internet explorer

[Kathy]

I am unable to access any web sites. I am receiving DNS
error when opening up IE. When physically typing in web
address I received " Internet Explorer unable to open web
site" message. This is windows ME and IE6.0. Web page will
not access in SBC Yahoo either. I can ping my dns. This is
stand alone computer.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I can ping my dns.

That's not the same thing as pinging the site but these days
because of all the moronic denial of service "exploits" pinging a site
is becoming much less useful as a diagnostic. In fact, even when its
ICMP packets aren't being blocked it has limited value for assuring
connectivity with an HTTP server.

A better tool is telnet simulating a connection with port 80.

In NTx just issuing the command
telnet <site name> 80
without doing anything else can tell you whether there is a server listening
on that port at that site but we can go even further and enter a GET /
request (that's GET <space><slash><Enter>) to see what that brings.
Often it is the site's main page.

If your OS doesn't have a command line telnet tool you may be able
to get the same effect from its HyperTerminal utility. Instead of using
a Comm port you would use the TCP stack (or however the UI presents
that option.) A secondary benefit of trying to use HyperTerminal with that
option could be that it might give you some better symptoms to help identify
the real problem.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle