certain pages won't load

[Guest]

When using IE 6, some web pages will come up while others won't. Just to
give you an example, my homepage, google, loads instantaneously. However,
something like the homepage for my bank will give me the error notice, "page
cannot be displayed". Also, I've noticed that pictures on certain other
sites won't load. Any ideas what I've done?

BTW, the MS newsgroups at microsoft have always been incredibly helpful with
everything from minor annoyances to what seem to be impossible fixes. My
thanks to everyone out there.

Ron

 

[TomN]

I'm having the same problem. Approx. one out of ten sites will not open
("The page can not be displayed"). I have recently set up a new PC with XP
Pro SP2. My old PC is running with SP1. The settings on the two machines are
identical, so I suspect that SP2 is coursing the problem. I hope someone out
there has a solution to our problem...

TomN

 

[Guest]

I'm having a problem with all sites under Boardnation.com. They used to work,
but now I get the Page Cannot Be Displayed error. I'm on ME, and have all
up-to-date updates.

 

[Guest]

I've been having the same problems for a couple weeks now. I cant even load
hotmail. Theres so many people with this problem, you would think microsoft
would have posted a solution by now.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I'm having a problem with all sites under Boardnation.com. They used to work,
but now I get the Page Cannot Be Displayed error. I'm on ME, and have all
up-to-date updates.

My nslookup did not find boardnation.com initially.
It did find www.boardnation.com
That led to this result:

server ns12.zoneedit.com

Default Server: ns12.zoneedit.com
Address: 64.246.26.64

boardnation.com

Server: ns12.zoneedit.com
Address: 64.246.26.64

boardnation.com internet address = 64.246.62.124
</example>


What's interesting is that the server name is an alias for the domain name.
Often I find that the domain name is available but the lookup for the
server name times out.

<example>
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: boardnation.com
Address: 64.246.62.124
Aliases: www.boardnation.com
</example>


Notice that before I did the digging with nslookup that lookup timed out.
If such a timeout was a regular occurrence and I wanted to use this site
I would add a temporary override into my HOSTS file and notify my ISP
about the problem.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Guest]

Been having the same problem since updating to SP2. Boardnation is the only
site I've noticed problems accessing so far. I have a buddy I'm trying to
help build a forum on Boardnation - before SP2, no problems accessing, after
SP2, I can't access at all. I have the same IP address as I had before, and
no problems logging in to Boardnation on other computers not running SP2.

ARRRRGH.

I've changed my settings to accept all cookies (just to see) - and no luck.

I've used oth IE and Mozilla Firefox, and had the same problem accessing
this one site in particular.

I checked my Hosts file and boardnation wasn't listed - only listing was
local hosts, which seems to be a kind of default?

I saw someone here mentioned overriding the Hosts file. How is that done?

Thanks!

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I saw someone here mentioned overriding the Hosts file. How is that done?

The HOSTS file is a simple text file.
There are comments in it which show you how to use it.
E.g. based on my previous nslookup

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie...db6bb8-494a-4ef0-87ca-443e0546ae50&sloc=en-US

the line to add to HOSTS to bypass a real DNS lookup would be:

<example>
64.246.62.124 www.boardnation.com
</example>


Did you try the nslookup test I suggested?
That would be one way to find the IP address you need.
ping -n 1 would be another.

Here is an example of the latter, since I haven't mentioned it yet
and since it is available on all OS.

ping -n 1 www.boardnation.com

Pinging boardnation.com [69.56.246.156] with 32 bytes of data:
</example>

Hmm... look at this! The IP address that I am now getting has
changed since last October. That does not bode well for using
a permanent override in HOSTS. If it changes regularly and
your DNS is slow to be updated it could mean that you are trying
to use the wrong address and that would explain your symptom
differently than how I suspected previously.

Anyway, back to the ping reply, notice that we are only using it
to do a lookup. We don't care if the ping response is blocked or not.

BTW notice that the server name is changed to the domain name
in the first message. I think that this is a symptom of the fact
that nslookup shows that the server name is an alias of the
domain name. I have speculated that perhaps some DNS
servers don't retain alias information and that could account
for some timing problems which seem to occur and account
for the final symptom of IE indicating that the site could not
be found. (Before seeing that the IP address for this site
can change, the delay from your DNS doing a secondary
lookup for an alias in its adjacent nodes was what I was
suspecting the problem was and why I was suggesting
an override in HOSTS might help. Such a delay might also
be avoided by having you do either an nslookup or a ping
to attempt to cache the lookup for IE to use. In the case
of a ping the lookup would be cached by dnscache.
In the case of nslookup we could only hope that it would be
cached either in your DNS or closer to it.)

If you did this ping and you got another result it would be an
indication either that your DNS is giving you a different address--
(You could use nslookup to check on that possibility.)
--or it would be an indication that you already have an invalid override
in either the dnscache or the HOSTS file (e.g. leading to a
"spyware" site or 127.0.0.1 causing it to be inadvertently blocked
unless you actually have a local server which would forward the
request correctly. Etc.)

The HOSTS file seeds the dsncache so always
clear the dnscache *after* you make changes to
the HOSTS file.

Clearing the dnscache is done by this command:

ipconfig /flushdsn


HTH

Robert