Ramifications of In-Place Upgrade (Reinstall) of Windows XP

[Kathy W.]

I have a troublesome problem that none of the techs at my
ISP (SBC Yahoo DSL) nor my computer manufacturer (HP)
seem to be able to resolve: I have one website that
absolutely cannot be accessed.

I have talked to the webmaster of the problematic website
and we ran some diagnostics, but basically after running
a ping test to the organization's website, I consistently
time out. The webmaster offered me a list of problable
causes:

<< 1. Some software (such as tcp/ip or your installation
of internet explorer) might be corrupted. This often
happens when you have removed spyware from your
computer. You could try updating your internet explorer
to the latest version. If you're already at version 6,
then you could try this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=318378

2. Your firewall, if you have one, might be blocking our
site. How you'd go about checking this really depends on
whether or not you have actually have a firewall and what
kind it is.

3. There's a bit of hardware malfunctioning upstream of
your computer.

If #3 is the case, there's not much you can do except
complain to your ISP until it gets fixed.>>

I've dona sfc /scannow and nothing shows up there, so the
next step is to go to a Upgrade/Reinstall of XP. If I do
go to this next step, what are the ramifications -- will
I lose data, programs, etc.?

I don't think I have a problem with a firewall because
I've uninstalled it trying to fix the problem, and (2) I
can access this website from the same ISP on another
computer, so the problem appears to be something in my
machine.

If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears!

 

[Rocket J. Squirrel]

A reinstall of Windows is a radical step that will almost certainly not fix
your problem.

If your TCP/IP stack or Internet Explorer itself were corrupted you would
have trouble reaching any web site, not just one web site in particular.

Access to a particular web site can be blocked by a firewall or by Internet
Explorer's Content Advisor or by any web filtering software you have, e.g.
Net Nanny or CyberSitter, but you would have to set that up yourself.

Spyware sometimes writes entries to your Hosts file which re-direct URL
requests. Removing the spyware is not likely to remove the entries in the
Hosts file. Therefore, check your Hosts file, which ordinarily has only one
entry (127.0.0.1 localhost).

If you can reach the web site in question from a different computer, the
problem might lie with one of the DNS servers or routers used by your ISP,
which may be misconfigured. All you can do about that is to ask the ISP to
check on it.

Rocky