Browsers forum: Lost IE browser access?

Hi Kittyman62,

Let's take this one step at a time.

First, make double sure that your firewall and/or anti-virus are not interfering with your connection to the internet. Do this more to rule it out than in. Now, make double sure that there is nothing wrong with your modem and if you have a router check it out, too. Check all connections between your modem and computer. Again, do these things more to rule then out than in as a culprit or culprits.

You say that you can navigate the internet from your Favorites but no other way. What other ways have you been trying to access your e-mail and the internet in general? If you're simply using a shortcut on your desktop ...OTHER THAN the main
IE shortcut... to get on the internet that particular shortcut may be corrupt and it's a
simple matter of replacing it with a new one. It's hard to say precisely what's going on here without more specific info.

You may want try installing Firefox on your computer so you can get around the internet without IE at all (at least until you get things figured out). Just don't allow anything but the Firefox Browser to install, not any toolbar or anything else. Once Firefox is installed definitely get to where you install Add-ons and get Navigational Sounds, PlainOldFavorites, and deskCut. You DO want them. A list of other useful Add-ons will follow getting to the bottom of your problem. But with just those three add-ons [at first] see how Firefox acts during your travels on the internet with it. If it does the same thing as IE then you need to look further to see what is wrong with your connection.

Next, see if XP TCP/IP Repair 2.1 can help you out. Sometimes that is all that's needed to get you going again. Get it from here. This little utility program has saved my day more than just one time! Once installed, open it up and use the Reset TCP/IP button ONLY. Do NOT fool with the other button.

At the very first glance of your problem it sounded to me like your installation of IE may possibly be corrupt. If you're using the main IE icon to get to the internet and that is what is giving you that error message this could very well be the case. I assume that since you're running XP SP2 that you're using either IE 6 or 7 since IE 8 can not be installed on XP with just SP2. Therefore, you may need to uninstall IE and reinstall it. If necessary you can download IE 6 from here. If you install SP 3 you can then get IE 8 from here. IE 7 has been reported by some to be rather unstable at times so you may not want it.

If after all of that, you still have problems. The next thing to do is to call your ISP and talk to them about checking things out from and on their end. They will give you specific instructions to further help you help them figure out and fix your problem.

Now, for those additional Firefox Add-ons that I promised that you'll find protective, handy and fun to have. Get them the same way you got the other three. You can use the URLs listed with each add-on to gather more info about them. Here's the list.

- BetterPrivacy http://nc.ddns.us/extensions.html "Super-Cookie Safeguard"
- ColorfulTabs http://www.binaryturf.com/free-software/colorfultabs-for-firefox/ Colorful Tabs colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appeal of the interface.
- DoNotTrackPlus Stops web tracking to protect your privacy- Extension List Dumper http://www.sogame.cat/ Dumps a list of the installed extensions. This list was generated with Extension List Dumper.
- Flagfox http://flagfox.net/ Displays a flag depicting the location of the current server- Forecastfox http://www.getforecastfox.com/ Get international weather forecasts with this highly customizable extension
- Ghostery http://www.ghostery.com/ Ghostery identifies and allows you to block the 3rd parties (web bugs) that are hidden on the current page you're visiting. Web bugs include ad networks, behavioral data collectors and web analytics providers.
- IE Tab Plus http://coralietab.mozdev.org An enhanced version of IE Tab which enables you to use the embedded IE engine within Mozilla/Firefox.
- LightShot (screenshot tool) http://lightshot.skillbrains.com/ Easy and convenient screen capture tool. Allows you to make screenshot of any selected area (video and flash too), edit and upload it to server.
- NoScript http://noscript.net Extra protection for your Firefox: NoScript allows JavaScript, Java (and other plugins) only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site). This whitelist based pre-emptive blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality... Experts will agree: Firefox is really safer with NoScript
- pdfit http://www.touchpdf.com/pdfit.jsf save web page as a pdf file with no clickable links.
- RefreshBlocker http://www.vakuumverpackt.de/refreshblocker/
- TooManyTabs http://www.visibotech.com/ TooManyTabs allows you to store as many tabs as you like by adding extra rows in the Firefox!
- Web2PDF converter http://www.baltsoft.com/ Web page to pdf convertion utility
- WOT http://www.mywot.com/ Web of trust.
If you use Yahoo, you may want the Yahoo Toolbar. This is the ONLY Toolbar I have installed on any of my myriad of browsers.

I hope this helps. Good Luck and Happy Computing!

Start Internet Explorer, click View and then point to Toolbars.
• If there is not a check mark next to Address Bar, click Address Bar to place the check mark. If there is a check mark next to Address Bar, click Address Bar to remove the check mark, and then click Address Bar to place the check mark.
• If the Address bar is in the upper right corner and not available, right-click Address, and then click Lock the Toolbar to remove the check mark.
• Click Address, and then drag the Address bar where you want it.

If it doesn't work, you can delete the Web Browser registry key.