any news?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan Pape
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Dan Pape

I have made posts in the past about how suddenly some of
websites cannot be found on my computer using IE6 while
they can on my wife's computer using IE 5.5

Has there been any developments on this phenomenon? I
really would like to go to the espn.games.com page on my
own computer but I can't--IE6 can't find the page.

Someone told me to go to Sun's webpage and download their
Java program. I did but it has done no good. Maybe it's
not setup correctly.

The weird thing is that my computer can't find that page
using Netscape Navigator either. Do you think something
in my Windows settings is blocking access to this site? I
find it odd that my computer--no matter what browser I use-
-can not open the page, while my wife's (and every other
computer I've used at work) will open the page!

Any help?
 
I get the same result you do and to make matters worse, there is no reference to
games on the ESPN site. Perhaps you have the wrong URL. Open the page on your
wife's computer and check the URL in case it has been redirected.

--
George (Bindar Dundat)
This information is provided "AS IS"
It may even be wrong!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spam.asp
| I have made posts in the past about how suddenly some of
| websites cannot be found on my computer using IE6 while
| they can on my wife's computer using IE 5.5
|
| Has there been any developments on this phenomenon? I
| really would like to go to the espn.games.com page on my
| own computer but I can't--IE6 can't find the page.
|
| Someone told me to go to Sun's webpage and download their
| Java program. I did but it has done no good. Maybe it's
| not setup correctly.
|
| The weird thing is that my computer can't find that page
| using Netscape Navigator either. Do you think something
| in my Windows settings is blocking access to this site? I
| find it odd that my computer--no matter what browser I use-
| -can not open the page, while my wife's (and every other
| computer I've used at work) will open the page!
|
| Any help?
|
 
Dan I am having exactly the same problem as you. I
thought my ISP connection was at fault at first, but when
I use a laptop with Windows 98 the connection works fine.
I suspect this has to do with the fact that I ran the
Windows Update and installed the latest critical fixes.
It was about that time that the problem started.
Unfortunately for the first time ever, I did not choose
the option to back up my existing files, so I can't
uninstall the service pack I installed. I am hoping a
Microsoftie will read this and suggest something because
it's making web browsing impossible. It doesn't affect my
FTP'ing or my IRC'ing, only my web browsing, both with IE
and with Netscape. Some very few web sites, like MSN, or
my ISP's home page, I can get to slowly. For the most
part, all others time out. I've run the software for
removing parasites, I've looked for articles about this on
the MS tech support site, but no help. I notice other
people posting about this same problem. I may have to
reinstall windows soon to try to solve it, which with the
Windows 2000 Server I'm running will not be pleasant.
 
First I found something close but there is no site I can find with the URL
you gave... maybe they moved it or changed subdomain or something...

Anyway I got to here. http://msn.espn.go.com/

If that doesn't work for you try this

http://199.181.134.141


If the second works then it's possibly a DNS problem.

To explain briefly the "Human" readable URLs like msn.com are meaningless to
the computer, when you type something like that in the address bar IE refers
that to a "Domain Name Server" or DNS which usually belongs to your ISP but
you can use almost any of them. The DNS sends back the numeric address to IE
which then requests the web page directly by numeric address. Note this is
more or less... not 100% accurate).

Windows also can keep a local file for this, saving the step of contacting
the DNS if the name's been used before. You can find this file by searching
for the word HOSTS with no extension. Open it using notepad to see if your
URL is in there. See if it's in the hosts file on your wife's computer too.
If it is that's maybe why one resolves and one does not.

It is possible your wife's machine has an old name in the hosts file which
is being correctly resolved to the numeric address for this server... if
this gets you the right page just bookmark it and use that instead.

Have a look at this... http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Hope this helps a bit even if not an immediate solution.

Charlie
 
Thanks for the reply. The link is the "Fantasy" button
near the top of the page. The URL is games.espn.com
This is the URL that is not working on my computer at all
but will on my wife's.
 
Thanks for your input. I checked out the links you gave
and tried those things but after downloading the fixes, it
still didn't work. I'm running Win 98 (not SE). Does
this make a difference? I'm really confused that
microsoft would make a change that affects many people.

