Ok, so I have a rather annoying problem. After 2 hours of uptime for my computer, I find that none of my internet browsers work. I have been using Google chrome for some time but I will be more specific about the problem. Let's say I want to have a browse on Cnet. I open a new tab or window and Chrome tells me that it is "waiting for *site name* to respond" and the loading icon (equivalent to IE's progress bar) remains dull and spins slowly. It never connects to the web page. I have attempted the same with IE and firefox but with the same conclusion, neither will establish a connection. There is no problem with my wireless connection, as I can access other services such as MSN, BitCommet, etc and even Xbox live. It's just my browsers that fail. Any ideas on the cause of this? I have cleared the cache, temporary files etc but nothing that I wouldn't normally clean anyway. Thanks.

Port 80 issue or proxy.pac deal??? "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

I am unsure. To the best of my knowledge neither should be blocked on my laptop, as it's connected to the modem from another computer in the house. I could check the firewalls and that on there but the other laptop in the house, the same model, hasn't got the problem.

I believe somehow your HOSTS file got hijacked go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc to open the HOSTS file and have a look and see if there any IP address have a * in front.Remove any if exist. Also try to create a new user for yourself, under add/remove users control panel, then log on to that new account and see. hope it helps

I followed your advice through and opened the file in notepad, however I didn't find what you suggested. Hmm, I would like to think the chances that I was hijacked are minimal(wouldn't we all) but thanks anyway.

Your router might be using it's firewall features to block port 80. Might be it is failing or the modem is failing. Guess an oddity with the ISP. Look up telnet port 80 and try that. If that fails you are pretty sure it is a port 80 deal and not a browser issue. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

This is getting worse by the day, Chrome is begining to crash reletively early and so are the other browsers. From what I can gather on Port 80 it shouldn't be blocked, anywhere I should look specifically for it's details and status? I have never had a port problem before so it's unlikely to have changed itself by chance, it's damn annoying though. There were some problems in my area with the internet, I know the speeds have been pretty much effected but noone else has this problem. Then again, it's AOL. Any more help on the matter would be appreciated, I'm determined to find the solution to the problem.