No guarantees here, and I'm by far not a techy. But, this problem started for me, yesterday as well. So, what happened yesterday that was unusual was McAfee did an update. And I noticed you mention this. So, I started digging in the "system configuration," and if you look under "Services" tab, there's a bunch of McAfee Services. Disable "McAfee Proxy Service" So, I'm still in shock that it worked for me... Thank god, maybe I can get some work done, now. Wonderful. I got this issue and I consider myself as a Techie - But your post has solved the problem!! Here is the problem : In Vista, Either after the system installs Windows Update patch KB944533 or some McAfee patch, the system disables any browser accessing internet. Other applications will be able to use internet - say, in Command prompt, you can enter PING WWW.YAHOO.COM and the system would get a response(will not timeout). This is how you verify it Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt > at the blinking cursor, enter PING WWW.YAHOO.COM You should get a response like this C:\>ping www.yahoo.com Pinging www.yahoo-ht3.akadns.net [209.131.36.158] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 209.131.36.158: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=52 Reply from 209.131.36.158: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=52 Reply from 209.131.36.158: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=52 Reply from 209.131.36.158: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=52 Ping statistics for 209.131.36.158: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 34ms, Maximum = 38ms, Average = 35ms This means there IS internet connectivity and the browser is not working. If you diagnose the problem, it comes back with no errors. Meanwhile you might also get an error " McAfee Proxy Service Module Stops working" Solution : 1) Upgrade your Mcafee to 2008. There are some posts that tells that this is fixed in 2008 version. You will get it automatically if your subscription is active. 2) This what I tried and it worked for me : Select Windows update and remove the patch KB944533. Then, right click the command prompt (see earlier - before clicking Command Prompt, right click) and select Run as administrator. (Say Continue if it asks for your permission ). Type services.msc at the prompt Select McAfee Proxy Service and right click, select properties. In the startup type, select "Disabled" { Caution : now The proxy service is not running and we should fix McAfee asap} Then service status, click Stop. This might also stop another service. Then I Run the explorer or Firefox and it worked.
