Can't access website then I can

[Tom]

I can't access a website www.123456.com (not real website
name) when at the office. When I'm at home I can access
the www.123456.com website. I can ping the web address
IP number but I can't ping the website address (the
www.123456.com). This is the only website that I can't
access (to my knowledge). I've called my ISP and they
can access the website via both ways. I can also access
a new website that they sent me to that I'd never heard
of before. Why is it that I can't access ONLY ONE
website? I've scanned for viruses etc. via McAfee's most
recent download as well as F-Prot. Nothing! I can't
even email to anyone at this www.123456.com website.
[The site's been up for years and it's well known in my
state.]
Any ideas of what to do? My connection to the Internet
is via a Win2K network [3 servers+3-4 workstations, all
on Win2K or WinXP fully service packed] that has a
FreeBSD front end on a T1. No one on the network, via
the network, can access the www.123456.com website.
Towards the end of today, I tried the www.123456.com
address in my IE 6.1+ and it was changed to
http://www.www.123456.com.org.
I'm lost!
TIA,
Tom

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

I can't access a website www.123456.com (not real website
name) when at the office. When I'm at home I can access
the www.123456.com website. I can ping the web address
IP number but I can't ping the website address (the
www.123456.com). This is the only website that I can't
access (to my knowledge). I've called my ISP and they
can access the website via both ways. I can also access
a new website that they sent me to that I'd never heard
of before. Why is it that I can't access ONLY ONE
website? I've scanned for viruses etc. via McAfee's most
recent download as well as F-Prot. Nothing! I can't
even email to anyone at this www.123456.com website.
[The site's been up for years and it's well known in my
state.]
Any ideas of what to do? My connection to the Internet
is via a Win2K network [3 servers+3-4 workstations, all
on Win2K or WinXP fully service packed] that has a
FreeBSD front end on a T1. No one on the network, via
the network, can access the www.123456.com website.
Towards the end of today, I tried the www.123456.com
address in my IE 6.1+ and it was changed to
http://www.www.123456.com.org.
I'm lost!
TIA,
Tom

Check for a file named HOSTS with no extension (not Hosts.sam). It may be a
hidden file. Open it with Notepad and remove any line referencing the site.
Or, rename HOSTS to OLDHOSTS

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

 

[Tom]

I validated that HOSTS is located off of c:\I386 and
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. I did not do anything
with LMHOSTS.SAM. Now, with WordPad I opened HOSTS and
found 127.0.0.1 localhosts in both HOSTS file. THis is
on my laptop and not on anyone of the servers on the
LAN. Can the problem be server based and not a
workstation/laptop situation?
TIA
Tom

-----Original Message-----

I can't access a website www.123456.com (not real website
name) when at the office. When I'm at home I can access
the www.123456.com website. I can ping the web address
IP number but I can't ping the website address (the
www.123456.com). This is the only website that I can't
access (to my knowledge). I've called my ISP and they
can access the website via both ways. I can also access
a new website that they sent me to that I'd never heard
of before. Why is it that I can't access ONLY ONE
website? I've scanned for viruses etc. via McAfee's most
recent download as well as F-Prot. Nothing! I can't
even email to anyone at this www.123456.com website.
[The site's been up for years and it's well known in my
state.]
Any ideas of what to do? My connection to the Internet
is via a Win2K network [3 servers+3-4 workstations, all
on Win2K or WinXP fully service packed] that has a
FreeBSD front end on a T1. No one on the network, via
the network, can access the www.123456.com website.
Towards the end of today, I tried the www.123456.com
address in my IE 6.1+ and it was changed to
http://www.www.123456.com.org.
I'm lost!
TIA,
Tom

Check for a file named HOSTS with no extension (not Hosts.sam). It may be a
hidden file. Open it with Notepad and remove any line referencing the site.
Or, rename HOSTS to OLDHOSTS

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/


.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP IE/OE]

