Can't Get To Certain Websites (but ping works fine)?!!?

[dangfx]

Hey ho,

So my internet connection seems a little screwy. I can browse most of the net fine, but when it comes to CERTAIN websites, i get the standard "Page Cannot be Displayed" error in IE, and Firefox's "The connection was refused when attempting to connect to www.xxxxx.com"

Now, MOST sites work, but some very common ones, like www.symantec.com, www.amazon.com, www.grisoft.com and some others just cant connect. I CAN ping them though, and others can ping me.


so what gives?

 

[arkamw]

Check your hosts file. While checking what the virus did in your previous post, it seems to modify the hosts file so that you can't get to places like anti-virus websites. You should be able to do a search for it. or it should be located in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. It shouldn't be hidden.

Edit the file with notepad and I am betting that you'll find that things like symantec and grisoft (and others) are directed to 127.0.0.1, you'll have to change those.

More info here and I think there is a thread around called hosts file madness that lists a lot of stuff to look for.

edit: I think that you can just delete the offending lines or enter the correct info for them.

 

[dangfx]

arkamw,

thanks bud. That did it. is it ok if i just put a # in front of all the lines (that just ignores those lines)? Or do i need to replace the IP with something else? Apparently, it is a "sample" hosts file put there by MS:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2004 Microsoft Corp.
#
# AutoGenerated by Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Malicious Software Removal Tool.
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.

 

[arkamw]

Should be good to put a pound sign there, delete the offending line, or put the correct ip address in for the website in question. Honestly, I don't mess with it much so I'm not an expert in using the file. But the pound sign should work.

The sample comment is there to give you an idea of what to do. It's not acutally a sample file (well, it is... but not really). Glad to hear it all worked.

 

[OldMX]

Move "hosts" and "lmhosts" from C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc to another location, then load a command prompt and type "ipconfig /flushdns" and see if that makes the trick.

oldmx

 

[t00thless]

one thing, if its a virus that has modified your hosts file, the entries will be way at the bottom of the hosts file. when you open it, scroll down (if you can scroll down that is)