Internet Explorer problems (1 Viewer)

I don't know if anyone can help me with this very annoying problem.
I connect to the Internet with IE5 on Freeserve and recently I've been experiencing quite a few problems with it.
Sometimes it'll go to the Freeserve home page after logging-on, but when I click on a link, say 'Birdforum' in my favourites then I've noticed the progress bar to be either very very slow then the 'Unable to find server' screen appears or it doesn't even move at all. I press 'Refresh' and / or the 'Go' buttons but nothing happens.
I usually have to disconnect and then reconnect but it might then be okay up to two or three different sites / pages and then it just locks out again. Tonight it's working okay.
If I were to install IE6 (or whatever the latest version is) should I un-install IE5 or can I just upgrade. I don't want to lose my Outlook Express 'stuff'.
Sorry if this is too confusing to understand, but I'm desperate to rectify it.

Doesn't sound like an IE problem, more likely your ISP. Have you tried one of the alternative freeserve numbers, they can be very variable.

As regards IE6, just upgrade it should be no prob (back up first to be on the safe side), but I doubt thats the problem.

DJ Sideboard's suggestions about flakey connections seems the most plausible.

However, it may be worth checking whether you have spyware operating on your system. You can download an application called "Spybot Search and Destroy" from the following :

http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

I spent over an hour talking to a technical support person today (err, yesterday) trying to help sort out someone's PC which showed some similar symptons. He suggested spyware can cause problems like this. Funny thing was I had loaded Spybot for this person but they hadn't used it. The endlessly patient and determined tech support person eventually got things working (full marks). Afterwards I ran Spybot which found several pieces of spyware; maybe they'd caused the problem in the first place? Couldn't say for sure.

As "DJ" states, the installation program for IE6 should offer to back up your old IE5 configuration so you can return to it if things don't work out. And certainly it seems like a good suggestion to take advantage of this option.

I already use "Spybot Search and Destroy" and for anyone out also using it make sure you have latest version (1.2). As well as checking for problems it now also provides a degree of prevention by blocking some adware before it can be installed.

Paul

Sounds like connection to ISP. Mine can be very flakey, last night was a constant series of reconnections, but this is down to the exchanged by "clapped out" - BT said something about water and corrosion 18 months ago, its getting worse again though.

Could also be problems with your ISPs root DNS server. Sometimes I can't reach a number of sites switching to a different root DNS server helps:
http://support.open-rsc.org/