I have a strange problem here at work with a computer. The internet connection (both dial-up and through the LAN) fails after about 5 minutes. When it fails, whenever I type a URL in the browser, the browser says Done in the status bar and all I see is a blank page. No 404 or DNS error. The strange thing is that I can ping web sites from the command line using the PING command, but cannot connect anywhere using Telnet.
The computer is a HP Omnibook xe4500 laptop. It was ridden with spyware, but I think it is clean now.
Have you tried different browsers? IE, netscape, firefox, opera? Trying it out on different browsers will at least confirm the cause of the problem, or narrow it down a bit.
Quite a few types of spyware can break Internet Explorer when removed - I don’t have time right now, but there are ways to re-install winsock2 which sometimes resolves the issue.
I agree with mittu - give Firefox a try. It will help with troubleshooting, and you may find it’s better for your uses.
WinXP Service Pack 2 has some new features to reset the TCP/IP stack - while I used them extensively when I worked support, I totally forget them now…
Check out this place, which has some commands you might wanna try.
(Though no fair saying it broke your AOL or anything)