My wife's computer is running IE 5.5 Should I maybe
downgrade back to that version?
 
I got there and this is the right URL for it
http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/home/Request.dll?FRONTPAGE
--
George (Bindar Dundat)
This information is provided "AS IS"
It may even be wrong!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spam.asp
| Thanks for your input. I checked out the links you gave
| and tried those things but after downloading the fixes, it
| still didn't work. I'm running Win 98 (not SE). Does
| this make a difference? I'm really confused that
| microsoft would make a change that affects many people.
|
| My wife's computer is running IE 5.5 Should I maybe
| downgrade back to that version?
| >-----Original Message-----
| >For advice specific to problems with secure sites, have a
| look at the first
| >link - for general advice, have a look at the second:
| >
| >http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers2.htm#secure_sites
| >http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers.htm#dns
| >
| >--
| >Hyperlinks are used to ensure answers remain current.
| >________________________________________
| >Sandi Hardmeier - Microsoft MVP since 1999
| >http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer
| >
| >| >> I have made posts in the past about how suddenly some of
| >> websites cannot be found on my computer using IE6 while
| >> they can on my wife's computer using IE 5.5
| >>
| >> Has there been any developments on this phenomenon? I
| >> really would like to go to the espn.games.com page on my
| >> own computer but I can't--IE6 can't find the page.
| >>
| >> Someone told me to go to Sun's webpage and download
| their
| >> Java program. I did but it has done no good. Maybe
| it's
| >> not setup correctly.
| >>
| >> The weird thing is that my computer can't find that page
| >> using Netscape Navigator either. Do you think something
| >> in my Windows settings is blocking access to this
| site? I
| >> find it odd that my computer--no matter what browser I
| use-
| >> -can not open the page, while my wife's (and every other
| >> computer I've used at work) will open the page!
| >>
| >> Any help?
| >>
| >.
| >
 
Here's something else I noticed. . .

when I click on the Internet Options and go to
the "advanced" tab, her version 5.5 has all the advanced
options with check boxes that you can check/uncheck.

My IE 6 does not have the check boxes. I can't make any
changes! Does this have any bearing on anything? I know
in the past that I had the checkboxes. Where did they
go? Did Microsoft take them out with one of the critical
updates? Could this be my problem?

Man, I wish Microsoft would fix this issue!
 
Dan Pape said:
Thanks for the reply. The link is the "Fantasy" button
near the top of the page. The URL is games.espn.com
This is the URL that is not working on my computer at all
but will on my wife's.
Click to expand...

Dan,

That button is a Macromedia Flash button.
Right-click the button and tell us what happens
and what you can do with its menu.

Alternatively change the Security option
Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins
to Prompt. (Doubleclick the Internet zone icon in the status bar
click on Custom level... and then type R, P, <space> and click Ok.)

Then refresh the page. Reply No to the prompt, Ok to the warning
and then try to click on the Fantasy link. This time you should also
be able to see the destination of the link in the Status bar.

If you can see the site that way you have established that DNS is
not your issue but your Macromedia Flash support probably is.

They don't exactly highlight this requirement but they don't hide it:
< http://espn.go.com/sitetools/s/tools/index.html >


(Don't forget to change your Security options back to Default Level
after testing if you want to avoid the prompts.)


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---
 
ok, I changed the 3D items back to the default color and
now I can see the checkboxes. However, I can't change any
of the advanced options! It won't let me change any of
them. I've left-clicked, right-clicked, NOTHING will make
me change them! Now what?
 
Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately, neither of your suggestions worked. when I
right click on the "Fantasy" button, the 2 options I have
are "settings", which is darkened and inactive (doesn't
work) and "about Macromedia Flash version 6". I clicked
that and downloaded the latest version (which I believe I
already had). But it did no good.

Strange thing is, all the buttons on the top of the ESPN
page do work. "Insider", "NHL.com", "ABC.com", and all
the other link buttons on that same line as the "Fantasy"
button DO work. Why only the "Fantasy" button not working.

I am so confused over this. I hope you can help from here.

I also posted to another person that the "advanced" tab on
my internet options will not let me change any of the
advanced settings. Could this be my problem?
 
Take things a little further. Go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance and
choose the default Windows scheme. Then test.
 
