Dead Links

[Pablo]

Recently, I have found a lot of dead links that are really valid URLs. Here
are just a few examples: (And I am finding new dead links everyday. For
example, www.chineseradio.com was working last week but not now.)

www.download.com
www.flashplayer.com
www.bonus.com
www.chineseradio.com

I was able to access to these links before. Now I get the error message:

Could not resolve the hostname ( www.download.com )


Verify that you typed the website correctly
Make sure your DNS settings are correct
Make sure you are connected to the Internet

I check with my ISP and was told that my DNS settings are correct.

My system in PII 166MHz with Win98 and IE6.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Recently, I have found a lot of dead links that are really valid
URLs. Here are just a few examples: (And I am finding new dead
links everyday. For example, www.chineseradio.com was working last
week but not now.)

www.download.com
www.flashplayer.com
www.bonus.com
www.chineseradio.com

I was able to access to these links before. Now I get the error
message:

Could not resolve the hostname ( www.download.com )


Verify that you typed the website correctly
Make sure your DNS settings are correct
Make sure you are connected to the Internet

I check with my ISP and was told that my DNS settings are correct.

My system in PII 166MHz with Win98 and IE6.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

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

Or, In a Cmd window, enter
ipconfig /flushdns
then clear your TIF also, and re-boot.

 

[Pablo]

Frank,

Thanks so much for the help. I renamed the HOSTS file to OLDHOSTS and
rebooted my PC. Now the problem is gone!

Can you explain to me what does the HOSTS file do and how did I get into
such a mess?

I check my C:\WINDOWS and I notice that Windows doesn't create a new HOSTS
file for me. Why? There is a HOSTS.BAK of the original file in C:\WINDOWS.
Should there be a new HOSTS file in my C:\WINDOWS directory? Is it okay if
I delete both OLDHOSTS and HOSTS.BAK files?

Also, in the Command window I entered ipconfig /flushdns and I got these
options:

Windows 98 IP Configuration
Command line options:

/All - Display detailed information.
/Batch [file] - Write to file or ./WINIPCFG.OUT
/renew_all - Renew all adapters.
/release_all - Release all adapters.
/renew N - Renew adapter N.
/release N - Release adapter N

There is no option for /flushdns... What should I do? Any idea?

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help. This problem had been driving
me insane for weeks!

Regards,
Pablo

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Frank,

Thanks so much for the help. I renamed the HOSTS file to OLDHOSTS and
rebooted my PC. Now the problem is gone!

Can you explain to me what does the HOSTS file do and how did I get
into such a mess?

I check my C:\WINDOWS and I notice that Windows doesn't create a new
HOSTS file for me. Why? There is a HOSTS.BAK of the original file
in C:\WINDOWS. Should there be a new HOSTS file in my C:\WINDOWS
directory? Is it okay if I delete both OLDHOSTS and HOSTS.BAK files?

Also, in the Command window I entered ipconfig /flushdns and I got
these options:

Windows 98 IP Configuration
Command line options:

/All - Display detailed information.
/Batch [file] - Write to file or ./WINIPCFG.OUT
/renew_all - Renew all adapters.
/release_all - Release all adapters.
/renew N - Renew adapter N.
/release N - Release adapter N

There is no option for /flushdns... What should I do? Any idea?

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help. This problem had been
driving me insane for weeks!

Regards,
Pablo

When IE looks for a site it looks first in HOSTS. If the site is listed in
HOSTS it uses that IP address. If it is not listed there it goes on and
checks your DNS server for the correct IP address.

Ipconfig may not have that option on your version of Windows.

HOSTS is generally stored in either C:\Windows or
C"\Windows\system32\Drivers\etc
You can delete any hosts file, although I would keep Hosts.sam, which is a
sample file.