Internet Explorer, or, "Why Does Everything Happen To Me"?

This is happening because yr explorer is unable to recognize yr internet connection....

Go to tools - internet options
Click on connections
Does it have yr dial up connection displayed ? What does it say there ?

It has my ISP as default connection, Gautam.

oh, I cannot connect to MSN Instant Messenger, either.

And does it say "Always dial a netwrok connection" ?

Do u first dial out and then launch yr explorer ?

Try this ?

Terminate the internet session which you have.
Launch expolrer and try and go on a website
Yr explorer should start dial out automatically ..

Does this work ?

says always dial default - which is my ISP, Chariot.

hang on...

No - no good.

I will try re-booting.

Buhbye!

No good.

Hmmmm - might go off-line, and go to bed, and see if scandisk helps at all. waaaaah!

Your ISP sound horrible. Computer too. :-)

Even the operator... :-)

So - did you have anything HELPFUL to say, Mr Charming?

'Cos it's still broke.

O Oh - e pode as pulgas de mil camelos infest sua região genital para o eternity, causando o Sr. feliz sair do repouso no desespero.

Not sure if that's really translatable, but still....

Hello dlowan
Because you indicate to us that your Opera browser is working just fine, that suggests to me that your internet connection is okay.
One of Opera's great strengths is that it's known as "the fastest browser on Earth", in that it can oftentimes load a page considerably faster than other browsers. Similarly, I have often been able to connect to websites with Opera that have only given me error messages in IE.
That being said, it remains strange that you cannot view ANY web page with IE while Opera is working fine.
Have your tried running the IE repair utility?
To do so, go to Control Panel, select "Add / Remove Programs" and select the listing for your version of IE. When you tell it to uninstall IE, you will get a special little window that asks you if you want to repair IE.
Follow the repair prompts, reboot and see if that might help.

Thank you Stoat! I will try that! It is driving me nuts.

Ooooops! No special little window - it just uninstalled it - nemmind - it was no good anyway.

I need to download all my programs again anyway - I will do that later - when I can afford it - don't have my original disk.

dlowan, this is quite odd...
you shouldn't be able to completely uninstall IE as it's integrated with the Windows operating system. What operating system are you using?
I'm accustomed to the little window I referred to giving you the option to roll back IE to a previously-installed version or to repair it.

It won't hurt to reinstall IE completely anyway, but you may wish to do the scandisk / defrag dance first to assure a good install.

When you say that you need to download/ install all of your programs anyway, I'm not sure what you mean. I hope that you haven't uninstalled your whole C:/ Programs folder??

When you say that you don't have your original disk, do you mean your original operating system disk? You don't need that to reinstall IE, as that's all done over the internet.

Really, I can re-install IE over the net? How?

I mean I think my system needs to be wiped and reinstalled - it is developing more and more faults.

I am too much of a computer klutz to do it myself - so I have a friend who will do it for not very much - but I cannot manage the not much right now. I have not touched my hard drive.

I am not sure if I have really uninstalled IE - it said i needed to reboot to complete the process - and the icon is still there - I can't test it, cos it wouldn't open before anyway.

I have scan-disked and defragged myself into a frenzy! The scan-disk is not working too well anyway - the complete one that scans the disk-surface keeps stopping and telling me there is a program writing to it, even though i have closed everything except Systray and Explorer.

Stoat - I believe my poor computer is descending ever deeper and deeper into chaos, and will soon disappear into a black, whimpering madness. It dies a bit at a time. 'Tis sad.

If I had pod bay doors I wouldn't let the thing near 'em, I can tell you!

Stoat speaks sooth. IE is supposedly "inextricable" from Windows, But I'm not sure when that started. Deb uses 98 and that might be before Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer got married.

Due to the myriad problems I think a format and reinstall is a good idea.

Deb,

You don't install IE over the net, but you can download it and then install it.

Stoat,

do you know if IS 6 is incompatible with win 98 or some other hardware? It seems that deb's IE problems started when she downloaded IE.

dlowan, you can install IE over the net by going to this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp

and clicking on the download link. This will download a small utility that will assist you in implementing the complete download process, which may take 2 hours or more depending upon your connection speed and which accessories you select to download along with it.

However, I believe that you and Craven may well be right when you suggest that your machine would benefit from a complete hard drive reformat. I now believe, from the snippets of information revealed in your most recent posts, that this is what is happening:

1. It wasn't a matter of your IE browser not loading the web pages, it was a matter of your IE browser not opening in your computer.

2. You did in fact very likely complete the IE repair routine, it's just that the browser still won't open in your puter due to other problems.

Unfortunately, frequent reformats are necessary for a Win 9x system. When the StoatPuter was running Win 95 and then 98 I would typically have to reformat about once a year, sometimes twice. I have read of computer nuts who would do it ever three months, although I never went to those lengths because I convinced myself (perhaps untruthfully) that I "had a life" and so I avoided the reformat routine until I had no other choice.

When things are so bad that IE won't open, it's time to seriously consider a reformat, I'm sorry to say.

Your scandisk / defrag functions may run if you reboot into safe mode. To do this, reboot your machine and hold down the CTRL (or the F8 key, if my memory serves) while the computer's initial splash screen (not the Windows screen) is being displayed.
You will get a dialog that asks if you wish to start in Safe Mode....click Yes.
You can verify that you are in fact in the safe mode environment by a different look of the desktop, with much less functionality to the computer. You will, however, still have the ability to run the scandisk and defrag functions, and they will usually run in this environment even when they won't in normal windows mode.

You must, regardless of how successful the scandisk / defrag operation is, IMMEDIATELY backup all of your personal and sensitive data to external media, as your computer is in imminent danger of failure.
If it gets to the point (which it will without intervention) where it won't boot, then your repair options will be more limited and dramatically more costly.
Please let me me assist you with pecuniary matters as per the repair. Contact me privately and get moving on this because I know that your puter is very important to you and it is gasping at this point. Time is of the essence.

LOL - thankee both - it seems, really, I have been quite lucky, then , dear old puter has been rolling on and (touch wood) never crashed - just whimpers slowly and declines gracefully.


I shall go and buy some floppies - else it seems I may do a really big spring clean!

I must be off to work - thank you both again.