Dan Pape said:
Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately, neither of your suggestions worked. when I
right click on the "Fantasy" button, the 2 options I have
are "settings", which is darkened and inactive (doesn't
work) and "about Macromedia Flash version 6". I clicked
that and downloaded the latest version (which I believe I
already had). But it did no good.

Strange thing is, all the buttons on the top of the ESPN
page do work. "Insider", "NHL.com", "ABC.com", and all
the other link buttons on that same line as the "Fantasy"
button DO work. Why only the "Fantasy" button not working.

I am so confused over this. I hope you can help from here.
Click to expand...

You essentially stopped reading my reply after experimenting
from the first paragraph. The point was to diagnose whether
the problem is with ActiveX or DNS. We seem to be ruling
out ActiveX (for the moment). In case the idea of disabling
ActiveX (e.g. making it a Prompt and replying No to its use)
is proving too much to grasp try this instead:

There is a non-Flash link in the Help page that I gave you a link for
which redirects to where you want to go. E.g. hovering over Fantasy
in the header of the SITETOOLS page shows this in the Status bar:

< http://x.go.com/cgi/x.pl?goto=http://games.espn.go.com&name=9442E&srvc=sz&SOURCE=944 >

This link may also not work if you have disabled Allow META REFRESH.
In fact as a test I disabled that and was able to see that the site designers
have not accommodated that case. What you would see if redirects are
prevented would be a completely blank screen with Done in the Status bar
but the intended destination in the Address bar. Shortly after I reenabled
Allow META REFRESH the full page was properly rendered.

If that is your problem you will have to get over your trepidation
or whatever it is that prevented you from trying my second experiment
and actually go into the Security tab and make that change.
This time once you are in the Custom Level... of the Security tab
you can just type AL as an accerelator to find the proper section.
Typing AL, then E, then pressing the spacebar, then clicking on
the Ok button would ensure that you have the correct setting.

I also posted to another person that the "advanced" tab on
my internet options will not let me change any of the
advanced settings. Could this be my problem?
Click to expand...

If you can't get access the Security tab or change anything
there it could indicate that your system has been locked down
by an Administrator.


HTH

Robert[/QUOTE]
 
actually, I did try your Active X experiment and it still
did not work. After changing to "prompt" I did what you
said, but the link did not work. Yes, the destination of
the link did appear in the status bar. But it timed out
and gave me the old "cannot find page" screen.
 
by the way, thank you for your kind help.

I did try the non-flash link on the SITETOOLS page.
Didn't work. I checked my security settings for META
REFRESH-- it was already set on enable.

As for the advanced options not being able to be changed,
I don't have an administrator to lock down my system.
It's my personal PC at home.
 
Thanks again for your great help with this not so easy
problem. Sorry for not being specific at times--I'm a
novice at making posts and I didn't think of it from your
end. . . .

okay, I tried the ping tests as you suggested and found
out that the games.espn.go.com address on my computer was
NOT the same as yours. Thus, the test failed.

I checked my wife's games address and her's was the same
as yours. Her ping test was successful.

Her DNS address was different than mine so I changed mine
to hers using the Connection/settings/properties
suggestion of yours.

Still didn't work.

But this story has a happy ending. I went into my HOST
file and changed the address as you suggested and WHAMO!
It worked!!!!! Yes, I FINALLY (AFTER 7 MONTHS) can go to
the espn fantasy games page on my own computer! (Yes, I
know, it sounds geeky but I enjoy playing fantasy sports)

I have to say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!! for
all of your work and concern to help me sort this problem
out. I should of done this sooner but all other posts in
the (long ago) past seemed to tell me to just wait for
Microsoft to fix the problem with a patch. (of course,
every patch came and didn't fix the problem). I really
appreciate you taking the time to help me out and being
kind with someone who is computer literate but just may
not understand the whole concept of posting EXACTLY
everything! :-)

Thanks again! I hope I never need help like this again,
but if I do, I hope that you'll be there to help me!

-----Original Message-----
Dan Pape said:
by the way, thank you for your kind help.

I did try the non-flash link on the SITETOOLS page.
Didn't work.
Click to expand...

