Halp! Laptop and Desktop not Loading Pages

[Zoom-boing]

I'm beginning to think it's a hardware problem, possibly the yellow and/or blue cable (?) wires. I seem to recall that we had this happen once before with the yellow cable (it plugs into the 'internet' port on the router, the end piece looks like a telephone jack end). Once I switched that cord all was well again. Have to get some new ones, switch them out and see. My daughter's laptop was still wonky this morning so I rebooted router/modem again and unplugged, plugged back in all connections. Yeah, things were way worse. I just did that again, making sure all the connections were tight and now it seems fine.

One thing I did just notice . . and it probably doesn't have anything to do with the problems. When I mouse over, say, 'Tools' at the top? It's now a bright blue box around the word (rather than just a clear box) and when I mouse over anything in the drop-down menu it whites out the lettering, making it nearly impossible to read what I"m highlighting.

I did find an add-on for the missing status/progress bar that FF decided wasn't necessary. It's called Status4evar. Do a Google search and it comes up, first one I think. I like it.


eta: Things are still wonky. Some pages will load others will not. Couldn't get a youtube vid to load earlier, came back and tried loading it . . bingo, no problem. Tried searching for a term on google . . .nothing, just spinning. Since it's affecting three computers, all running different versions of FF, I'm going to start w/the cables. Making a tech stop tomorrow. Blarg.

 

[Ringel05]

I'm beginning to think it's a hardware problem, possibly the yellow and/or blue cable (?) wires. I seem to recall that we had this happen once before with the yellow cable (it plugs into the 'internet' port on the router, the end piece looks like a telephone jack end). Once I switched that cord all was well again. Have to get some new ones, switch them out and see. My daughter's laptop was still wonky this morning so I rebooted router/modem again and unplugged, plugged back in all connections. Yeah, things were way worse. I just did that again, making sure all the connections were tight and now it seems fine.

One thing I did just notice . . and it probably doesn't have anything to do with the problems. When I mouse over, say, 'Tools' at the top? It's now a bright blue box around the word (rather than just a clear box) and when I mouse over anything in the drop-down menu it whites out the lettering, making it nearly impossible to read what I"m highlighting.

I did find an add-on for the missing status/progress bar that FF decided wasn't necessary. It's called Status4evar. Do a Google search and it comes up, first one I think. I like it.


eta: Things are still wonky. Some pages will load others will not. Couldn't get a youtube vid to load earlier, came back and tried loading it . . bingo, no problem. Tried searching for a term on google . . .nothing, just spinning. Since it's affecting three computers, all running different versions of FF, I'm going to start w/the cables. Making a tech stop tomorrow. Blarg.

Like Iam (no reference to God.....) said download and run Wireshark,

Wireshark · Download

I'm beginning to think you've been highjacked, all the issues appear to be too random.
As for your Cat wire unless you're pulling it out of the slot by the wire, or it's a poor homemade version then I seriously doubt that's your problem.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I'm beginning to think it's a hardware problem, possibly the yellow and/or blue cable (?) wires. I seem to recall that we had this happen once before with the yellow cable (it plugs into the 'internet' port on the router, the end piece looks like a telephone jack end). Once I switched that cord all was well again. Have to get some new ones, switch them out and see. My daughter's laptop was still wonky this morning so I rebooted router/modem again and unplugged, plugged back in all connections. Yeah, things were way worse. I just did that again, making sure all the connections were tight and now it seems fine.

One thing I did just notice . . and it probably doesn't have anything to do with the problems. When I mouse over, say, 'Tools' at the top? It's now a bright blue box around the word (rather than just a clear box) and when I mouse over anything in the drop-down menu it whites out the lettering, making it nearly impossible to read what I"m highlighting.

I did find an add-on for the missing status/progress bar that FF decided wasn't necessary. It's called Status4evar. Do a Google search and it comes up, first one I think. I like it.


eta: Things are still wonky. Some pages will load others will not. Couldn't get a youtube vid to load earlier, came back and tried loading it . . bingo, no problem. Tried searching for a term on google . . .nothing, just spinning. Since it's affecting three computers, all running different versions of FF, I'm going to start w/the cables. Making a tech stop tomorrow. Blarg.

Like Iam (no reference to God.....) said download and run Wireshark,

Wireshark · Download

I'm beginning to think you've been highjacked, all the issues appear to be too random.
As for your Cat wire unless you're pulling it out of the slot by the wire, or it's a poor homemade version then I seriously doubt that's your problem.

In the link you provided . . . we're not experiencing any of those symptoms. Just the pages/sites won't load.

Does hijacking mean the modem/router has been hijacked?

My daughter has a smart phone and she said it's doing the same thing . . sometimes loading, sometimes not.

Trying to get the Wireshark link to load . . . no luck right now. Will try again, and again, and again.

 

[MikeK]

Any suggestions? Keep in mind I'm not a computer geek.

Oh, I also tried loading stuff in IE but the same problem occurred.

I'm a geek, too. But if I had that problem I would try a RESTORE to 24 hours before the problem started.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Trying to get bleepingcomputer search I keyed in to load. It's just spinning.

Am kind of biding my time till the hubs gets home because he knows more about this stuff than I do.

I'm thinking I should download the Microsoft Safety Scanner now to see what happens.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Any suggestions? Keep in mind I'm not a computer geek.

Oh, I also tried loading stuff in IE but the same problem occurred.

I'm a geek, too. But if I had that problem I would try a RESTORE to 24 hours before the problem started.

I tried doing a restore once (for something else) and it failed. I think something somewhere is checked that should be unchecked but I don't know what.

Whatever is going on is affecting two laptops and one desktop . . . I'm thinking it's something that is affecting the modem/router . . . hijacked or something?

 

[Ringel05]

In the link you provided . . . we're not experiencing any of those symptoms. Just the pages/sites won't load.

Does hijacking mean the modem/router has been hijacked?

My daughter has a smart phone and she said it's doing the same thing . . sometimes loading, sometimes not.

Trying to get the Wireshark link to load . . . no luck right now. Will try again, and again, and again.

Does she have the cell connected via the router or is she using it's native G3/G4 connection?

 

[Zoom-boing]

In the link you provided . . . we're not experiencing any of those symptoms. Just the pages/sites won't load.

Does hijacking mean the modem/router has been hijacked?

My daughter has a smart phone and she said it's doing the same thing . . sometimes loading, sometimes not.

Trying to get the Wireshark link to load . . . no luck right now. Will try again, and again, and again.

Does she have the cell connected via the router or is she using it's native G3/G4 connection?

I think via the router . . . she needed that security code to connect when she first got the phone.

 

[Ringel05]

Ya know I probably missed it in one of your posts but is it only affecting the browser/internet connection or are you having other issues with your computers?

 

[Uncensored2008]

Right now I've logged on to Facebook. Approx. 3/4 of the status bar is green but the page won't finished loading. Most pictures aren't there. I hit the stop button, clicked on a notification but it's just spinning. It's 'waiting' for stuff in the status bar.

Grrrr . . .


This site is working as it should, no problems.

Sounds Flash related.

Start with The home of Spybot-S&D! then Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - Antivirus software, free spyware removal, firewall then run HijackThis - Trend Micro USA

These are all free and will identify MOST malware. Hijackthis creates a log. If the first two programs don't fix your problem, load the log file here and I'll take a look at it.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Ya know I probably missed it in one of your posts but is it only affecting the browser/internet connection or are you having other issues with your computers?

Only browser/internet connection. We connect to net just fine . . homepage comes up no problem. But other pages either won't load or half load or load but pics are missing (FB). Earlier today I tried to load a music vid from youtube. The youtube page came up but the vid just never loaded. Came back about 2 hours later and tried . . .boom, no problem. Am trying it again now. . . the youtube page came up and the vid page came up, black box with the white spinny thing in the middle. . . it says 'done' at the bottom and the green spinny thing in the tab is done . . . but no vid.

No email problems, no spam email (well, no more than the usual 5-10 we get a day), no weird messages, doesn't seem to redirecting to something else, etc.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Can malware/spyware infect a router - thus causing problems on all computers using that router? I thought they just infected individual computers.

 

[Ringel05]

Ya know I probably missed it in one of your posts but is it only affecting the browser/internet connection or are you having other issues with your computers?

Only browser/internet connection. We connect to net just fine . . homepage comes up no problem. But other pages either won't load or half load or load but pics are missing (FB). Earlier today I tried to load a music vid from youtube. The youtube page came up but the vid just never loaded. Came back about 2 hours later and tried . . .boom, no problem. Am trying it again now. . . the youtube page came up and the vid page came up, black box with the white spinny thing in the middle. . . it says 'done' at the bottom and the green spinny thing in the tab is done . . . but no vid.

