IE7 stops making network requests after a while

Question

Our (asp.net) system is part of a larger system. It runs through this large system from javascript, which calls window.open to open a new window.

(in addition, authentication data, etc. are transmitted to our system through the encrypted parameter of the query string)

When testing with IE7 (unfortunately, the organization standardized this) the browser will, after using our system (moving through the pages) for a while (it is intermittent), start not making network requests. Pressing F5 causes it to show its loading animation, but nothing actually happens).

You can close our window and return to the larger system (in your own window), which still works fine. If you restart our system, a new window will open and it looks like loading it, but the request is not executed (checked using wirehark). Systems are in separate subdomains.

Here's a funny thing, if I run Fiddler, everything starts working fine. As soon as I close Fiddler, it stops making network requests.

The system is a rather heavy html / javascript / ajax system (1 MB + per page), but this should not force the browser to do this. Obviously Firefox and Chrome work just fine :)

The only way to get it working again is to close all IE windows and start again.

I turned off the proxy server, turned it on, performed almost everything I can think of.

Does anyone have any idea?

UPDATE

I managed to play it with the start of a violinist. Initially, when I work, I see all requests in Fiddler. When it goes into "no request" mode (again, note that nothing changes, I just look through it), I don't see anything in Fiddler (i.e. No new requests, nothing). All requests registered by the violinist are completed, so there are no open connections.

We see this on almost every machine. After viewing approximately 15 pages, this starts to happen. Could this be some kind of environmental thing? My test machine is an installation with McAfee, IE7 installed. Nothing else works, and toolbars are not installed in IE.

Answer 1

Try merging http://www.enhanceie.com/dl/fixHTTPMax.reg to increase your HTTP connection limit, and then check if it needs ~ 10x to run into the problem.

If so, then the problem is that you fixed the problem when an HTTP connection leaks out, and then you end up pushing the max-connections-per-server restriction.

Answer 2

Enable JavaScript debugging in IE and check for errors.

Answer 3

You have a little pickle with Fiddler automatic proxy settings.

When the violinist begins, he changes the IE proxy settings to indicate the violinist, when the violinist closes, restores the original proxy settings.

If the violinist sees the existing proxy settings, he will use those that are in the request that he sends.

Under certain error conditions, you may be left without starting a violinist, but modifications to the Fiddler firmware still exist in IE settings. You may encounter a situation where IE only works when starting Fiddler.

Reset IE proxy settings.

Edit

Otherwise, the most likely cause is outstanding requests that have not yet been completed. Have two of them, and in the default IE setting, all other requests will wait indefinitely to complete the remaining requests. Firing the violinist can cure this for a while, because requests do not go directly to the server. Can you reproduce the problem of starting a violinist? Do you see outstanding requests from a violinist?

Answer 4

Make sure you set connect: close in the HTTP header when you're done.