IE "Cannot find page" ONLY on first try

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Guest

I have a strange problem with IE on a Windows XP Home Edition computer. IE 6.
All available high-priority updates for Windows have been applied.

I have set up my home page to mail.yahoo.com (I have tried setting the
default home to others with the same result so this, I think, is immaterial).

When I restart the computer and am presented with the desktop, I click on
the IE icon and I get the infamous "The page cannot be found".

If I leave that initial page up and continue to open up new web pages either
by doing a control+N or by clicking on the IE icon on the desktop. Same
result. Clicking on the refresh button....same result.

Here is the interesting part. If I close all browser windows after that
initial attempt and click on the IE icon again. I am taken to the yahoo mail
page (or whatever page I have set as the default). And I do *not* get the
"The page cannot be found" again, until I restart the computer.

I have deleted cookies, cache, offline content, downloaded objects and reset
all IE settings to their defaults? I have temporarily uninstalled the
ZoneAlarm firewall. I have verified the Hosts file has only the default
single entry of localhost 127.0.0.1.

Any ideas on what to try next?

Thanks!

Matt
 
Matt said:
I have a strange problem with IE on a Windows XP Home Edition
computer. IE 6. All available high-priority updates for Windows have
been applied.

I have set up my home page to mail.yahoo.com (I have tried setting the
default home to others with the same result so this, I think, is
immaterial).

When I restart the computer and am presented with the desktop, I
click on the IE icon and I get the infamous "The page cannot be
found".

If I leave that initial page up and continue to open up new web pages
either by doing a control+N or by clicking on the IE icon on the
desktop. Same result. Clicking on the refresh button....same result.

Here is the interesting part. If I close all browser windows after
that initial attempt and click on the IE icon again. I am taken to
the yahoo mail page (or whatever page I have set as the default). And
I do *not* get the "The page cannot be found" again, until I restart
the computer.

I have deleted cookies, cache, offline content, downloaded objects
and reset all IE settings to their defaults? I have temporarily
uninstalled the ZoneAlarm firewall. I have verified the Hosts file
has only the default single entry of localhost 127.0.0.1.

Any ideas on what to try next?

Thanks!

Matt
Click to expand...

What kind of connection do you have?
If it is broadband are you waiting for Windows to establish the connection
before starting IE?

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
 
Hi Frank,

Frank Saunders said:
What kind of connection do you have?
Click to expand...

Its a cable modem.
If it is broadband are you waiting for Windows to establish the connection
before starting IE?
Click to expand...

Interestingly, waiting does seem to help. But I need to wait about 2 or 3
minutes after everything has appeared in the system tray and the hard disk
activity light has stopped flickering. This is pentium 4 laptop and this
behavior is not exhibiting it on other computers on my home network which
have a comparable hardware AND software configuration.


Matt
 
While its usually bad form to answer to one's own post I have discovered the
problem. The big clue was doing a ping from a command window during the
period of time IE was displaying the "Cannot find page".

The ping would give me "transmit failed, error code 65".

A google led me here:
http://www.howtonetworking.com/casestudy/pingerror65.htm

Which led me here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316414

Ah, ha. ZoneAlarm might be at issue. I had version 5.5.094.000 installed. I
followed the directions to "upgrade" and this led to having version
6.1.737.000 installed. In both cases the problem described was present.

I uninstalled ZoneAlarm, went to their site and downloaded the latest free
for home use version which I thought had been installed when I did the
"upgrade" through their upgrade process. The latest version is 6.1.744.000.

Whether the newest version or the uninstall/install did the trick I do not
know. But the problem is now gone.

Hope this helps others.

Matt
 
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