Cannot Access Some Websites

Daanii · 4th April 2002

I use Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 5.5 on an IBM Thinkpad. After changing employers, I wanted to clean up my Network components on the Control Panel. Previously, I had been using Netswitcher to switch between a LAN at work and DSL at home. Now I just use a Dialup Network connection with Prodigy as my ISP.

Whenever I make any changes to the "Configuration" or "Identification" sections of the Control Panel's Network area, I can no longer access some Websites. Some, like www.3com.com, still can be accessed. Others, like www.prodigy.net, generate the "The Page Cannot Be Displayed" error message. I estimate that about 2/3 of the Websites I tried cannot be accessed.

If I restore my settings using ConfigSafe, I am able to again access all Websites. After several calls to Prodigy support, they have given up on the problem. With their help, I deleted and reinstalled all components (Clients, Adapters and TCP/IP Protocols) in the Network area. I have also verified all of the information in the Internet Options section of the Tools menu for Internet Explorer, and verified that the "Use a Proxy" box is not checked. Nothing seems to help.

So far I have not tried to edit the registry, or delete and reinstall the Dialup Network program. I have not done the latter because I do not have a Windows 98 CD-ROM to use to reinstall system files. Another post here referred me to the Microsoft Support article "Error Message: The Page Cannot Be Displayed," which suggested some changes to the registry. Before going that far, I decided to see if anyone here has any suggestions.

Thanks!

Daanii · 5th April 2002

I was able to solve my problem. By using ConfigSafe to detect what was being changed in the registry, I found that something was clobbering the Secondary DNS address in the TCP/IP Settings of the Dialup Network settings.

Although I don't know much about how the DNS addresses are used, it appears that that was enough to cause some Websites to be unaccessible. I could access those Websites where a Primary DNS address was enough. Those Websites where a Secondary DNS address was needed could not be accessed.

Using regedit, I hard-coded the proper Secondary DNS address in the appropriate NameServer entry in the registry, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/Current Control Set/Services/VxD/MSTCP. That took care of the problem. Perhaps something had been corrupted in the Dialup Network program.