Suddenly IE cannot access home page for Ebay or Amazon

[Guest]

Cannot access the home page of ebay or amazon. Can access other secure sites
like bank site - no problem.

I have a Dell 2400, XP-Pro latest SP/updates all installed.
Trend Micro Office Scan running
No virus', no spyware (all checked and rechecked). No popup blocker.
Have added *.amazon.com & *.ebay.com to trusted sites
Have cleaned up everything, temp/internet/cookies, etc.

Message received:The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The
Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to
adjust your browser settings.

If I ping www.amazon.com - I get a reply but cannot access it with the IP in
browser either - 127.0.0.1

Other computers on network can access home pages fine.

Logging in safe mode w/networking - still same problem.

Can't think what can be causing this. If one selects a link within ebay
(for instance) that link can be accessed.

 

[Biggles]

Cannot access the home page of ebay or amazon. Can access other secure sites
like bank site - no problem.

I have a Dell 2400, XP-Pro latest SP/updates all installed.
Trend Micro Office Scan running
No virus', no spyware (all checked and rechecked). No popup blocker.
Have added *.amazon.com & *.ebay.com to trusted sites
Have cleaned up everything, temp/internet/cookies, etc.

Message received:The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The
Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to
adjust your browser settings.

If I ping www.amazon.com - I get a reply but cannot access it with the IP in
browser either - 127.0.0.1

Other computers on network can access home pages fine.

Logging in safe mode w/networking - still same problem.

Can't think what can be causing this. If one selects a link within ebay
(for instance) that link can be accessed.

Checkout your hosts file WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts - sounds
like these sites are being directed to 127.0.0.1 which is your local
loopback address - i.e. you are effectively trying to access a web site
on your own PC. Use notepad to edit the hosts file and delete any
entries which contain 127.0.0.1 and amazon.com or ebay.com - in fact
normally you would only have one entry "127.0.0.1 localhost" which
you should keep. If your hosts file does have other entries for
127.0.0.1 you need to worry about how these entries got modified - some
malware on your PC perhaps?

Biggles
Remove packaging to e-mail me

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

I suspect somethings up with your hosts file if pinging www.amazon.com shows
as 127.0.0.1. Open notepad.exe, then click file open and navigate to
C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc and select the HOSTS file. See if there are
references to Amazon or Ebay here and remove them or comment them out.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Thanks both of you. I looked at the host file and there was a lot to delete.
All known antivirus sites as well as amazon.com & ebay.

I did that and it is now clean. Under the general login you can't edit the
host file (I cleaned this as administrator).

However, even after reboot we still have the problem and if you ping
www.ebay.com or www.amazon.com it still replies as 127.0.0.1

Would there be any place else to look ?

 

[Malke]

Thanks both of you. I looked at the host file and there was a lot to
delete.
All known antivirus sites as well as amazon.com & ebay.

I did that and it is now clean. Under the general login you can't
edit the host file (I cleaned this as administrator).

However, even after reboot we still have the problem and if you ping
www.ebay.com or www.amazon.com it still replies as 127.0.0.1

If you went into the hosts file and found all known av sites and others
redirected to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), there is a good chance you have a
virus and/or other malware on the machine. Here are some general
malware removal steps, including steps to take if you don't have a
current version av (not earlier than 2004) installed with an active
subscription and updated definitions.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Malke

 

[Guest]

I will review this but we have trend micro office scan (vs.3) running on all
computers + I ran microsoft beta anti spyware and it came up clean.

I will run hijack this and see what I get.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You likely have a virus if the major AV sites were listed there. You will
likely continue to have problems if you don't remove the bugs. Free virus
removal tools:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/8/lng/us/tpl/v5/nid/3001#3001
http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/tools.shtml

Also, you may use this free on-line scanner:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Symantec also distributes many free removal tools that are virus-specific:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html

Many are best run in Safe mode to minimize interference. Most will resist
removal in normal mode where they are active.

How to start in Safe mode:
http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Safe mode

Emergency system tools:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_emerutils.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org