IE Exploreer loses connection

[Guest]

I have two computers hooked to the internet thru a router, on both computers
after surfing the internet for a while I lose my internet connection, however
if I have a chat room or IM opened that connection stays active. I just
can't open a new browser page or get back to my home page. This never
happenned before and has just started doing it recently. MALWARE??????? I
have cleared my cache and tried several other things, I run Norton anti virus
and Zone Alarm on one maching and XP firewall on the other.

 

[Sid Knee]

I have two computers hooked to the internet thru a router, on both computers
after surfing the internet for a while I lose my internet connection, however
if I have a chat room or IM opened that connection stays active. I just
can't open a new browser page or get back to my home page. This never
happenned before and has just started doing it recently. MALWARE??????? I
have cleared my cache and tried several other things, I run Norton anti virus
and Zone Alarm on one maching and XP firewall on the other.

Does the router have a "maximum idle time" or something similar set?
That is, if it doesn't see any traffic for a time it will drop the
connection. There should be a way to set this so that it never drops the
connection (usually by setting the value to zero).

Incidentally, doesn't your router have its own firewall?

 

[Guest]

Yes Sid it does, thats always been a problem for me. If my router has a
firewall, yet windows always tells me i need a firewall. Should I turn off
the XP and Zone Alarm? I'll check my router settings for that time out
thing...thanks for the reply......

 

[Guest]

Incidentally my router is a Linksys WRT54G

Does the router have a "maximum idle time" or something similar set?
That is, if it doesn't see any traffic for a time it will drop the
connection. There should be a way to set this so that it never drops the
connection (usually by setting the value to zero).

Incidentally, doesn't your router have its own firewall?

 

[Sid Knee]

I'm not sure you'll get a firm answer one way ot the other. The "belt
and braces (suspenders)" brigade will advocate using both to be safe I'm
sure.

Personally I don't bother to use a software firewall since I don't see
it doing anything that the router firewall wouldn't do anyway (assuming
that the router is set up properly. However the default settings are
normally very safe .... and anyway, "setup properly" applies to software
firewalls as well). On top of that, on a number of occasions I've seen
operating problems reported in these and other usenet groups that are
blamed on the firewall and other background software and I prefer to
minimise those kinds of programs.

I don't use XP so I really can't comment on how it determines whether
you "need" a firewall or whether it is capable, in fact, of determining
that you already have an external firewall.