Weird problem: Can't access some websites

[W. Jordan]

Hello there,

I met with a weird problem.
When I type a web site's url on Internet Explorer, like
http://www.somesite.com
It immediately returns host not found error.

Actuallly everything else works fine:
I can access other web sites.
Dnslookup command returns correct IP for that site.
I can ping that web site too.
I can use "Telnet www.somesite.com 80" and get contents from that site.
I can even use "https://www.somesite.com" to access that site.
The server of the site is on my company, and the http and https serves the
same content. But I have no idea why http://www.somesite.com does not work.
I checked up the hosts file in System32/drivers/etc, no record about that
site
is in the file.
I turned off all firewalls, the site was still inaccessable.
Other people in the same workgroup can acess that site.
I can use FireFox to access that site, but with Internet Explorer I can't,
neither
can I access it with Maxthon, Avant Browser, and other IE based browsers.
I used TCPView to monitor the TCP actions, and found that NO requests
was made when I attempt to access that site from IE.

It seems that the site has been blocked somewhere but I don't know where.
Is there anyway out except reinstalling Windows???
OS: Windows XP SP2; IE 6.


Best Regards,
W. Jordan

 

[PA Bear]

What websites can you access?

 

[W. Jordan]

They are intranet web sites in my company.
Also this www.sdcatv.net is inaccessable.
Other colleagues can access them. But I can't.
I checked the system with the lastest antivirus software
but found no virus.

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

They are intranet web sites in my company.
Also this www.sdcatv.net is inaccessable.
Other colleagues can access them. But I can't.
I checked the system with the lastest antivirus software
but found no virus.

Check C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc for a file named HOSTS with no
extension. (Not Hosts.sam)
Make sure Windows is set to show hidden files and folders and is NOT set to
hide extensions for known file types.
If HOSTS exists, rename it to HOSTS.OLD
Reboot an try again.

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

 

[PA Bear]

To keep track of things, it helps immensely if you include all of previous
message(s) in your replies to the newsgroup. Thank you.

Note that I asked what websites you *can* access, not which ones you cannot
access. Are you only having problems accessing pages on the company network
(intranet)?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L.ORG http://66.39.69.143/

 

[W. Jordan]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I have already said I can access "other web sites" on the Internet
in the original post. Yes, currently I only have problem accessing
the intranet web site in my company.

And also, using FireFox or "Telnet www.thesite.com 80" can fetch
contents from the intranet server, but using IE6 (upgraded to
IE7 yesterday), Maxthon, Avant Browser all failed to send a single
bit to the server. So the problem should be in somewhere about the
Internet Explorer. I asked the server administrator to monitor bits
sent from my computer to the intranet server. The result was that
no request to the server could be found, when I typed the url and
hit the GO button from IE. Obviously no request ever went out of IE.

Best Regards,
W. Jordan

 

[W. Jordan]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

The hosts file is nothing wrong, since I can ping, telnet port 80,
and fetch contents from the server. Were the file wrong, ping
and telnet should fail.

FireFox can get contents from the server too. So neither the
connection nor the server is wrong. The problem is why IE, or
IE core based browsers refuse to send any request to the server.

Cleaning the Temporary Internet Files does not help either
I also tried anti-virus and anti-troyan software on the computer,
but no malware was detected.

 

[W. Jordan]

Hello,

We found the problem.

Both I and the site administrator overlooked the firewall log.
Actually messages were sent to the server. And the Intruder
Detection System on the server had deteced that the HTTP
Request contented "Too long User Agent String". Afterward,
the adminstrator ignored that event, things go OK.

Thanks for all your time and help!

Best Regards,
W. Jordan

 

[W. Jordan]

Hello,

We found the problem.
It is the Intruder Detection System which blocked the request.
After altering some settings. Things are OK now. My reply to
Frank's message has the details.

Thanks for your time and help.

Best Regards,
W. Jordan

 

[jcp370]

Hello,

We found the problem.
It is the Intruder Detection System which blocked the request.
After alteringsomesettings. Things are OK now. My reply to
Frank's message has the details.

Thanks for your time and help.

Best Regards,
W. Jordan







- Show quoted text -

Hi, could you please give me some instructions on how to fix this
problem on my PC since I don't have a clue
how to go about getting to and adjusting these settings? I can no
longer access Amazon.com and I'm assuming - and hoping -
that it's the same problem since I have tried every other fix I can
think of without success. Thanks a lot.