Browser hangs 10 minutes after boot Options

[Milo77]

Hi --

When I first power on my PC, everything's fine. After 10 minutes, my browser stops working. It says it's connecting to a site, and then it times out. Firefox and IE both do the same thing. The only solution is to reboot, and that gives me 10 more minutes.

Just logging off doesn't help. It has to be a restart. Only the browser is affected. Client/server apps continue to work okay, and I can ping external sites from the command prompt.

When I run Windows network diagnostics, it says it succeeded in making a passive FTP connection, but it is not able to make an HTTP or HTTPS connection.

This has been going on for about two weeks now, and I thought it might be related to a warning message that I got from Comodo Defense+. I posted the problem over in the malware section, but they said my system is clean, and sent me here.

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2, Firefox 2.0.0.12 and IE 7.0.5730.11.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Milo

[DaChew]

McAfee is useless and a major resource hog. I recommend that you remove it and instead use a program like AVG/Avast/AntiVir

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?s=...st&p=436979

[Milo77]

McAfee is useless and a major resource hog. I recommend that you remove it and instead use a program like AVG/Avast/AntiVir

I already know that. But that wasn't the question.

[Milo77]

I'm still looking for help with this problem. I made some progress with this article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926431

When I boot in safe mode with networking, the problem goes away. I've gotten all the way through "Advanced troubleshooting method six", so I've ruled out services and startup programs. Now Microsoft is suggesting system restore, which will probably fix things, but won't tell me what the problem was.

I'm pretty sure I picked this up at a malicious web site, but none of the malware scanners can find it. It would be nice to track down the driver, or whatever it is, and submit it for analysis. Any suggestions on how to identify the culprit?

Thanks,
Milo

[jeremy_smitty5]

Is it only your browser that hangs or your whole computer?

Jeremy

[Milo77]

It's only the browser. Client server apps, streaming audio and video, etc., all continue to work. And the browser is okay for html files on my hard drive. But if I try to initiate a new http or https connection, it times out. Happens with both Firefox and IE.

Last night I watched an hour-long concert embedded in a web page. No problem, as long as I click the start button on the embedded player before the 10 minutes are up.

Thanks,
Milo

This post has been edited by Milo77: May 3 2008, 10:06 AM

[jeremy_smitty5]

Who is your internet service provider? The reason I'm asking is because I know with some isp you can set settings where your connection will time out with a set time of being idle or just being on the network so long. Maybe you, or someone else set some settings without knowing.

Jeremy

[Milo77]

Comcast is my ISP. I have a Linksys router/firewall, and I believe all the ISP-specific settings are in the router (but I don't know that for sure.)

Also, the other computers in the house don't have the problem.

Thanks,
Milo

[Scotty]

Well, we can have another look if you like.


Download Deckard's System Scanner (DSS) to your Desktop. Note: You must be logged onto an account with administrator privileges.

1. Close all applications and windows.
2. Double-click on dss.exe to run it, and follow the prompts.
3. For Vista users, right-click DSS and select Run As Administrator
4. When the scan is complete, two text files will open - main.txt <- this one will be maximized and extra.txt<-this one will be minimized
5. Copy (Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) the contents of main.txt and the extra.txt in your next reply

[Scotty]

Oops, replied to the wrong topic.

Could you post that dss log to the topic in the malware Removal room, please.

[mojaco]

I have just had the same experience with only being able to access the internet via HTTP for ten minutes after a reboot, but not having any problem accessing the internet via HTTPS continuously. I have a brand new Sony VAIO laptop with WIn XP professional installed instead of Vista.

I tried several virus / adware scanners to no avail. I tried stopping all automatically loaded programs except the bare essentials for keeping the computer running. None of this worked. I also tried the software Winsockxpfix.exe which didn't help.

Then, after reading on the internet about other people's experiences over the past two years with this kind of problem, it seems that many thought it had to do with the virus software being used or some residual left from an earlier uninstall of some antivirus software. In my case the computer came already loaded with Symantec AntiVirus (Norton Antivirus) installed and running, and other people seemed to correct their 10 minute problem by installing ZoneAlarm.

I uninstalled the Symantec AntiVirus software and installed ZoneAlarm Suite, and the problem is gone!

This might also have worked by reinstalling the Symantec software but I didn't try that since other people mentioned ZoneAlarm working for them.

[Liss]

I have a similar problem. I haven't timed it...but I think mine takes a bit longer than 10 minutes to start haning. It does affect both FireFox and IE7. It started with FF3. I uninstalled and installed FF2, but still same problem. This is on my new Vista Ultimate machine. I am using Zone Alarm (free version) & Avast (free version) and had no other firewall or virus protectioin ever installed. This is really frustrating!

[zazi]

I have also the 10-minutes-Http-port-80-hang-up-problem. I thought it could have to something with Symantec AntiVirus (Norton Antivirus) or the Cisco VPN client, which you also mentioned in the other related thread. I had uninstalled both of them and ran Windows without any AntiVirus or Firewall and the problem occurs. So I think there is something left from one of these 2 programms that cause the hang up.
It's really curious - any other Internet connection works after the first 10 minutes. It ist just HTTP request over port 80. I also tried out the specific norton removal tool, which is available over several websites.
Now, I run my Windows XP SP3 with the Comodo firwall and AntiVir, but I think they do not matter about the problem - it has to do something with the legacy stuff.

Thanks for useful comments.

Cheers zazi

[zazi]

Hi guys,

after removing any registry-entry dealing with norton antivirus and cisco vpn (especially the deterministic network enhancer) the problem is net solved yet. so I do some research of my system. now I have figured out the differences between the safety mode boot and a normal system boot. the drives which are only load on a system boot are in the attached txt-file. I think, the most interesting one is http.sys, but this a system driver, which comes along a normal windows installation, or? if anyone could have a look at these drivers would it be a pleasant for me.

Cheers zazi

Attached File(s)

 differences.txt ( 2.84K ) Number of downloads: 375

 

[zazi]

Hi guys,

I solved the problem by myself, but I cost me around 2 days to get it. The problem was conflicted security tools, which should be removed from my system, but they still run with some processes in the system. So here is the solution in short notes:
- think about which firewall, antivirus and spyware tools do you use
-> decide to use just one of them, there are also all-in-one-solutions available like the software from Comodo (I think)
- deinstall all the other ones and look for them also in the registry an remove the entries, which deal with the removed tools, but be careful and think about what you can remove (so this task isn't quite easy and can maybe destroy your system)
-> in my case I deinstalled the Avira AntiVirus tool and all entries in the registry dealing with Symantec AntiVirus (which I had removed some days before I installed Avira AntiVirus) and Avira AntiVirus, there is also a removal tool available for removing Notron products (search for Norton removal tool), but this tool leaves also some entries in the registry, which you have to remove by your own
- but that wasn't the solution of my problem, there was still a service left in the system, but this service was from Zone Alarm, which I had installed month ago, I think, before I installed the Symantec tool (I even can't remember that I had had installed this tool and removed it later)
-> this problem I discovered with a nice tool called Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx), this is an extended process viewer, which visualize all depended drivers of each process etc. - so I looked up each process and founded out a running driver in the System process, which called "vsdatant.sys" (see the first entry in my differences.txt from the last post) and was created from organization called "Zonelabs" and my alarm clock rings
-> so I removed also all entries in the registry and files dealing with this driver (there are also a vsdata.dll and vsinit.dll in %WINDOWS%/system32/)
-> to remove the vsdatant.sys you have to start in safety mode, because otherwise the driver will be loaded from the system and you can not remove it

Now my system runs very well and I'm happy about removing all the Symantec etc.

Cheers zazi