IE intermittently won't connect to websites

mrflippy

I'm having trouble using Internet Explorer. The majority of the time when I load it and try to connect to a website, I get a "Connecting..." message up in the title bar, the little things spins, and nothing happens. If I close and reopen IE enough times, it will eventually start working.

I've tried various solutions off and on for months with no effect.

Now this is not usually a huge issue. I use Firefox for most of my browsing, but some applications or games use embedded IE, and there are cases where I would want to test websites in IE or something.

Some possibly helpful information:

• Vista Ultimate 64 bit
• Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000
• Wired connection to a router, which is in turn connected to a cable modem
• Firefox has no issues connecting
• Certain apps that use embedded IE have trouble sometimes (Steam -- though it works mostly, Champions Online launcher)
• MSN Messenger has intermittent connection issues as well. I'm not sure whether this is connected as I can almost never connect from this computer.

One thing I just realized I haven't tried is IE 8. Downloading that now.

GrimReaper

IE 8 makes it easier to enable/disable browser addons. So you're doing the right thing in getting it installed. I'd check browser objects once it's installed.

amateurhour

Are you running any addons in IE?

If so, try disabling those first, and see if it fixes the problem. Also, clear out all of your cookies, cached info, etc, and restart IE.

edit: beat

mrflippy

The most recent thing I did was a full reset of settings to default, cleared all data, and unchecked the "allow 3rd party extensions" option.

I'm checking now to figure out how to disable any addons that may have been installed.

mrflippy

All of the "currently loaded addons" are disabled. Should I disable all of the addons that run without requiring permission? There are like 50 of them and I need to disable them individually, and some of them are things like XML DOM stuff.

If I run IE from the "IE without addons" icon things still don't work properly though.

GrimReaper

mrflippy wrote: »

All of the "currently loaded addons" are disabled. Should I disable all of the addons that run without requiring permission? There are like 50 of them and I need to disable them individually, and some of them are things like XML DOM stuff.

If I run IE from the "IE without addons" icon things still don't work properly though.

Where it says "Show" select "All Addons".

Then try and disable all the non-Microsoft ones. See how that goes.

mrflippy

Just finished installing IE 8, and things are looking much better. I wish I would have thought to upgrade earlier.