Hi everyone, I do have some serious network related issues, which I am not able to figure out - I hope to find some networking experts here which can shed some light on what is going on: I am using Vista32, Intel Pro GB NIC, Zonealarm free. The Symptoms are as follows - my computer starts up fine, networks run for an undefined amount of time, then hangs for a couple of minutes, meaning. if I open firefox e.g. it stops at resolving the hostname (usually google). This is the same with all other programs trying to connect to the internet. Then, a couple minutes later, all is fine again, _except_ I get strange DNS connections from a high random port on local 0.0.0.0 to my router at port 53. 2 UDP packages get sent, after that the port closes and everything continues... I only stumbled upon this behaviour because after the internet "paused" Zonealarm will alarm me with an application "trying to act as server". (This is the opening of the local random port on 0.0.0.0). I have Port Explorer logs for all this if this helps, I also managed to do one while the connection hung - this showed cyclic activity on localhost: 15 24/01/2009 09:19:41 GEÖFFNET TCP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 16 24/01/2009 09:19:41 VERBUNDEN TCP 0.0.0.0:49204 127.0.0.1:49203 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 17 24/01/2009 09:19:41 ANGENOMMEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49203 127.0.0.1:49204 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 18 24/01/2009 09:19:41 GESCHLOSSEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49203 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 19 24/01/2009 09:19:41 GEÖFFNET TCP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 20 24/01/2009 09:19:41 HORCHEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49205 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 21 24/01/2009 09:19:41 GEÖFFNET TCP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 22 24/01/2009 09:19:41 VERBUNDEN TCP 0.0.0.0:49206 127.0.0.1:49205 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 23 24/01/2009 09:19:41 ANGENOMMEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49205 127.0.0.1:49206 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 24 24/01/2009 09:19:41 GESCHLOSSEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49205 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 26 24/01/2009 09:19:42 EMPFANGEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49204 127.0.0.1:49203 ERFOLGREICH 1 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 27 24/01/2009 09:19:42 SENDEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49203 127.0.0.1:49204 ERFOLGREICH 1 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 28 24/01/2009 09:19:42 SENDEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49203 127.0.0.1:49204 ERFOLGREICH 1 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 29 24/01/2009 09:19:42 SENDEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49203 127.0.0.1:49204 ERFOLGREICH 1 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 30 24/01/2009 09:19:42 EMPFANGEN TCP 127.0.0.1:49204 127.0.0.1:49203 ERFOLGREICH 2 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 31 24/01/2009 09:19:42 GEÖFFNET UDP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe 32 24/01/2009 09:19:42 GESCHLOSSEN UDP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 ERFOLGREICH 0 4216 c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe If this makes sense to anybody, I would be very happy to hear what could be causing this behaviour. If you need more information please let me know as well. Many thanks Markus

Does the same thing happen in safe mode? If it doesn't, run msconfig and go to the strartup tab. Uncheck whatever you don't need to load at boot time, reboot, click ok and see what happpens.