Unable to access one particular website.

[Matilda]

For the past three days, I've been unable to access one website on my Favorites list. Neither can
I get it by Googling the name and clicking on the result. At first, I thought the site must be
down, but I can access it from my computer at home. Next day, back at work, it's unavailable again.

I first blamed IE7, which regularly told me different sites couldn't be found, but when I tried
again, they'd come up - all except one. I went back to IE6, which I prefer anyway, but I still
can't get this one site. It's a site I need - it's called Sycophant Hex, and houses Harry Potter
fanfiction. As I'm a beta-reader for fanfic, I need to be able to get into their forums to pick up
work.

What I've tried so far is System Restore, going back to last Friday when I know it was there, but
no luck. I've also made sure that the URL is typed into the Security section of the Tools menu,
as being a permissible site. I've cleared the cache, and run Spybot to check for malware. (I run
Webroot Anti-Virus and Spysweeper daily anyway, and while it finds lots of stuff, none of it seems
to be responsible for blocking this site). I found a site that recommends installing something
called "OpenDNS", which can change the router on your computer and seems to solve some problems,
but I don't know whether I should download stuff I know nothing about - I'm technologically
illiterate, and careful about doing things I don't understand.

Trouble-shooting sites dealing with this kind of problem talk a lot about "pinging", which I don't
understand at all - perhaps someone can explain this to me, so I can try it?

I have Windows XP, with SP3 (which doesn't seem to have caused any other problems, as I believe it
can), and my connection is ADSL.

This is such a nuisance, and I'm at a loss as to what to try next, so if there's anyone out there
who's seen this kind of thing before and can give me some advice, I'll be very grateful

[struggle4progress]

1. Is your employer blocking access?

[Matilda]

2. No - it's my own business.

[struggle4progress]

3. Same ISP?

[Matilda]

4. No - they're different.

And the home computer is on cable.

But I've been able to access this website for well over a year now, with no problems until this week.

[struggle4progress]

5. ISPs have been known to block access. What about DNS? Are you

allowing the ISP to choose your DNS or is your system directing your browser to a particular DNS?

[Matilda]

6. I never heard of DNS until I started investigating what's going wrong.

So I'm not sure whether it's my provider that chooses the DNS, or the system, and I'm not quite
sure how to find out.

I looked at a free product called "OpenDNS", which allows you to change how the DNS works.

This is a link to the OpenDNS website:

http://www.opendns.com/


It worked for somebody with the same problem on a trouble-shooting forum, but I'm a bit nervous about
fiddling about with the system because I don't really understand what it all means.

Do you think it might be worth trying?

[struggle4progress]

7. DNS = domain name server. A URL such as

is associated with a numerical address like 216.158.54.197

The URLs are registered and there are master "dictionaries" in which one can look up a URL like "http://democraticunderrground.com" and find out it means something like "216.158.54.197"

Unfortunately, there are several standards for the numerical names, and not all DNS servers support all the standards. This was a problem for me several months ago, because for the version of OSX I had on my Mac the machine would try to obtain the most modern standard repeatedly before trying to obtain an earlier but more common standard: with webpages having multiple links to other URLs for content, this slowed browsing to a crawl and resulted in multiple claims webpages weren't available (actually because the effort to load them had timed out). I don't know whether this has been a problem on other operating systems. On a Mac, it's easy to add a new DNS in System Preferences > Network > Advanced > DNS Servers. I don't know about other operating systems. I did get an immediate improvement by adding an OpenDNS server address like 208.67.222.222 to the list, but the real solution was to update the OS after Apple fixed the bug

A few other questions you might ask and things you might try:

Does your ISP offer different sorts of accounts, such as "safe browsing" options? Did you accidently change an account option?

Do you use the same browser for home & work? Are the browser settings the same? Have you tried using different browsers? (I have seven different browsers installed currently, some of which I simply don't use and should probably uninstall, others of which I use intermittantly for different purposes. I don't have IE installed, but some webpages generally don't work except with IE: I don't like IE, and don't have it installed, but some other modern browsers can supposedly pretend to be IE well enough to load some of those pages; I haven't had that problem, but at least I have something to try as a work-around if I encounter it)

[Matilda]

8. I downloaded both Firefox and Netscape just to see if they would work for me.

They also couldn't get the website. I use IE6 at home as well, and I can get into SH with no
problems at all.

Is that an indication that perhaps it's a problem with the server? I haven't recently changed my
account, although I've been thinking about upgrading it, as I have limited downloads with the
account I currently have.

I thought of trying to get to the site via Google, and if that worked, I'd just change the Favorites
setting, but I can't get to it that way either.

I'm leaving work now, but I'll check back into the forum when I get home.

Thanks for your thoughts so far - when I said I'm technologically illiterate, I wasn't joking!
Most everything I've learned about computers has been by trial and error, so I'm really dumb when
it comes to understanding technical terms.

[struggle4progress]

9. Another thought is security/firewall issues. Some sites may not load properly if you

disallow all cookies; some sites may not load properly if you disallow incoming connections

I myself prefer to disallow all incoming connections; I restrict but do not completely forbid cookies.

[Matilda]

10. I have Windows Firewall,

and I temporarily disabled it in case it was blocking SH, but it made
no difference.

I don't quite understand about disallowing incoming connections. I have
security settings on "medium"; is that what you mean by allowing some
cookies?

[struggle4progress]

11. I'm not expert on this, so can only tell you what kinds of things I would hope to try

In particular, some firewalls have more informative setting options, others have less informative options. I'm not familiar with Windows Firewall and don't know whether it lets you set cookie options separately, for example

[struggle4progress]

12. Here's the way I attempt to solve such problems when I have them:

Try simple things, like clearing the cache: http://directoryoftutorials.com/clearing-the-cache-with-internet-explorer-7-for-windows

If it's a program you recently installed, uninstall it and reinstall it

If that doesn't work: Have you done a recent virus scan?

Otherwise, it may be time to try tracking down something odd and tedious. Collect basic info: what operating system you use, what security you use, what error message you get. Google and read lots of junk, cuz the problem could come about in all sorts of ways

[Matilda]

13. All those things have been done.

Spysweeper runs daily, and today I did it twice, plus I also ran Spybot,
and got rid of a few more spyware items. The cache has also been cleared.

I just had my IT guy in recently, and don't really want to call him back
so soon, for what is an annoying, but minor, problem. From what I've
read, it seems likely that it's something to do with the DNS, so I'll
read a little more, then perhaps check out this OpenDNS.

Thanks for the input.

[Duer 157099]

14. Look into your "Hosts" file

Use TrendMicro's HiJackThis (or whatever) and take a look at your Hosts file. This is a file that is used (often maliciously) to alter how websites are accessed (or not).

Someone here probably knows more about it than I do, but it was one of the first things that came to mind.