Our (asp.net) system is part of a larger system. It is launched via this larger system from javascript that does a window.open call to open a new window.
(aside, authentication data etc is passed into our system via an encrypted query string parameter)
When testing with IE7 (unfortunately the organization has standardized on this) the browser will, after using our system (navigating around pages) for a while (its 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 go back to the larger system (in its own window) which still works fine. If you re-launch our system, the new window opens up and it looks like its loading, but no request is made (verified with wireshark). The systems are on separate sub-domains.
Here is the funny thing, if I start up Fiddler, everything starts working fine. As soon as I close Fiddler, it stops making network requests.
The system is quite an html/javascript/ajax heavy system (1MB+ per page), but that shouldn't cause the browser to do this. Obviously Firefox and Chrome work perfectly :)
The only way to get it working again, is to shut down all the IE windows, and start up again.
I've disabled the proxy server, enabled it, done pretty much everything I can think of.
Anyone got any ideas?
UPDATE
I managed to reproduce it with fiddler running. Initially, when its working, I can see all the requests in Fiddler. When it goes into its "no-requests-being-made" mode (again, note that nothing changes, I'm just browsing around), I don't see any thing in Fiddler (i.e. no new requests, nothing). All the requests that fiddler has logged are completed, so there are no open connections.
We're seeing this on almost every machine. After browsing about 15 pages, this starts happening. Could it be some environmental thing? My test machine is a vanilla XP install with McAfee, IE7. Nothing else is running, and no toolbars are installed in IE.