help with IE6 - won't load hotmail.com

[neal]

i've tried posting this before with no response - someone
please help!

as recently as a few days ago, IE6 will no longer load
www.hotmail.com or www.passport.com, and though
www.msn.com will load, once I click on the "Sign In" box,
I get the same message I get with the other pages -
Cannot find server, and The page cannot be displayed.

Also, the same time that problem began, I could no longer
log into Messenger.

I don't have this problem with any other sites, including
yahoo mail and other email or login sites - only with
Microsoft sites - and the puzzling part is, they used to
work just fine up until a couple days ago, and there has
been no other software installed or any other system
changes I can think of that coincide with the beginning
of the problem.

Any ideas??

 

[PA Bear]

Look in HOSTS (no extension, not lmhosts) for redirects (e.g., 127.0.0.1
hotmail.com, 127.0.0.1 passport.net) and delete them...or rename HOSTS to
OLDHOSTS and see if it helps.
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect

 

[neal]

that didn't work. i renamed hosts to oldhosts, that
didn't work, and then looked inside oldhosts, and it
didn't even have anything re: those sites in it.

thanks for trying, though.

 

[PA Bear]

Well, you are not alone. Many others are posting about the same problem so,
as usual, the screw up is prolly on MSN's end. Of course, MSN says
everything's fine (http://support.msn.com/networkstatus.aspx) but users are
telling another story.

That being said, Check your system for "hijackware":

Dealing with Hijackware
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm#tshoot
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

CoolWebSearch Chronicles & CWShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html

Run in this order:

1. CWShredder (fix all)

2. Ad-Aware (fix all)

3. Spybot (generally, fix all in red)

Important: You *must* seek updates for Ad-Aware, Spybot, etc., before each
and every use, even "right out of the box". But even they can't catch
everything, 24/7. When all else fails, HijackThis
(http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
your files to http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30 for expert analysis, not here.**

[Alternate download pages for many of the above tools may be found at
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.]

Also update your virus definitions and then run a full system scan. From
now on, do both daily.

So How Did I Get Infected Anyway?
http://boards.cexx.org/viewtopic.php?t=957