Strange Internet Explorer problem loads https sites, not http site

Question

Running on an Inspiron 8600 on either wired or wireless internet access. This problem cropped up on my XP SP 2 machine and I have found several others who have the same problem, but no solution has been presented that I have been able to find. I also suspect it may be the cause of several other less specific problems, but still no clear solutions have been presented that I have been able to find. Internet explorer (6 or 7) will only load web pages accessed through SSL urls (https. This problem occured before I installed IE 7. Any standard urls (http) just sit there with the little IE activity flag waving, never timing out. The little progress bar on the lower right of IE never forms, so it is as if the http request is either not sent to the TCP stack, or is redirected somewhere and sits in limbo. It will stop using the stop (ESC). html files on the local machine will load properly, only external urls. Mozilla Firefox accesses all of the web sites (http and https) without any problem. Unfortunately, there are a few that only support IE that I have to access :( I have tried a zillian different things including: - Removing mcafee virus protection - Uninstalling all microsoft updates and rolling back to SP 1 and then reinstalling them all - Uninstalling network devices and letting xp reinstall - Unistall protocol stacks and reinstalling - Resetting TCP/IP to installed registry values - Uninstalling and reinstalling Sprint ERAS VPN software - Uninstalling AT&T global network VPN software - Reseting all Internet Options to default options both for scurity and advanced - Clearing out all temporary internet files and cookies and clearing SSL states - Turning off XP SP 2 firewall - Only have automatic detect settings in the LAN settings of the connection tab of the internet properties (internet options) and have the dial up set to never dial a connection - Disable all IE add-ons Note all other network activities work properly including: FTP (through FTP client and IE 6) MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, and AIM chat protocols Skype presence XP automatic updates File downloads through Firefox NTP for time synchronization I am at my wits end on this problem.

mombodog · Answer

You can try the following, this is how you remove then re-install the tcp-ip stack, as follows

In the Registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
Delete "Winsock" and "Winsock2" folders. DO NOT REBOOT
Go To Local area connection Properties, on the General Tab Click Install, Select Protocol, click "add", Click "Have Disk", type in "C:\windows\inf", select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" (not version6), click OK, Let install finish. NOW REBOOT. Done

greggeek007 · Answer

Thank you for the tip. I tried it and the MS TCP/IP stack reinstalled properly, but it did not fix the problem. Any other suggestions?

greggeek007 · Answer

Another problem which has come up and I am not sure it is related since this happened after I had the problem of only being able to load secure web sites is as follows:

While accessing an ISP in Lisbon, Portugal, talking to their customer service they indicated that I had to install TCP/IP V6 stack in order to operate. I did so, and and intermittent connectivity. However in trying different things to try to solve the IE problem of only loading secure web sites, I uninstalled TCP/IP v6 and now can not install it again. Every time I do so, I get the error:

Could not add the requested component. The Error is: An extended error has
occured.

greggeek007 · Answer

The TCP/IP v6 problem has been cleared up. The original IE problem accessing HTTP sites still exists.

greggeek007 · Answer

n additional element of the IE problem:
I ran HTTPAnalyzerV2 and when I make an http request from firefox, the
analyzer captured the HTTP transactions.

When I make an https request from IE 6, the analyzer captured the http
transactions.

However when I make an http request from i3 6, nothing is captured which
indicates that the http request never makes it to whatever interface the
HTTPanalyzer is monitoring.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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