I am running Netscape Communicator 4.5 and IE 5.0 with Win98 on a Gateway PII/400 desktop with a 13.5GB HD, 128MB RAM, and a 56.6K modem. A couple of months ago, I began to experience "freeze-ups" as I was surfing the net. They only occurred every now and then, so I didn't really think to much about it. Since then, however, the freeze-ups are happening more and more often - as much as every few minutes sometimes. These freeze-ups do not lock up the PC - just the internet connection. The site will begin to download,
and then just stop. The comets in the Netscape logo are still flying, and the gray bar in the bottom left of the browser still looks as if information is downloading, but it is not. I am still connected to the internet, and if I open a DOS window at this point and PING my provider - I get no reply. At this point I simply log off the net, redial, and everything is fine (at least until the next freeze-up...). Sometimes the freeze-up will even occur when I go back to a site that I have successfully been to just minutes before. The freeze-ups happen whether I am using Netscape or IE. I can't really nail down when the problem really began, and I have yet to establish a pattern of when the freeze-ups do and do not occur. I run the latest DAT files of McAfee, so I don't believe it is a virus problem. I have cleared
the cache and the history files. I have even gone as far as doing a ctrl-alt-del before logging onto the net and stopping all applications running in the background to free up as much of the PC's resources as I can. All to no avail. Could this be some sort of a conflict, or a modem problem?

Your browser is open but you're not really connected to the internet.
If I'm downloading and disconnect from my ISP, my browsers do just what you describe, same when hitting the back button after disconnecting, the browser will just spin it's wheels or globe. That's normal in that situation.
Your ISP is dropping you, call them. Check the settings in the "Connection" options of your browsers to make sure it's not set to disconnect you after a short period of time, like 5 or 10 minutes.
It also could be the phone lines themselves, if the ISP can't fix the problem, call the phone Co, tell them your faxes won't go through (they don't like working on internet problems).
Dial the #1 on your phone, if you hear hissing or static, it's line noise. If so, plug the phone into the box outside and dial 1 again and listen. If the noise is just inside, replace the phone wire. If just outside, the phone Co has to fix it free. Make them do a high frequency and a loop current test. Can't think of anything else.

Don,
I thought you'd get more responses than you have.
Bruce had some good ideas, didn't he?
I'm going to try his check for noisey phone line even tho' my modem seems to be working fine now.