Outlook Express thinks I'm not on-line

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Dave Gower - 29 Dec 2006 22:14 GMT

Since I live in the boonies I'm condemned to dial-up. A while ago I
downloaded IE7 onto my Toshiba laptop. The IE7 works fine but maybe 2/3 of
the time I open OE it says "you are not connected to the Internet, retry,
cancel". But I always am connected. After hitting retry it always gets on
right away.

It never had this problem before the download. I can't see any connectivity
options in OE that might be affecting anything. It's just an annoyance but
if anyone can tell me how to make it see the Internet connection reliably
I'd appreciate it.

Reply to this Message

PA Bear - 30 Dec 2006 00:52 GMT

Dave, I've run into several folks with this problem.
Uninstalling/reinstalling IE7 following Sandi's tips (below) fixed the
problem for most of them.

You may have a horked install of IE7. I suggest reading the following
link...

http://www.ie-vista.com/known_issues.html#pre-install

...and then uninstalling and reinstalling IE7 per Sandi's tips, and using
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx as the installation source,
not Automatic/Windows Update.

Also see:

IEBlog : IE7 Installation and Anti-Malware Applications
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/11/IE7-Installation-and-Anti_2D00_Malwa
re-Applications.aspx

Signature

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)

> Since I live in the boonies I'm condemned to dial-up. A while ago I
> downloaded IE7 onto my Toshiba laptop. The IE7 works fine but maybe 2/3 of
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> if anyone can tell me how to make it see the Internet connection reliably
> I'd appreciate it.

Reply to this Message

Dave Gower - 30 Dec 2006 20:37 GMT

> Dave, I've run into several folks with this problem.
> Uninstalling/reinstalling IE7 following Sandi's tips (below) fixed the
> problem for most of them.
>
> You may have a horked install of IE7. I suggest reading the following
> link...

Thanks, P.A. I was hoping for a menu fix but this just pushes me a big step
closer to throwing away both my endlessly troublesome XP machines and
heading to the local Apple store. When the fixes become more problem than
the problem, it's time to look elsewhere. Or maybe I'll get really ambitious
and try open source. Anyway thanks for the reply.

Reply to this Message

Robert Aldwinckle - 31 Dec 2006 19:29 GMT

(cross-post added to XP Networking)

> Since I live in the boonies I'm condemned to dial-up. A while ago I
> downloaded IE7 onto my Toshiba laptop. The IE7 works fine but maybe 2/3 of
> the time I open OE it says "you are not connected to the Internet, retry,
> cancel". But I always am connected. After hitting retry it always gets on
> right away.

I think that this is probably a symptom of a timing problem in XP with PPP.
It has always been there to some extent and unfortunately I have
not found any sign that there is any way of tuning it.

Since you are experiencing it more frequently than most it could
be worth your while trying to refine your symptom description
by diagnosing it more. E.g. use netcap and Ethereal to capture
all the protocol stacks and try to see why it happens. My guess
is that the PPP server may be a bit too slow for XP's liking,
e.g. after a lull, and then instead of retrying it just gives up and
reports that there is no Internet link active.

> It never had this problem before the download. I can't see any connectivity
> options in OE that might be affecting anything. It's just an annoyance but
> if anyone can tell me how to make it see the Internet connection reliably
> I'd appreciate it.

I don't think it has anything particular to do with either OE or IE.
It's XP but perhaps the timings have been changed incidentally
as a result of installing IE7.

What would be really useful is some proper diagnostics from the OS
perspective which would prove one way or the other where the problem
was occurring but I don't know of any.

Cross-posting to XP Networking for hopefully more informed comment.

HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Reply to this Message