Need internet help

[comquat1]

I hate to post this here, but this is the only site I can seem to access at this point. About five days ago I noticed I couldn't get to a bunch of my favorite internet sites. A few being fatwallet.com, evolutionm.net, and hotmail.com. I can still view nsxprime, but these other ones the computer just sites and thinks about going there, says it's opening the page and then eventually it quits trying and gives the page access error message that windows gives when a site is down. I know these sites are up since I can get them from work, but not from my computers. Can anyone out there help me figure this out?

I've tried deleting cookies, but that didn't work. So now i'm at a lose as to why my internet explorer all a sudden decided to be selective about what i view....

Anyone with ideas on how to fix this would be great.
Thanks in advance.

 

[lemansnsx]

Start with a really aggressive look for spyware and/or worms/virii. Hopefully you already have something like Norton AV or McAfee?
Get copies of these:
Spybot Search&Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org
AdAware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
CWShredder
http://www.majorgeeks.com

Make sure that you update any of these if there is an option to do so within the program and then run them. Be cautious and follow their warnings - you may disable some programs that you have installed.
Report back after you've scanned your system with these.

 

[PHOEN$X]

Have you checked your IE restricted sites to see if possibly your favorite sites have been entered into that security zone by mistake? Go to Internet Explorer Options -> Security -> Restricted sites, and see if there are any recognizable entries in there.

Also, try opening a command window (Start -> Run -> cmd) and ping a site that you cannot get to from IE, for example:

ping yahoo.com

Mind you, not all sites are pingable, but Yahoo should send a response back.

If you don't get a ping response, check your C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\HOSTS file. That's the location for NT/W2K/XP, I don't remember what it is for W95/98/ME. See if the file looks weird.

Finally, have your computer checked for viruses/spyware. If you can, go to Housecall for a free online virus check, and download Ad-Aware and Spybot, then update and run them.

Let us know what happens. Good luck.

 

[PHOEN$X]

One other thing, check your router (since you mentioned "my computers", as in more than one PC). Maybe it's been hacked or misconfigured, or is hosed up and needs a reboot. Try cycling the power on both your cable/dsl modem (I assume you have HSI) and router, and see if that fixes the problem. If none of our tips help, then contact your ISP to see what they have to say. Good luck!

 

[hlweyl]

First question to ask yourself is have you changed anything, loaded new software, changed firewall settings, updated software recently?

 

[dnicho05]

Finally, have your computer checked for viruses/spyware. If you can, go to Housecall for a free online virus check, and download Ad-Aware and Spybot, then update and run them.

Another great free Anti-Virus program is AVG Anti-Virus from Grisoft. http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

contact your ISP to see what they have to say.

My old ISP had trunk problems on several occasions that caused the same things you are seeing. Some pages would come up, some wouldn't. Give them a holler if your PC turns out clean (no viruses or configuration problems). If you can't get through to them (busy signal every time), then you can bet the farm that they are having network problems and everybody is screaming at them.

 

[comquat1]

Well, so far i've done spybot (had the regular ammount of stuff but still deleted all of them) and did a free antivirus that found at least 50 .vir files (never saw that coming! :-( ). But I deleted all the viruses and also cleaned out cookies folder and temp internet files folder still to no avail. I'll cycle the router in a bit and see if that helps. It may be the problem since both computers started doing it at the same time with different versions of IE (5.5 and 6.0).
I'll let you know what i find.
Otherwise I may have to challenge microsoft to this problem, costs $35.00 but if they can't fix it, they won't charge you.

 

[comquat1]

PHOEN$X, you magnificent bastard.... you were right about powering down the cable modem and router..... I owe you, thanks a ton. I'm not so sure I would have thought of that on my own. I had an inkling that it might be a router thing since both computers started doing it, but didn't know what I could do, but this worked, so thanks again!

And I'll say it again, this board is awesome, who'd a thought an nsx forum would have computer tech support!

 

[Ojas]

Have you tried what PHOEN$X mentioned about the HOSTS file? Here are the locations of the file:
Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

BTW: Even if the file looks okay, I know there are viruses out there change the location of the hosts file in the registry.

So you might want to try this to see if there's a problem with the file: Start, Run, type "command", OK to bring up a command prompt. Now, try to ping a couple of the sites that appear to be down and see what IP address is resolved. Look at the IP address and see if they are the same. For example, if you "ping www.yahoo.com" and "ping www.google.com" and notice both have the same IP address, the hosts file is the cause.

EDIT: I see you and PHOEN$X have solved the problem.

 

[PHOEN$X]

Woohoo! *Flex*

I'm glad you resolved the problem. Most people forget that modems and routers are computers too, and need to be booted (or given the boot? ) once in a while. Rock on!

 

[steveny]

PHOEN$X, you magnificent bastard.... you were right about powering down the cable modem and router..... I owe you, thanks a ton. I'm not so sure I would have thought of that on my own. I had an inkling that it might be a router thing since both computers started doing it, but didn't know what I could do, but this worked, so thanks again!

And I'll say it again, this board is awesome, who'd a thought an nsx forum would have computer tech support!

\

FYI
I have had the same problem with my connection in the past. For me the problem kept coming back and getting worse every time. After a few months of resetting the router and modem the router passed its final byte and died in the middle of the trading day. If your internet access is detrimental you may want to have another router on hand.