Please always be specific when describing your symptoms.
Remember, your words are substituting for our eyes.

I am going to assume that this means you get a server not
found error message as per your last message.
That suggests that you could have a DNS problem with that
server name. Have you tried to test what address your lookup
is getting for that? E.g. in a command window try:

ping games.espn.go.com -n 1
Click to expand...

Pinging games.espn.go.com [199.181.135.21] with 32 bytes of data:
</example>

You mentioned earlier that you don't have a problem with the other
buttons; so you could test them too:

ping insider.espn.go.com -n 1
Click to expand...

Pinging wirelessproxy.espn.go.com [199.181.134.138] with 32 bytes of data:
</example>

In this case the address is different which would certainly explain
your symptom if the games server was down. What will be more
interesting is whether the address that you get for the games server
matches mine and perhaps equally telling what results you get on
your wife's machine with the same test.

Does your wife have the same DNS addresses?
(I think in your OS you can use winipcfg to determine that.)
If not it would also be interesting seeing what happened
if you used her DNS addresses instead.
(I assume you could use the Connection settings Properties dialog
to make such overrides?)


If you determine that you are getting the wrong address for the games
server you could use your HOSTS file to override it temporarily until
your ISP get it straightened out. Using my above result the entry would
be coded:

199.181.135.21 games.espn.go.com

I'm not sure if your OS requires a reboot to activate that change
or not. However, it would be simple to test to find out. E.g. make
the change and then do the ping test; if the address used by the
ping test changes you will know that the HOSTS change is already
in effect; otherwise I would try a reboot.


Good luck

Robert
---

I checked my security settings for META
REFRESH-- it was already set on enable.

As for the advanced options not being able to be changed,
I don't have an administrator to lock down my system.
It's my personal PC at home. believe
I hovering
over Fantasy
goto=http://games.espn.go.com&name=9442E&srvc=sz&SOURCE=944 if
redirects are tab
on locked
down Ok
to
Click to expand...


.
Click to expand...
 
Dan Pape said:
Thanks again for your great help with this not so easy
problem. Sorry for not being specific at times--I'm a
novice at making posts and I didn't think of it from your
end. . . .

okay, I tried the ping tests as you suggested and found
out that the games.espn.go.com address on my computer was
NOT the same as yours. Thus, the test failed.

I checked my wife's games address and her's was the same
as yours. Her ping test was successful.

Her DNS address was different than mine so I changed mine
to hers using the Connection/settings/properties
suggestion of yours.

Still didn't work.
Click to expand...

That's puzzling. Now that you have some concrete facts to present
your ISP might be able to explain that. If your wife is using a different ISP
then perhaps the DNS server could be blocking you for not having an IP
address from the range that they provide. Were you able to do *anything*
with that setup? Not being able to do anything would be an understandable
symptom if that idea is correct. Otherwise my guess would be that the
source of the error was your HOSTS file somehow. That was Charlie
Tame's message early on in this discussion. One of the standard
troubleshooting suggestions for these cases is just to rename or delete
your HOSTS file to remove that possibility from the analysis.

But this story has a happy ending. I went into my HOST
file and changed the address as you suggested and WHAMO!
It worked!!!!! Yes, I FINALLY (AFTER 7 MONTHS) can go to
the espn fantasy games page on my own computer! (Yes, I
know, it sounds geeky but I enjoy playing fantasy sports)
Click to expand...

The explanation for why this would work would depend on where
you put that entry in your HOSTS file. If you put it at the top then
I suspect it would override any error which was previously being
generated. If the problem definitely was not being caused by an
error in your HOSTS file then you should definitely report this to
your ISP so that they get their DNS fixed.

I have to say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!! for
all of your work and concern to help me sort this problem
out. I should of done this sooner but all other posts in
the (long ago) past seemed to tell me to just wait for
Microsoft to fix the problem with a patch. (of course,
every patch came and didn't fix the problem). I really
appreciate you taking the time to help me out and being
kind with someone who is computer literate but just may
not understand the whole concept of posting EXACTLY
everything! :-)

Thanks again! I hope I never need help like this again,
but if I do, I hope that you'll be there to help me!
Click to expand...


Happy to help

Robert
---
 
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