Browsing Trouble

Try it again Sam.

Virtually everything you do on the Internet involves packets. There are at least 2, and usually 8 to 20 hops involved for each one. If any of those packets gets dropped anywhere along the way you won't get the result you expected.

If something doesn't work, the easiest thing to do is try whatever you were doing again. Use your browser's refresh button to refresh" the page, or click the link again that didn't work (being careful not to slide your mouse while clicking) It may just work the second or maybe third try. If all else fails, come back later. The trouble may be on the other end.

If none of those fixes work, go one layer deeper. The "connection" to your ISP is built with more than one "handshake" agreements. If one of them gets confused (again, due to a dropped packet), you won't get anywhere on the Internet any more. Close the connection and reopen it. Things may now work. I have had to do that several times a week with some ISPs I've had.

Programs that (no longer) work?

Sometimes the Internet just won't work at all. It may be something that you've changed. The prime example is side effects from an Internet firewall. If you don't configure the firewall correctly, some programs that need access to the internet may no longer have it.

You may be still be able to browse, but your email program will no longer work with the firewall running. Close or disable the firewall to determine if it is the cause. If it is, you need to change the configuration (settings) of the firewall so your email works again.

Ad blockers, proxies, cookie blockers and popup window stoppers can also prevent programs from reaching the Internet when they need to. For example, LiveUpdate for Norton Antivirus gets its updated virus definitions from Akamai.com, which is also the source for many of the advertisements on Web pages. Naturaly, an ad blocker is likely to block the virus definitions too. So... if something no longer works... think about all the shields you have up, and temporarily turn them off to see which one is blocking the program's access to the Internet.

It's easy to set up ZoneAlarm correctly. That's one of the reasons it's such a popular firewall. You do need to respond correctly to the questions it asks in the "learning" phase though.