[Rollin' Rog]

No it's definitely not a memory thing. You do mean 3 gigs don't you?

I don't seem to have any problem with Firefox with Adblock plus enabled. But I don't know what your Symantec security program does -- and that would be the one most likely culprit.

[Vista bugged1]

Rollin', Oops, yes I meant 3 Gigs.

BTW. The Symantec thing was bothering me as well so even though I could turn it off/disable it, I decided to uninstall it to see if that made a difference and it didn't. It is the Corporate Edition of Symantec that my company uses and authorizes employees its use when they connect from their home PC. I never had a problem with it on my old XP box.

I did not try anything last night on my PC, other commitments took my time.

[Rollin' Rog]

As I understand it this is a personal computer and you are not behind a corporate or hardware firewall of any kind -- and the ISP you connect through is your own.

No proxy involved.

Nothing really explains your ability to connect to the original page >>

http://www.tractorbynet.com/

But not the subsequent "discussions" index or threads >>

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/b...g-comparisons/

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/b...scam-ebay.html

By the way do you see the "flash ad" on the index page?

The forum is really not much different than this one.

Just out ouf curiousity, do you experience the same behavior when using a proxy connection such as >> http://www.guardster.com/subscription/proxy_free.php

[Vista bugged1]

Yes, personal PC not behind Corporate Firewall.

I'm quite sure I see the Flash Adds because I know some of the manufacturers run them.

I will have to look at the guardster site when I get home to check it out. It will be tomorrow evening before I can get to it. You are right the forum is fairly cut and dried, logging in, viewing, and posting like many other forums. Accept they all continue to work!

Thanks again for your investigation on this.

[Rollin' Rog]

Have you ever run the "diagnostic" tool to see if it reports anything when you thet the "cannot connect" message?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/936211

Also, If you follow the directions below it will reset the winsock; tcp/ip and remove any possible proxy setting -- these do not always show in HJT:

>>> create a System Restore point before proceeding <<<<

1. Click the Start Button, click "All programs", and click "Accessories".
2. Right-click "Command Prompt", and click "Run as administrator". If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Please enter the following commands, and press enter after each

NETSH WINSOCK RESET
NETSH INT IP RESET
NETSH WINHTTP RESET PROXY
IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS

... reboot afterwards

[tacoman359]

You could also try the ping command on their website a few times, but I'm not very familiar with it so I don't know whether it would work with a specific address. (I'm guessing it won't) Have you tried connecting through a different network or a proxy?

[Vista bugged1]

Rollin' Rog. It has been a few days since I last had time to play with this problem but I have discovered something else that surprised me. I have a new Macbook in the house that I tried to see how it reacted to going out to the TBN site. Guess what, it would not display a page either. I have a call in to my ISP and we are playing telephone tag at the moment. Could there be something wrong with my DSL modem or could the ISP have done some configuration changes? It really seems strange. Other sites I went to using the Mac go there just fine.

[Rollin' Rog]

Ok, I've seen this type of issue before.

Generally it is very hard to get this resolved from first level ISP support -- they have their scripts and generally have you do a lot of things that either you have already done or are completely irrelevant. But emphasizing that it occurs on two different computers really puts the ball in their court.

The problem is that they either have a dodgy DNS resolver cache -- or more likely they have router problems from where you are to the site. This is why testing with a proxy sometimes allows a connection that your ISP cannot achieve.

They need to have you trace your connection from where you are to where the connection hangs. A good tech can lead you through that and have you provide them with the trace results -- or in some cases they can even do it themselves if they have the right resources.

They may set you up with a different IP which will follow a different route.

[Vista bugged1]

Rollin', the call I got on my answering machine was from a Tier 2. I'm assuming the Help Desk I called yesterday was the Tier 1. I'll let you know what kind of hand stands they do to me!

[Rollin' Rog]

Good luck; my personal experience with RoadRunner has been a mixed bag.

They are all very courteous, but through 3 support sessions for similar issues at different times -- only one knew enough to actually trace the problem to a router node that was being worked on (in this case it was just routine maintenance).

[Vista bugged1]

Rollin' Rog, I heard from the Tech. earlier and gave her all the symptoms. She also asked about what modem I had. She just called back and found out that the 'Speed Touch' DSL Modem that they installed with the service, duplicated my problems. They will be sending a repairman/installer out Thursday AM to swap out the modem. BTW. It is Fairpoint Communications, not Road Runner. This still seems strange to me, that the modem would cause this, but I'll let you know how this turns out.

[Rollin' Rog]

Seems a bit odd that it would be so site specific -- but it's certainly true that some ISPs did originally provide Vista incompatible modems. Will be interested to see how it goes.

[Vista bugged1]

Rollin' Rog, my problem went away with a change in Modems by Fairpoint. The DSL Modem that was giving me problems was a Speedtouch and the new Modem is a Netopia. The amazing world of bits and bytes or whatever it is that caused my problem! I waited a few days to make sure it was really fixed but it certainly seems to be. I'll try to close this post out. Thanks again for all your help. I'm a happy camper again!

[Rollin' Rog]

Terrific -- though I must say I am still puzzled by why the problem was so site specific -- but glad to hear you've got it sorted.

You're certainly welcome for any efforts on my part.