Internet Explorer Appears to Stop Responding When You Start It

Microsoft Internet Explorer may appear to stop responding (hang) when it opens, but the animated globe in the upper-right corner of the browser window may continue to spin, and you may receive a "Detecting proxy settings..." message in the status bar.

This issue may occur if Internet Explorer is trying to locate a proxy server. This behavior can occur for either of the following reasons:

• The Proxy Auto-Discovery feature is turned on. This feature may make it appear that Internet Explorer is not responding.
• Your computer is on a network that includes a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server that does not include Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) information in its DHCP packets. This may prevent Internet Explorer from locating a proxy server.

To resolve this issue, turn off the Proxy Auto-Discovery feature. To do so, use the appropriate method.

Connect to Internet Through a Dial-Up Networking Connection

If you connect to the Internet through a dial-up networking connection, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Internet.
2. Click the Connection tab, click the appropriate connection, and then click Settings.
3. Click to clear the Automatically detect settings check box, click OK, and then click OK.

Connect to Internet Through a Local Area Network

If you connect to the Internet through a Local Area Network (LAN), follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Internet.
2. Click the Connection tab, and then click LAN Settings.
3. Click to clear the Automatically detect settings check box, click OK, and then click OK.
4. Restart your computer.

To work around this issue, quit Internet Explorer, and then restart it.

The automatic detection of browser settings is based on Web Proxy AutoDiscovery (WPAD). Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) support the automatic detection of browser settings. With the appropriate settings, DHCP servers that support the DHCPINFORM message and DNS servers can automatically detect and configure a browser's proxy settings. For additional information, see the "Configuring Central Automatic Configuration Servers" section in Chapter 13 ("Setting Up Servers") of the Internet Explorer 5 Resource Kit. To do so, visit the following Microsoft Web site: