System hanging and Net connection inaccessible after a while

[soldave]

I've been using Firefox and its predecessor for 4 or 5 months now, without any problems. However, over the past week I seem to be having major probs with it. It will run perfectly for some time (sometimes half an hour, sometimes longer) but then all the internet throughput on the computer will cut out. I have made sure that the connection to the net is still live, but no data transfers will occur. In addition to this, I am unable to load up Task Manager or other programs for some time. The computer will not shut down unless I hold the power button down for 4 seconds and do a hard reset. But sometimes, after around 10 minutes of inactivity, the connection will kick back in again and I can access normally. It is only a matter of time though before the connection drops again.

I have tried creating a new profile, but to no avail. Through process of elimination, I have found out that it is Firefox that is somehow causing the net connection to cease activity. Other browsers work fine, but I am a fan of Firefox. What is causing this, and how can I solve the problems?

Many thanks in advance:)

[HaloMan]

It's to do with the extensions you've installed. I had a similar problem with a older version of Tabbed Browsing Extensions.

[soldave]

Right - I've done a virus check and spyware check complete, with nothing coming up. But I've done a bit more exploring and have to say that I now don't think it's Firefox that's causing the problems.

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to the latest version of Zonealarm - wonder if that could be the cause of my problems...

[soldave]

Problem solved! It was the latest version of ZA that is plaguing systems all over the world! ZA people on their forums are advising people to go back to a previous version until they solve the bugs in the latest versions.

[ShakeyJake]

I had to uninstall Zone Alarm 5 with the same symptons, Zone Labs seem to screw up the early releases whenever they bring out a new version. Which is a shame cause when they do get it right it's a bloody useful piece of kit.

[TonyG]

Where can I find an earlier version of ZoneAlarm to replace the latest version? :thinking:

[soldave]

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1023_zl/zlsSetup_45_594_000.exe

But follow the instructions here in order to uninstall ZA5 first:

http://nh2.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/CompleteUninstallNonNT.html