I have Firefox, but I mostly use IE6. I didn't try Firefox through this problem but in the past I recall that Firefox was working okay with it's cookies when IE6 was not. There was a time that some sites didn't work right with Firefox. I've not looked into that lately. Firefox does let you see download in progress instead of stalling and leaving you wondering if you're still online. It's a nice package that I probably should use more often.

I ran System File Check, and the symptoms didn't improve. I deleted temporay internet files, cookies and offline stuff.... several times. I tried to roll back like Jim suggested, but there were no rollback points available. That's possibly because this drive was built from a May archive that I saved and restored using Acronis Drive Image 10.

While I was ripping my hair out, the "new JAVA update available" pop-up from SUN appeared, so I gave it a whirl. Now the system seems to be logging into and remembering who I am on various sites. If it's stable a few more days, I'll make an archive of the drive for next time.

All this misery started last week when a power glitch altered my hard drive. Suddenly, the sound card software wasn't working. I uninstalled the sound card software, and when I installed it back, a grabbed the wrong CD that went to a different sound card. It must have been windoz 95 stuff, lol. I need to throw old stuff out, I guess. I still have AMD K6 boards and processors in the basement. When I was done with that "fix", the drive could no longer boot up. All the files were still there with it set as a slave, but windows wouldn't boot after that "creative upgrade". Luckily, I was able to rescue the oven stuffer roaster picture, lol.

Note to self: Buy a new battery for the UPS. A backup power supply should hold the power good for more than 1/2 second.