Someone please help (Downloading problem)

Ok, I posted here once before with a problem. I tried everything that anyone suggested and nothing worked. This has been a problem for 2 months, and its beyond ridiculous now.

Here's the problem: I can't download stuff! To be more exact, its certain things at random times. .EXE files will NEVER download. For a while, movie files, audio files, zip files, etc. would download SOMETIMES, but now its rare. Using a P2P program, such as DC++ works just fine. But from webpages, it's still a problem, and no one knows what it is.

I've contacted Comcast (my high speed provider) over the phone, and on their help forums. They gave me instructions on how to reset my modem, and all that. It didn't work. They said everything looks fine on their end. They also told me to look in my internet options and make sure a few things were selected like the option for allowing downloads. It was checked. They said if it wasn't those 2 things, then they don't know.

I've tried using acclerators (Download Accelerator, GetRight) - NOTHING.

I've looked through endless amounts of setting on my computer, and can't find anything.

There are no other computers hooked up to mine. No routers, nothing like that. For the first few weeks I had this internet, it worked perfectly. Then all of the sudden, it started doing this.

I've even reformatted my computer three times, thinking it would fix something, and nothing changed. I feel like I've tried everything, and it is very, very incredibly frustrating.

I'm running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (Used Service Pack 2 on some of the reformats, thinking it might make a difference and didn't). Could this be some sort of hardware conflict, or what? I don't see how, but I can't think of anything else. After all this resetting, powercycling, reformatting, etc., I'm so tired of this crap.

Anyone got more suggestions? They'd be much appreciated.

 

Do you get any error messages when your download fails?

make sure your security settings allow you to download files.

 

Thats the option Comcast wanted me to make sure was checked. It was and is still checked.

 

Have you tried using a different browser to download,a few weeks ago someone had a similar problem,changed browsers and posted back they could download again.not sure why..but worth a try

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=49654&page=2&pp=20&highlight=download
MajorGeeks Support Forums - IE problems

 

I use Firefox now, and have tried Internet Explorer and also Avant Browser. None of them work. There are no error messages, or anything similar. In all browsers, the download box comes up, the files just don't download, or download a little bit, and then stop, but more often than not, they just don't start.

I'm getting so annoyed with this thing. I'm basically paying 50 bucks a month for no reason. It's kind of sad when the company doesn't even know whats going on.

 

Can you borrow a friends computer to test the line.Do a bandwidth test at pcpitstop.Most likely option call comcast, tell them your not paying for something that does'nt work,have them send a technician,you may have a bad section of line from your computer to wherever they test the line.

 

Do you have a firewall? I've seen old versions of Zonealarm on XP that interfere with downloading for some reason. Downloading the latest version (from a different computer obviously) and installing fixed those computers.

 

On older versions of Zonealarm there was also a conflict with Norton AntiVirus which sometimes affected downloads and generally did bad things to computers.

 

Ok, well, I have my firewall turned off. Its the firewall that comes with Windows, but its definately off.

As for Norton, Zonealarm, etc. I don't have any of that stuff. I have Ad Aware, and thats it.

 

Don't run your PC without a firewall.
Try Sygate Personal Firewall http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html
or
Zone Alarm http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=388

I use ZA (free version).

Run a decent anti-virus program. Try
AVG http://www.majorgeeks.com/ download886.html
or
Avast download http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html

Try Leechget http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1821 as a downloader.
Download Accelerator Plus used to be full of spyware, when I tried it. Wiped it and installed Leechget.

Try these 3 to get rid of Internet session crap.
Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/
EmpTemp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1575
and CrapCleaner aka CCleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4191

All free are free, don't conflict with each other, and each finds stuff the others miss.
Are you running the latest version of AdAware (now called AdAware SE)
Latest version
Ad-Aware SE Personal http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html
Check for latest update before running it.

Run defrag after running all these and let us know the results, so we can move on to the next stage. Bazza
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I got those programs from a friends computer, and burned a CD.

I installed them, and ran them. It's a little better. More things will download now, but I'm still having problems with EXE files, and sometimes pictures loading.

Any reason why it would improve, but not be fully fixed?

 

Glad to see things are on the improve. Can you explain, exactly, what problems you are still having. Let us know exact error messages. What program/s are you using that are still causing grief. Have you run a Registry cleaner lately? Have you defragged lately? Let us know as much as you can, so we can help further. Bazza

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I know you said previously you dont have zone alarm,but heres some links you could check and search for files,first link halfway down http://nh2.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/CompleteUninstallNonNT.html
Zone Labs Customer Care

http://nh2.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/ManualUninstall.html
Zone Labs Customer Care

 

The problems I'm still having are mainly downloading .exe files. There are no error messages, they just don't download. I use Firefox, and sometimes tried to use IE if that fails (which it usually does). I have that program LeechGet installed, but that doesn't help either.

Also, on websites, images fail to load a lot of the time. Thats not really a big problem, but it'd be nice if it wasn't an issue right now.

I haven't run a registry cleaner, but I have defragged a few times since installing those programs.


Needasmoke - I have installed Zonealarm, and will check those links out.