IE5 can't browse

Can anybody give us a few clues to look at as to why ie5 cannot browse even though it fires up o.k. ...?

This particular p.c. is on a network with exactly the same settings as a number of other p.c.'s. which work perfectly. It can collect and send pop3 and smtp mail without any problems. However when ie5 is selected although the programme starts and works o.k. in every other sense, it just will not browse.

Interestingly when a site is requested e.g. www.microsoft.com the i.p. address of the site appears to be being searched on the bottom left but the status bar on the right stops after about 1/3rd of the way and after a while the standard message "page cannot be displayed" appears.

We have also tried this with a dial up connection without success and re-installed ie5 and 5.5 but still no joy. Symantec AV software is running and no virus's have been found...

I would appreciate a few ideas otherwise I am down to rebuilding the whole p.c...

Thanks

 

Also, look in PeteC's signature for links and do the following

- download, update, and then run ad-aware. Remove all the critters it finds.

- download, update, and then run spybot. Remove all it lists in red and pre-checks for you - more critters.

- download Hijackthis. Put it in a folder it can call home (so not Temp). Then run it to create a log file. Post the file here but don't fix anything.

My guess from the symptoms you list is that some piece of spyware has made some entries that are keeping you from finding internet sites. Your AV program wouldn't notice spyware/malware since most of it is not really a 'virus'.

 

If this is happening when you click on links to go to another website (as opposed to entering the new URL in the Address bar manually), perhaps this will help
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...pport/kb/articles/177/0/54.asp&NoWebContent=1