Connectivity with SBCYahoo DSL

Don seems to have a problem we need help with. Don, give as many details as you can. Take us through what is happening.

We get the standard page, which anyone gets who puts in the wrong url. It reads: "The page cannot be displayed. The Web site might be experiencing difficulties or you may need to adjust your browser settings." It then give some steps to follow including checking connection settings. Don't know why we have this problem now--did not have it 2 weeks ago.

Try using Firefox instead of IE(which I'm assuming you're using). If you don't have it, go to Mozilla Firefox and download it. My daughter switched to Firefox when she went to MIT - they wouldn't be caught dead using IE. Also, you don't have to worry about all of the popups and spyware.

I am not sure what ie is-can you tell me the difference?

ie is internet explorer. If Firefox works for you Don then it would definitely be a browser problem, otherwise it would probably be a network problem.

Have you tried contacting your ISP's customer service?

The Firefox idea was from my Information Systems people. Another suggestion: if you have recently installed the Google toolbar, it blocks popups even in IE, so some websites totally don't render properly. You can disable the Google toolbar (View/Toolbar/Uncheck Google) and see if that works. It's hard to debug a problem if you're not there. I'm a theoretician (formal language and automata theory), so I use my IS support people for help with the mundane problems. That's about all the help I can give you, unless you want to talk about G?del's Incompleteness Theorem, Richardson extrapolation, or Swing GUIs (which I'm sure you probably don't - LOL).

Just think about any software you've installed recently. That might be the culprit. My system got cranky when I got an IPod for Christmas. Windows insisted on putting my IPod files into a read-only folder (long story). Well, you can't download files into a read-only folder! I was screwed. But my IS people did a work-around, so now I can add new songs to my playlist. "You might see me in the street, but you don't know me..." says T.I.

I'm guessing you mean you can get to other sites from that connection, just not www.sowal.com. If you can't get to any sites, you should check your TCP/IP connection properties, specifically how it assigns an IP address (static and specified, or dynamic) and how it finds a DNS server.

If you can get to other sites, just not www.sowal.com, you could try a couple of things:

1) Make sure you're typing the address correctly: http://www.sowal.com
(doesn't hurt to triple check -- make sure you type it rather than letting IE auto-complete it for you from a cached entry which could be bad)

2) If you're sure of that, try substituting the IP address of the site for the domain name. That is, instead of:

http://www.sowal.com

type:

http://64.182.20.40

or

http://64.182.20.40/bb

If that works, your connectivity and routing are good, but there's something screwing up name-to-ip resolution. (If that doesn't work there may be something screwing up your network routing and you should look at your DSL modem/router settings. Contact your ISP technical support.)

Assuming the IP address method above does work, open a command shell window and type:

nslookup www.sowal.com

You should get a response that includes something like this:

....

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.sowal.com
Address: 64.182.20.40

which shows your name server is configured properly.

If not, contact your ISP technical support.

If you do see the above, name resolution is fine, it's probably something interfering with Internet Explorer's use of the name resolution facility, which probably means some IE corruption. You could address this by re-installing IE or installing a different browser like FireFox.

But before trying either of those options, see if you can reach the web site from a different user account on the same computer. If you have more than one user account on the system, log in as a different user and try to bring up the web site. If that works, it's probably corruption in a user-specific IE configuration file used to resolve site names, like index.dat. If so, locate the offending account's IE index.dat file and delete it (do it from a command shell if you know how to do that). Actually, even if you don't have multiple accounts, locate the file and delete it anyway. It won't hurt and IE will just re-build it when you re-launch it.

It would be named something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat

Lenzoe that's what I'm talking ABOUT. :clap_1:


I knew we had at least one geek on the board (cause I just fake it).

Thanks for the suggestions. I hope I can follow them--probably way over my head. I did try firefox--no help. The website name has been typed correctly---many, many, many times. I emailed sbc yahoo and maybe they will provide some technical support. I find it odd that I can access all of my other favorite sites without any trouble, but not this one.

Thanks for the suggestions. I hope I can follow them--probably way over my head. I did try firefox--no help. The website name has been typed correctly---many, many, many times. I emailed sbc yahoo and maybe they will provide some technical support. I find it odd that I can access all of my other favorite sites without any trouble, but not this one.

Well if you cannot access through firefox either I think that means it is a network/ISP issue, unless you are running a firewall that has us blocked.

hmmm.

Did you try using the IP address method above? You can just click on those links and that's a simple test.

One additional relatively easy thing to try -- reboot everything:

1) power off your computer, the DSL modem and anything connected to it (wireless routers, hubs, etc.)

2) Unplug the DSL modem.

3) disconnect EVERY device plugged into your house phone lines (including the DSL modem and all your phones). Make sure you got them all. One time my daughter had plugged a "barbie" phone into one of the wall jacks without my knowing it.

4) Wait five minutes then plug in just the line to the DSL modem and computer, power it up, and try it again.

If you're using a wireless router, take that out of the loop to eliminate wireless questions.

On rare occasions power surges or line noise will interfere with my Bellsouth DSL routing until I sort of "re-boot" the phone lines.

If that does nothing, I'm inclined to agree with Kurt. Other things to check are pop-up, spyware, or adware blockers, anti-virus software, or firewall software that could be blocking specific sites.

Lenzoe that's what I'm talking ABOUT. :clap_1:


I knew we had at least one geek on the board (cause I just fake it).

You got me.

Do you have a parental control program? If so, maybe access to newsgroups has been blocked.

Hooray! Tried all of the above advice--nothing worked. Then spent the last 45 minutes talking to tech service. Finally we power cycled the modem--unplugged it--and now I am connected. For some reason this site was blocking/my IP address. All's well that ends well. :laughing1

For some reason this site was blocking/my IP address. All's well that ends well. :laughing1

Hmm.. Must be all the porn

Hooray! Tried all of the above advice--nothing worked. Then spent the last 45 minutes talking to tech service. Finally we power cycled the modem--unplugged it--and now I am connected. For some reason this site was blocking/my IP address. All's well that ends well. :laughing1

Interesting. I do have the ability to block IP addresses (ban users) but haven't had the need yet. Resetting your modem would not unban you if you were banned. Unless it changed your IP in the process.

It sounds like your modem was blocking the board's IP.

Glad to hear you're back on now and it was worth all the trouble.