Strange browser problem Created 15 years ago2009-06-19 18:35:46 UTC by Soup Miner

All right, this has been going on for years, and I'm tired of it.

Sometimes whilst surfing the internets, my connection will seemingly just drop out for a few minutes (long enough to time out and reset). But I don't actually lose my connection, just my ability to load web pages.
I can still use instant messengers and can still play games online over Steam.

When I get back "online", my instant messenger will lose it's connection for a second before automatically reconnecting, and everything works again.

All browsers are affected when this happens [IE, FF, and Chrome], not just my primary [Opera]. It happens almost exclusively (and seemingly randomly) when I'm browsing FPS Banana, but it has happened elsewhere.
Googling hasn't helped me. Every result that comes up is someone who has actually lost their connection (or at least, a lot of people who think they've lost their connection).

some sort of bandwidth choking? I mean, instant messengers don't exactly use up a lot of bandwidth, so they might keep working

All I can say is be prepared for the possibility of some kind of virus or malware infection. By the sound of things, you might have something running in the background interfering with your online connection. Have you run a security system scan of your PC yet? If not, you should, just in case.

If you don't have a good anti-virus program installed, you can look here for some good free ones: http://www.snapfiles.com/features/ed_spyware-protection.html

I run weekly scans, offline and in safe mode. This problem has persisted over 2 PCs.
If it's background software, the creator did a damn good job keeping it hidden. I was thinking more along the lines of the problem being linked to an advertisement or some broken java script.

You are in the right track if you say you are doing weekly scans, so that's a good thing. But remember, for the scans to have maximum effectiveness, the ant-virus program's definitions also need to be updated on a regular basis, usually the program itself would do this automatically if you let it.

Well, if push comes to shove, there's always formatting the hard drive and doing a clean Windows install, which sadly enough is the only method in the world guaranteed to remove even the so called "irremovable infections".

I was thinking more along the lines of the problem being linked to an advertisement or some broken java script.

I don't know about Java (or Flash or other browser plugins like WMP/QuickTime), but normal web content (text, images, JavaScript (JavaScript isn't Java) code, CSS, HTML etc.) can not be the problem.

It happened to me once or twice in the last 4 or 5 years. No idea what could cause it. The easy solution is to wipe clean the hard drive and gradually install your software until the problem appears. If it's there before you install anything, you can always try a different ISP.

I have the same issue, and I can reassure you that it's quite unlikely that it's a browser problem.

I still suspect it's a connection issue.

The problem has gotten better after I got a new DSL modem from my ISP provider.

I'm with satchmo.

Do you by any chance have a D-Link router?
Mine used to do the same thing; sometimes it would stop allowing new connections, but connections that were already established continued to work just fine. I fixed it by upgrading the firmware, which fixed a bunch of other connection drops and slowdowns as well.

I'm using a Belkin router. Never heard of D-Link, but it makes sense.

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. I have a Belkin router as well--actually it's pretty old and I have alot of the same problems. I have two computers plugged into it so I know it's not the computers that cause the problems.

Login to your router http://192.168.2.1:88/ and check your firmware. You will still have to manually download but you will have to login to the router to make the upgrade. It's pretty simple.

Also someone had mentioned bandwidth choking. I have this problem as well cause I USE alot of bandwidth and I think my internet provider has put me on some blacklist. Companies do this when you use more bandwidth than they think you should use. Read the fine print--they can do it.

I am not sure which yours is but try upgrading the firmware and see if it makes a difference.