No email problems, no spam email (well, no more than the usual 5-10 we get a day), no weird messages, doesn't seem to redirecting to something else, etc.

I may be wrong but I'm beginning to suspect your IP is under a prolonged attack simply because nothing else appears to have been affected.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Ya know I probably missed it in one of your posts but is it only affecting the browser/internet connection or are you having other issues with your computers?

Only browser/internet connection. We connect to net just fine . . homepage comes up no problem. But other pages either won't load or half load or load but pics are missing (FB). Earlier today I tried to load a music vid from youtube. The youtube page came up but the vid just never loaded. Came back about 2 hours later and tried . . .boom, no problem. Am trying it again now. . . the youtube page came up and the vid page came up, black box with the white spinny thing in the middle. . . it says 'done' at the bottom and the green spinny thing in the tab is done . . . but no vid.

No email problems, no spam email (well, no more than the usual 5-10 we get a day), no weird messages, doesn't seem to redirecting to something else, etc.

I may be wrong but I'm beginning to suspect your IP is under a prolonged attack simply because nothing else appears to have been affected.

Would running any spyware/malware programs do anything for that?

 

[Uncensored2008]

Can malware/spyware infect a router - thus causing problems on all computers using that router? I thought they just infected individual computers.

No.

If the router is having problems, chances are you have a NIC going bad - or the router itself is failing.

Try disconnecting one (turn them off) and see if it clears up. If it clears after a particular machine is downed, chances are the network interface card is sending bad packets. You could be under a "denial of service" (DOS) attack, but that would be unusual for a home user. Generally this would be a sign of bad hardware.

 

[Ringel05]

Only browser/internet connection. We connect to net just fine . . homepage comes up no problem. But other pages either won't load or half load or load but pics are missing (FB). Earlier today I tried to load a music vid from youtube. The youtube page came up but the vid just never loaded. Came back about 2 hours later and tried . . .boom, no problem. Am trying it again now. . . the youtube page came up and the vid page came up, black box with the white spinny thing in the middle. . . it says 'done' at the bottom and the green spinny thing in the tab is done . . . but no vid.

No email problems, no spam email (well, no more than the usual 5-10 we get a day), no weird messages, doesn't seem to redirecting to something else, etc.

I may be wrong but I'm beginning to suspect your IP is under a prolonged attack simply because nothing else appears to have been affected.

Would running any spyware/malware programs do anything for that?

No.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Can malware/spyware infect a router - thus causing problems on all computers using that router? I thought they just infected individual computers.

No.

If the router is having problems, chances are you have a NIC going bad - or the router itself is failing.

Try disconnecting one (turn them off) and see if it clears up. If it clears after a particular machine is downed, chances are the network interface card is sending bad packets. You could be under a "denial of service" (DOS) attack, but that would be unusual for a home user. Generally this would be a sign of bad hardware.

Oooo, I hadn't thought that the router might be going bad. The last time our router fizzled out it literally went 'zzzzt zzzt zzzt' and smoke started coming out of it. Guess not all breakage is so obvious. lol

I'm going to shut down the desktop and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[Ringel05]

Can malware/spyware infect a router - thus causing problems on all computers using that router? I thought they just infected individual computers.

No.

If the router is having problems, chances are you have a NIC going bad - or the router itself is failing.

Try disconnecting one (turn them off) and see if it clears up. If it clears after a particular machine is downed, chances are the network interface card is sending bad packets. You could be under a "denial of service" (DOS) attack, but that would be unusual for a home user. Generally this would be a sign of bad hardware.

A DoS on the IPs server would do it though, slow down everyones service but I agree, my initial thought is the router is failing but not the NIC because all the computers are experiencing the same issue, not just one.

 

[Uncensored2008]

A DoS on the IPs server would do it though, slow down everyones service but I agree, my initial thought is the router is failing but not the NIC because all the computers are experiencing the same issue, not just one.

Here at work I use layer 3 switches that isolate bad packets. But at home I use the same Linksys router everyone else does.

I have 7 machines on the home LAN. My son had a failing NIC (on board, naturally!) and it flooded the LAN with bad packets, no one could do anything. Put a little PCI NIC on his box and it cleared right up.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Nope, still wonky.

Right now I'm trying to get the school's website to come up. Certain links on Drudge don't come up either . . but others do.