Problem with IE

[jay1b]

Hi

For some reason i cant load any webpages in IE at home.
When i try too i get a dns server error, how ever it decides this instantly without actually trying to reach the website.

I can get full access to the Internet for other things, such as Kazaa, games, MSN messenger - the only thing i cant do is access it through IE. I can ping google.com fine as well.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled IE as well, but it had no effect.

Thanks.

 

[GavinO]

It sounds like the system DNS settings are fine, but something is messed up specifically with the IE settings. Try browsing directly to a server by entering its IP address (get one from nslookup) and see if you can see the page that way. I'd also try using an alternate browser to grab a page (www.opera.com, www.mozilla.com).

 

[jay1b]

It sounds like the system DNS settings are fine, but something is messed up specifically with the IE settings. Try browsing directly to a server by entering its IP address (get one from nslookup) and see if you can see the page that way. I'd also try using an alternate browser to grab a page (www.opera.com, www.mozilla.com).

I have already tried browsing to the page by its IP address, i got the same problem. I also tried using the browser part of Kazaa to browse the web with, that also failed. Didnt want to install netscape as that always seems to mess up every other setting on the machine.

 

[GavinO]

That's an interesting problem. It seems that http requests from your machine simply aren't working. To narrow it down to it being the protocol or the port, I'd look for a site hosted on a port other than port 80, and see if that loads.

 

[jay1b]

That's an interesting problem. It seems that http requests from your machine simply aren't working. To narrow it down to it being the protocol or the port, I'd look for a site hosted on a port other than port 80, and see if that loads.

How can i find out what port a site is hosted on?

Incidentally i cant even display html from my own webserver on that very same computer. But i can load them fine, by opening them such as - c:\example\index.html

Cheers.

 

[GavinO]

If you've got a server running on your machine, all the better. By default, web pages are served on port 80. To get a page on a different port, you address the server like this:

http://ip.add.re.ss:port/

If you've got a server on your machine, somewhere in the configuration there should be a setting for a listen port. Change this to something else (8080 is a popular choice, though I'd try the port of some service that has been working, ie 6667 if IRC works for you). If you can connect to the server via the new port, you've got some kind of blocking going on on port 80. You might also check if computers outside can get a page served from your computer on port 80, to see if the problem is symmetric (both inbound and outbound traffic on 80 is blocked).

 

[jay1b]

Thanks

Firstly i tried to access the pages being served from my computer elsewhere, they appeared fine - so the outgoing port 80 is fine.

Secondly i changed the TCP port to 8080 (and after 23) in each case the other computer could read the pages fine. But the actual computer in question couldnt. Even off another port. So i dont think its the ports not working, but something else.

I wondered if it was some sort of evil program interferring, i ran HiJackThis and pestcontrol - neither of which seemed to return anything unusual to me. Any other suggestions?

 

[handan2002]

Are you running a firewall?

If you are, have you checked settings in there to make sure it isn't blocking incoming data?

 

[jay1b]

I am running a firewall and have disabled it, its the same firewall as i have been running for the last 2/3 years.

At this rate it looks like i am going to have to do a full format/reinstall. Which means buying another HD to store all the data in the meantime.

 

[handan2002]

Oh well, i guess if it must be done, it must be done.

Personally, though, I hate reformatting hard drives because afterwards theres always a file or two that's missing... that annoys me. So, I would only do this if there are no other solutions at all.

Consider waiting a few more days. Who knows? Someone/something might just pop up.

Oh yeah, if you are running XP, have you installed anything recently that may have triggered the WinXP firewall to run?

 

[jay1b]

Trust me i also hate reformatting - the whole process will take me about 60 hours the time i reinstall (and find) all my software. Not to mention the lost files/programs that i forgot to save.

Due to the fullness and size of my hard-drives i would need to purchase another one just not to lose all my stuff, so i wont be doing it any time soon

 

[jay1b]

Anyone else thought of anything that it could be?

 

[wildfire1982]

Have you tried installing netscape to see what happens?

 

[handan2002]

"Didnt want to install netscape as that always seems to mess up every other setting on the machine"

So, I think jay1b has pretty much answered your question

 

[wildfire1982]

Sorry, must have missed that post lol. I agree but it normally uninstalls hapily, plus its easier to sort the problems out with netscape than it is to format a drive and install everything from scratch. alternatively, go for opera or something.

 

[jay1b]

The problem is the browser built into Kazaa doesnt work either - so its not just a problem with IE.

 

[GavinO]

I'm pretty sure that the KaZaA browser is just IE in a box; that's the easiest way to get a page to render under Windows.

 

[jay1b]

OK. I will try to hunt down a version on Netscape on my 2 billion old free magazine cds

 

[jay1b]

I tried Opera, and that works fine. So at least i have the web at home now.

Can anyone else think of why IE should want to stop working though?

 

[GavinO]

It sounds like your install of IE has picked up something odd along the way, as IE is wont to do. Since its so integrated with Windows these days, I'm not sure if you can remove it to do a reinstall, but I'd try to get it as unintalled as you can and then try to update it (maybe just running the IE6 installer will work?)