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Question

Can I pick your brain? cnet site blocked!

Feb 13, 2012 4:18AM PST

A difficult question and no approach to fix the problem despite a lot of people looking at it. Is there a checklist of things I should be checking or resetting for a problem like this? I'm using Vista on a Lenovo T500.

I can access anything on the internet except two sites - I get timed out every time I try to open either. One is my bank site (accountonline) and the other is cnet.com! I've been accessing both for years without any problem. I usually use Firefox, but, starting 4 days ago when it began showing the "the connection has timed out" message, I tried with other browsers - IE9, Opera and Chrome. They all do the same thing, able to access all websites except those. Using my wife's laptop through the same WiFi the website opens immediately!

And if I take my laptop to different WiFi both sites open!

I've tried turning off Norton firewall and antivirus - doesn't change anything.

The accountonline site won't ping and a route trace goes through to the 17th hop then times out. Cnet does ping and tracert does go through but all the browsers time out. I don't know how to interpret that... I reset my router on the off chance that would work, but no change. I tried turning off my wifi and plugging in via ethernet cable - no change. Tech support for accountonline.com tried setting up my IE9 to work (multiple sundry setting changes) but still wouldn't work.

So it doesn't seem like it could be something set wrong in a browser because none of the different browsers work. And it can't be the website or the router because I can access them with another computer using the same router. It has to be in my machine. But if I use a different router I get through! Maddening! What could be causing this?

Any suggestions appreciated, especially a troubleshoot checklist for a problem like this or a suggestion of what could be set wrong or busted in my laptop.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Can't guess.
Feb 13, 2012 4:38AM PST

I read it twice and no OS noted.

But we can test if it's the machine or other one more time. I boot up my LiveCD of Ubuntu and can browse on the same machine without installing Ubuntu. I lost count how many times this revealed the problem or helped narrow it down.
Bob

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I did mention the OS
Feb 13, 2012 7:06AM PST

"I'm using Vista on a Lenovo T500."

But yeah, it's a hard email to read and an even harder problem to solve.

No Ubuntu disk, but I'd love to have a checklist of settings, etc. that have to be in order to allow browsers to work or to access websites. Maybe there is no such thing...

Anyway, thanks for your input!


Ben

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The problem is the checklist is
Feb 13, 2012 7:12AM PST

Usually like tossing a boat at the drowning man. And knocking them out.

I'd take Grif's advice as well as check your HOSTS file.

Sorry I missed the OS. It was there. It doesn't matter too much as even Vista without the Service Packs is not one I see do this.
Bob

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Hosts File
Feb 13, 2012 7:31AM PST

Hosts file only has two entries (below the comments section at the top):

127.0.0.1 localhost
: : 1 localhost

I don't know what these mean.


Grif's advice? Plz explain...


Again, thanks for taking the time to look at this difficult problem,

Ben

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Thought I posted that. Here it is.
Feb 14, 2012 3:23AM PST
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nice post
Feb 15, 2012 12:15AM PST

nice post thanks for the post