I validated that HOSTS is located off of c:\I386 and
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. I did not do anything
with LMHOSTS.SAM. Now, with WordPad I opened HOSTS and
found 127.0.0.1 localhosts in both HOSTS file. THis is
on my laptop and not on anyone of the servers on the
LAN. Can the problem be server based and not a
workstation/laptop situation?
TIA
Tom

That line in HOSTS is not a problem.
Unfortunately, I don't know anything but a HOSTS file that would only block
one address. You could try the steps here:
Dealing with Unwanted Malware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated with the program's update function
before every use, even when just downloaded. There's also a lot more to do
than just those two programs. CWShredder is also available here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----Original Message-----

I can't access a website www.123456.com (not real website
name) when at the office. When I'm at home I can access
the www.123456.com website. I can ping the web address
IP number but I can't ping the website address (the
www.123456.com). This is the only website that I can't
access (to my knowledge). I've called my ISP and they
can access the website via both ways. I can also access
a new website that they sent me to that I'd never heard
of before. Why is it that I can't access ONLY ONE
website? I've scanned for viruses etc. via McAfee's most
recent download as well as F-Prot. Nothing! I can't
even email to anyone at this www.123456.com website.
[The site's been up for years and it's well known in my
state.]
Any ideas of what to do? My connection to the Internet
is via a Win2K network [3 servers+3-4 workstations, all
on Win2K or WinXP fully service packed] that has a
FreeBSD front end on a T1. No one on the network, via
the network, can access the www.123456.com website.
Towards the end of today, I tried the www.123456.com
address in my IE 6.1+ and it was changed to
http://www.www.123456.com.org.
I'm lost!
TIA,
Tom

Check for a file named HOSTS with no extension (not Hosts.sam). It
may be a hidden file. Open it with Notepad and remove any line
referencing the site. Or, rename HOSTS to OLDHOSTS

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I tried the www.123456.com address in my IE 6.1+

and it was changed to http://www.www.123456.com.org

That is symptomatic of a bad lookup. Since you have already
(more or less) checked that your HOSTS file is not causing it
a remaining possibility is that there is something wrong with
your ISP's DNS. Some ways of circumventing that with your OS
would be
- to try pinging that server name in hopes that the lookup would be
cached long enough that IE would use the dnscache lookup
instead of having to wait for a real lookup itself.
- doing an nslookup yourself could have the same effect on your
ISP's DNS cache but would not affect your OS dnscache
(This could be the case if your server name is an alias for a real name
but your ISP's DNS does not save alias names, so then there would be
extra delay while your DNS queried adjacent servers.)
- to insert a temporary override into your HOSTS file which would eliminate
any of the (hypothesised) delays

Notify your ISP if any of these workarounds help. If you resort to the last one
you will have to remember it because if that site's IP address ever changes
much later you will have almost identical symptoms for a different reason.

BTW the reason I wrote "(more or less)" above is that there is some malware
floating around called QHosts which can move the location for the active
HOSTS file. IOW the HOSTS file that you found might look fine but it
might not be the one which is active. However, I think that some of the
scans that Frank is suggesting you do can detect this possibility.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

I can't access a website www.123456.com (not real website
name) when at the office. When I'm at home I can access
the www.123456.com website. I can ping the web address
IP number but I can't ping the website address (the
www.123456.com). This is the only website that I can't
access (to my knowledge). I've called my ISP and they
can access the website via both ways. I can also access
a new website that they sent me to that I'd never heard
of before. Why is it that I can't access ONLY ONE
website? I've scanned for viruses etc. via McAfee's most
recent download as well as F-Prot. Nothing! I can't
even email to anyone at this www.123456.com website.
[The site's been up for years and it's well known in my
state.]
Any ideas of what to do? My connection to the Internet
is via a Win2K network [3 servers+3-4 workstations, all
on Win2K or WinXP fully service packed] that has a
FreeBSD front end on a T1. No one on the network, via
the network, can access the www.123456.com website.
Towards the end of today, I tried the www.123456.com
address in my IE 6.1+ and it was changed to
http://www.www.123456.com.org.
I'm lost!
TIA,
Tom