Vista can't access ESPN.com in IE or FF

C

COKE CAN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2006
Messages
391
Friend is getting a blank screen when trying to access ESPN.com. He states that he has downloaded every plug in that he has been asked to download. This computer is new and has had this problem out of the box. He reinstalled Vista to no avail. I am unsure what to tell him.
 
Works for me. Maybe he has some phantom preference enabled/disabled. Did he build his own PC?
 
Perhaps he has something running that blocks them? PearGuardian will do this, he might have something else.


Id reinstall the darn thing while its new. Seems to be the fix for any microsoft product.
 
4600cc said:
Perhaps he has something running that blocks them? PearGuardian will do this, he might have something else.


Id reinstall the darn thing while its new. Seems to be the fix for any microsoft product.
Click to expand...

He did reinstall it
 
Something is blocking it. By default, the OS isn't going to block ESPN. You need to start down that road...
 
I can get to espn.com on a fesh install of Vista, both inside and outside the network:D
 
This totally doesn't make sense if he reinstalled a new Vista on it. Is he stealing his neighbor's internet connection over Wifi? Maybe they have it blocked?

So is he able to go to any other sites?
 
I'd suspect an entry in the hosts file myself. This seems to be a common problem for a lot of people lately (like the past 6 months or so that I've noted postings about here and at other forums I frequent). Almost always turns out to be a malware issue that inserts something in the hosts file, but with Vista it might be a bit different since UAC would alert the user to a change in a system file - that is, if the user didn't disable it, of course. :)

Worth checking out, regardless...
 
bbz_Ghost said:
I'd suspect an entry in the hosts file myself. This seems to be a common problem for a lot of people lately (like the past 6 months or so that I've noted postings about here and at other forums I frequent). Almost always turns out to be a malware issue that inserts something in the hosts file, but with Vista it might be a bit different since UAC would alert the user to a change in a system file - that is, if the user didn't disable it, of course. :)

Worth checking out, regardless...
Click to expand...


Yup, sounds like he installed some softwares/crack/keygen that contained malware. Best thing to do is go into Vista safe mode with networking and see if he can get to that site. If he's able to get to that site from Safe mode, than there's some conflicting softwares or virus taking over.
 
ASIA911 said:
This totally doesn't make sense if he reinstalled a new Vista on it. Is he stealing his neighbor's internet connection over Wifi? Maybe they have it blocked?

So is he able to go to any other sites?
Click to expand...

His own internet. He can access other sites. His other computer can access ESPN.

It sucks I cannot put my hands on this computer, so it makes things more difficult.
 
Safe Mode with Networking won't make any difference if the issue lies with something in the hosts file because it's still used for starting the networking stack. If it's malware or something else, it'll have to be resolved with some other methodology.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
Safe Mode with Networking won't make any difference if the issue lies with something in the hosts file because it's still used for starting the networking stack. If it's malware or something else, it'll have to be resolved with some other methodology.
Click to expand...

What make you so sure? The guy hasn't even try it.
 
Because the hosts file is used regardless of what state Windows is in (safe mode, etc.)

Just have them do a WinKey+R (for the run menu) and enter `notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts` without the quotes. Look for something like:
Code: 
1.2.3.4     espn.com
and if you see something like that, remove it, save the file and try again.
Also try WinKey+R and enter `cmd` without the quotes, then type `nslookup espn.com` and see what you get. As of this posting, it should look like the following:
Code: 
C:\Users\Joe User>nslookup espn.com
Server:  abc.neverlandranch.az.world.comcast.net
Address:  12.34.56.78:53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    espn.com
Address:  199.181.132.250

Cheers!
 
Thanks guys, I will pass this stuff on to him and verify that he has attempted these suggestions.
 
First off, I want to thank everyone for their input!

This is what my buddy did:

He had McAfee installed but the whole time the firewall was disabled. He decided to completely uninstall McAfee and then he had no problems.
 
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