Problems going through checkout on various sites

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

Various sites including ebay, amazon, asda, tesco, john lewis...
Have tried with both IE and Firefox
Has been happening for a few weeks now, I'll get to a certain stage of the checkout process and it will time out or I'll get a cannot display this webpage message. After several hundred attempts I might get to the next stage only for it to happen again.

It's driving me mad! Any idea what might be happening? Anything I can try to fix it?

Have you got your popup blocker turned on?

Hello ali
Nope not on

Just did a diagnostics thingy and it came up with error http 403 ??

Are you using the links on the webpages to navigate? Sometimes this error comes up if you try and used forward and back buttons.

Is your firewall up to date?

I am just following the checkout process (or trying to)
So enter details, click proceed etc. What stage I get to varies. No problems with the rest of the website, it's only when I try to checkout.

That is what makes me think it is something perhaps to do with your firewall - because those pages will only allow you to view them over a secure connection.

I will ask DH what he thinks - he does IT for a living and deals with all our technology so I'm a bit out of practice!

How do I check firewall?

I mean I know how to get to it in control panel etc but what settings do I want it to have?

Er.... Let me see what DH thinks.

Thank you, and thank you Mr Baba

What exactly does the message say when you get the error page?

What was the diagnostic thing that you did?

Secure pages, that is to say those prefixed with https, usually will run over a different "port" to "normal" web pages. And it's possible that a firewall might be blocking that port, but that's more than a bit bizarre.

Can you try going to this address (even if you've not got an account, I just want to see if it displays or if something is blocking the standard HTTPS port):
facebook.com

Does it work?

Are you anti-virus and anti-malware software (they are different things) all up to date? Have you run a recent scan of both?

DH says try clearing your cache, not the history, and also delete all your cookies.

If that doesn't work then try downloading Google Chrome (another browser) and see if that works.

he hasn't done desktop support for 15 years

Firefox says: The connection was reset

      The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

IE says: Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
What you can try:

Diagnose connection problems
More information

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:
?Internet connectivity has been lost.
?The website is temporarily unavailable.
?The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
?The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
?There might be a typing error in the address.
?If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

For offline users

You can still view subscribed feeds and some recently viewed webpages.
To view subscribed feeds:
1.Click the Favorites button , click Feeds, and then click the feed you want to view.

To view recently visited webpages (might not work on all pages):
1.Press Alt, click File, and then click Work Offline.
2.Click the Favorites button , click History, and then click the page you want to view.

The diagnostic thing I did was to click on the diagnose connection problems button above

That facebook address works fine.

Everything online works fine until I try to use a checkout

Antivirus etc all up to date

Have you seen if you can you routinely get to facebook.com? Not that it's https and not http, that's important, it's what I'm trying to test?

That this is an intermittent problem that sometimes works makes me think that it's not a firewall thing, if it were it would never work.

You say your AV is up to data but, as said, that isn't the same thing as Malware protection and on a Windows machine you need both.

I'd download and run the free version of MalwareBytes (www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free) to see if there's anything lurking away on your computer that could be trying to do some very bad things with your login details...

Badgers yes https works.
Login to sites not a problem, it's checkout/payment that doesn't work.

Finally managed to pay for what I was trying to yesterday and have now done what alibaba's dh suggested-will see if it has worked next time I try to buy something online.

I do already have malware protection (that was covered by my etc-sorry for not making it clear!)