Can't connect to some websites on XP

[ingresman]

Hi guys,
Hope you can help.
I have a perfectly stable XP laptop which accross a wireles network has been conecting to the internet for ages.
Last night both IE and Firefox will only connect tocertain sites. Up to now I can connect to google and to firefox.org.
However any other site will just hang, the message on the status line on IE says looking up and connect it just sits there and says waiting for the site.
I can ping the sites with no problem and I can connect to my own site using FTP. This leads me to think that the connectivity is ok, the hosts file is ok just port 80 is not working. I havn't tried an HTTPS connection (as I just thought of it !) to of 443 is working.
I have also used my Palm to connect through the same wireless connection and that works ok, so looks like it the PC.
In summary:
I can connect to google over port 80 from my PC
I can connect to google over port 80 with a .php script
I can't connect to amazon.com over port 80
I can't connect to amazon.com over port 80 with a .php script
I can connect to all sites using another device
The host name is being resolved.
I can connect using FTP to any site.
The windows firewall is not switched
I have only basic symantic worm protection in a software firewall, so it looks like some kind of configuration issue on the PC

I'm all out of ideas where to look !, so hope some one can come up with magic answer.
Many many thanks in advamce

 

[smah]

I know that you said: "I can connect to all sites using another device", but make sure that your router and/or access point device does not have some sort of blacklisting feature that might be causing this (some Belkin products do). Also, if you have a way to test, without changing anything else, can you connect to an entirely different network an see if the same sites repeat?

 

[se2000]

I bet your browser security got set too high. Try lowering it to minimum. also make sure your firewall/antivirus program isn't blocking it.

 

[CustomComputers]

INGRESMAN:

You indicate two browsers, IE & Firefox.
Which version of IE? Do you have auto updates on?
If so, you may have automatically downloaded IE7 with
the new phishing filter.
Check and advise?

George Heindel...Consultant
Custom Computers & Technology

 

[linney]

Try some of these suggestions if they apply.

IE 7 not connecting on link in webpage
thread1583-1361438

WinXP Connectivity Issues
faq779-4625

Internet Explorer (6 only) Fix

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/IEFIX.htm

 

[cdogg]

Also try:

1) connecting the PC over ethernet to the router directly

2) disable your Symantec software including any firewall you have installed (a setting or two may have gotten hosed)

3) power your modem and router off, bring your modem back online THEN the router

4) try connecting the PC directly to the modem and take the router out of the equation

One of those should do tell you where the problem lies...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[ingresman]

Guys,

thanks for the response. Sorry I couldn't reply (for obvious reasons !)
I had a go at most of the things every one suggested and no joy.
After some more investigation I found that my XP laptop could not connect , my XP desktop could not, my sons Nokia e65 phone could not but my palm could.
My own hosted website didn't seem to work but I have a small script which returns the user agent and the ip adres of the client and that worked find.
To cut a long story short I created a small .php script which sent varying numbers of character to the browser. If I sent less that abut 1600 bytes all was ok, above that and it just sat in a wait state - really odd.
So I decided to throw the towel in and got a new modem/router and everything worked ok from then.
It was a risk of £50 ($100) but it does allow me to go to one box rather than two,
So again thanks for all your suggestions.
Regards
Kevin