP upgrades. If you haven’t checked that out yet, I suggest you do. On my old computer, I upgraded from 98SE to XP (2003), and I spent many hours on the phone with MS, trying to get it to work properly. The problem was with my modem; MS stopped a lot of legacy support when it brought out XP (I also had problems getting drivers for other “peripherals” - and my computer wasn’t quite 4 years old). Depending on what the owner can afford, a new modem might be the easiest solution, if that’s the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/11 "2005-01-22T00:57:59Z")
Doubt it’s SP2, but you might want to check MS’s built in Firewall protection scheme to see if something is messed up there. BTW, I’m running XP SP2 on a machine I built myself as well, and have had no troubles…not that SP2 couldn’t be screwing up your machine, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-sp2-blocks-all-webpages/285814/12 "2005-01-22T17:05:45Z")
just off the hip this sounds like a winsock problem, so I’d second that previous suggestion… when trying to access websites, what error do you get…please post it word for word… here is one possibility from microsoft… [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;812336](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;812336) another here [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325192](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325192) in any case, good luck