IE7 Connection Issues [with Vista]

Hi Guys

First post here and i got a great one
I did have a browse about the site and found a few posts that kind of touch on the subject but don't really answer the question.

So, here is my problem.
I recently bought some software to download and convert .flv files from the internet. all worked fine until i attempted to download one which caused a crash.
On investigation i discovered that my internet explorer is not connecting outside my network and is not picking up web pages. As a rule, i use Firefox and assumed that all was working ok.
I did the normal google thing and done the standard answers. including checking the IE LAN settings etc.to no avail.

there is absolutely nothing wrong with my ISP/Internet/Connection yet i still get the "page is not available" error. And the really wierd thing is, everything else seems fine. My computer checks for udates daily and everything else i use looks ok.

This is not a life threatening problem for me. i can live without IE but it would be nice to have it working.

O/S: Vista Ultimate x86 (NO SP1)
A/V: Kaspersky Internet Security 7

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thankyou

 

Hi Evan

Thanks ever so much for your reply.
On your suggestion, i tried the WinSock fix for my machine.

Although i had the Vista standard "Compatibility Issues" warning, i ran it anyways.

Never having used this program, i am not sure what messages i should have gotten, but working on the assumption that it was just a vista problem i let it run on with the error messages

Unfortunately, i still have the problem with my IE7.
Not sure if this helps, but i did have someone suggest to me that it was a DNS issue. However, i do feel that if this was the case, my FireFox would fail aswell.

Any further suggestions to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated
Cerb

 

Thanks again Evan for your quick reply.

I can confirm that i am NOT running through a proxy(or attempting to) with IE.
The only thing ticked in the LAN connection area is "Automatically detect settings" which at one point oput of sheer experimentation i turned off to no avail.

Although i have no temp files etc etc because i use firefox, i have tried deleting them all, also with no results.
As for the running programs, i (very reluctantly) shut down all my running programs and restarted my IE.
Fingers crossed but still nothing.

I am pretty sure this is not a HOSTS file issue
i checked it out and seems pretty normal. I am also not getting issues with certain sites, it is every site.

Not sure how much more info you would need.

Thanks
Cerb

 

Well,
At least i aint the only one to be out of ideas.

i did however have one
i restarted my computer into safe mode (as per usual for me, i do it occasionally to run my spybot thoroughly) out of interest, i tried booting my IE7 up.

Low and Behold
there it was
imdb.com
my assigned homepage.

So an extension to my question at the start now has to be; why does IE work when i boot into safe mode (with networking) but not in standard windows mode.

My firewall cannot be to blame, (Kaspersky IS7) i had it running in safe mode and have tried completely disabling it to no real end except to panic me a bit.

Thanks for the advice though Evan, i guess i will have to live without it.
Will keep any updates on what happens coming though

Cerb

 

Hi Evan,

Thanks for your suggestion,
however, i had tried that after i discovered that safe mode seemed to solve the problem.

Hence the reason for the long wait for a reply, i went through my startup objects thoroughly hoping that i would be able to find the one that is stopping my IE.
No luck though

Unfortunately the only thing it accomplished was to annoy me more

Thanks though mate