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If for some inexplicable reason, you suddenly cannot get to certain web sites anymore from your PC, yet they work fine from another PC, you might have a bad host file on your PC. Here's the likely cause and what you can do to set it right.
Some ISPs are trying to limit the amount of work they have to do in order to relieve the load on their systems and work more efficiently. For that reason, they store the IP address for commonly visited web sites in a small file locally on your PC called Hosts. When you type in the web site address, the browser actually checks first if such a hosts file exists before it talks to your ISP's domain name server (The DNS is the server that processes your request for a web site when you use a name rather than a series of numbers, like www.pcreview.co.uk ) If it finds the information it needs in there, it will take the IP address from this file and use it to go to the site. This eliminates the need to check with the ISP's DNS server first and shaves off valuable milliseconds of your browsing time. Again, this works most of the time and can be very efficient, but if the IP address (the numerical address) for the site has changed, even if the name remains unchanged, you of course have a problem since you will be directed to the wrong web server. The only way to remedy this problem is by editing the Hosts file. Replace the old IP with the new one, or remove the entry for that site completely, or by renaming or removing the Hosts file so that the browser is forced to inquire with the DNS server to find out the correct IP address each time you request a web page. To find your Hosts file, go to Start/Find/Files or Folders, type in Hosts (no extension) and hit Enter. If it finds the file, you can right-click on it, choose Open with... and select Notepad. Now you can edit the file. Look for the site that you have problems with and either remove the entry for that site or replace it with the new correct IP address.
If you don't know the correct new IP address, you can find it by going to Start/Run, type command and press Enter. In the resulting DOS window, type ping www.websitename.com and press Enter. One of the first lines that appear will show you the correct current IP address. After you are done editing the file, save the file and exit Notepad. Now fire up your browser and try again, you should be able now to visit the site as normally.
(Special thanks to Alex Byron)
Enjoy!
Some ISPs are trying to limit the amount of work they have to do in order to relieve the load on their systems and work more efficiently. For that reason, they store the IP address for commonly visited web sites in a small file locally on your PC called Hosts. When you type in the web site address, the browser actually checks first if such a hosts file exists before it talks to your ISP's domain name server (The DNS is the server that processes your request for a web site when you use a name rather than a series of numbers, like www.pcreview.co.uk ) If it finds the information it needs in there, it will take the IP address from this file and use it to go to the site. This eliminates the need to check with the ISP's DNS server first and shaves off valuable milliseconds of your browsing time. Again, this works most of the time and can be very efficient, but if the IP address (the numerical address) for the site has changed, even if the name remains unchanged, you of course have a problem since you will be directed to the wrong web server. The only way to remedy this problem is by editing the Hosts file. Replace the old IP with the new one, or remove the entry for that site completely, or by renaming or removing the Hosts file so that the browser is forced to inquire with the DNS server to find out the correct IP address each time you request a web page. To find your Hosts file, go to Start/Find/Files or Folders, type in Hosts (no extension) and hit Enter. If it finds the file, you can right-click on it, choose Open with... and select Notepad. Now you can edit the file. Look for the site that you have problems with and either remove the entry for that site or replace it with the new correct IP address.
If you don't know the correct new IP address, you can find it by going to Start/Run, type command and press Enter. In the resulting DOS window, type ping www.websitename.com and press Enter. One of the first lines that appear will show you the correct current IP address. After you are done editing the file, save the file and exit Notepad. Now fire up your browser and try again, you should be able now to visit the site as normally.
(Special thanks to Alex Byron)
Enjoy!