The problem: Every time anything on my computer tries to access the internet it fails on the first attempt. I must refresh the page (if I am browsing the internet) or re-attempt the connection (if I am using FTP, an online game, AVG virus update, etc).
The root cause: I had spyware, I removed it with spybot, and this problem started happening directly afterward.
Attempted solutions: Tried Winsock XP fix program, tried moving/renaming winsock files and letting windows re-create them. I tried reinstalling IE. Obviously the above attempts didn't fix it because I'm writing this post.
I would rather not reinstall Windows but that's what I'm looking at doing. This problem is what is keeping me from moving to Firefox. It is WAY easier to hit F5 in IE when the page doesn't load on the first attempt than it is to click an OK box in Firefox and retype the whole damn url. In addition, trying to install a Firefox plugin through this problem is a total headache.
So, this is actually partially related to DKos because I think the new site looks so much better in Firefox (when I can finally get the page to load). Sigh.
Life preservers and laughs are equally welcome...