I have a strange Windows XP problem: since about two weeks ago I have
been able to access the web only through secure connections. I can
access https:// sites but not http://. Email, working with SSL, is
fine. I can also ping web sites even though I can't reach them through
a browser. A second strange clue is that this problem takes a little
time to kick in: after each reboot I can access everything for about
five minutes, and then the http:// sites start to hang.

More details:

1. The computer is on a wireless network. I have tried plugging it
directly to the router with an ethernet cable, but the behavior is
exactly the same.

2. The problem appears in exactly the same way in safe mode.

3. I have tried disabling firewalls and antivirus.

4. I have tried reducing the MTU settings. When I ping sites with ?f
?l options and MTU set to 1492, I get the message ?Fragmentation
needed and DF set?. I have lowered the setting multiple times till I
no longer get this message; but when I reboot the problem is still
there, and when I go through the ping exercise again the new MTU is
always 28 below what it was last time!

5. I have run several antispyware programs without results. I have run
netstat and detailed process-checking programs and don?t see anything
funny. I have had an up-to-date virus and antispyware program
operating the whole time, before and after this problem appeared.

6. I have three browsers on this computer ? IE, Firefox, and Opera.
They all behave the same way.

8. I tried doing a system restore to the earliest point, which I'm
pretty sure was before the problem started to appear.

9. From this computer I can now reach my home network only through
already-defined ?Network places.? When I go through the ?entire
network? route it tells me it cannot access it, but when I click on a
network place it opens fine.

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Request for Question Clarification by keystroke-ga on 27 Jul 2006 09:17 PDT

It sounds to me like you may need to reinstall windows. If this is
easy for you to do I'd advise it as your quickest solution.

If not find the following registry key information and see if it is there

http: Asychronous Pluggable Protocol Handler

once found there should be folder called "InprocServer32" in there you
should the (default) set as C:\WINDOWS\system32\urlmon.dll

When the errors occurr see if this registry key is as so, if not make sure it is.

I think your best option is to take this PC to a repair centre and get
them to look at it as this could be one of many problems that are too
hard to diagnose over the Internet without really going through the
PC.

--Keystroke-ga

The most likely cause is your router.  Try plugging in directly into
the modem to see if you can access regular http: pages (don't stay
this way for long if your firewall isn't running).

If you can access pages fine by directly connecting to your modem,
then you need to restore your router to its original default settings
and configure it.