New/Old Problem Accessing Website

I'm sure I've had this problem before but for the life of me I can't figure out what I did eventually to fix the problem. I have one website (www.myfamily.com 63.92.89.130) which I just can't get to. No matter what I turn off or change, I keep getting the infamous "can't display page" message. I even tried Netscape and the only thing that changed was that I got no error message, just nothing happened. I've made sure that cookies were enabled (turned off the cookie control in IE6), disabled my Norton firewall, reset the security settings in IE6 to the default, etc - nothing worked. This is the only website I know of that I can't get to so I must have something stopping access but I can't find out what it is. I had a friend access it on his computer - no problem. I have a Dell 8300 running WinXP Home and IE6.0 SP1. Help, any suggestions welcome !

 

P.S. to New/Old Problem

Another thought about my problem accessing this site. I thought I remembered something about the "hosts" file causing a problem like this but when I searched for a HOSTS file on my system I found so many versions of it with different names that I decided discretion was the better part of valor, and maybe I had better do some checking before messing with the wrong file. I actually only found one file named HOSTS and it wasn't where I expected it to be, in the C:\ root directory. IT was in \windows\system32\drivers I think.

 

New/Old Problem - P.S. again

I discovered by experimenting that renaming the HOSTS file (in \windows\system32\drivers\etc) would solve my problem accessing myfamily.com - TEMPORARILY ! As soon as I exit IE and then try to access the site later, it again doesn't work. When I go back & look for the HOSTS file, I find that it has been created again with the original name. How do I get WinXP to stop recreating this file & messing me up ???

 

Perhaps something in here will help. See the section entitled "Verify Entries in the Hosts File ":

http://support.microsoft.com/support/ie/ie5/topics/browse/iebrowseemts.asp

NOTE*HOSTS is effectively a redirection file. Rename HOSTS to HOSTS.OLD -or- open using Notepad and remove any reference to the problem site/s (place a # at the beginning of the line or delete the line in its entirety).

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Opps! I just noticed your using XP. I don't know if these tshoot steps are the same for winxp so don't do anything harmful like a delete or replace without taking proper backup procedures that will enable you to undo anything you may have done. While, alot of this is not harmful it may all be considered informational and can used as a springboard for other areas of investigation.

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Also of interest:
All Known "Page cannot be displayed" known issues according to microsoft's own self-titled link:[see the last link on the page]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/ie/ie5/topics/PCBD.asp

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I had a couple more links but I have had major headaches trying to include hyperlinks, here, that work. Trying to find ways to resolve problems with pasting MicroSofts long urls, in posts,
have stretched my patients to the limit for now.....grrrrrrr

 

Does this link work?:

http://www.myfamily.com/isapi.dll?c=Home&htx=LoginFrontMember&_lin=1

 

MyFamily.com Link

Thanks, that link does get me to the log-in page of MyFamily which helps. Now if I could just figure out why WindowsXP keeps recreating the HOSTS file I'd have this thing completely licked. [After I rename the HOSTS file I'm able to use my original link, which enabled me to skip the log-in page. However, the next time I run IE6 and try to get there, the HOSTS file is back & I have to rename it again. I've looked at the websites describing how the HOSTS file works, etc but saw nothing about that kind of problem.]

mel slane

 

Have you tried, using the link site front page [login] I gave you,
and...

Making a new shortcut (and all the cacheing this does) by walking through the login/password/remember process again and when you get where your going make your new shortcut from that url.

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I suggest this because...
I remember a past experience when older urls I had, that, after a bunch of security updates, did not work. I had to be recreate them by going to the start pages of the sites and walking through the sublinked pages again.

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May I also suggest that you use help-nets database of past post and look through these. There's enough goodies in the archives including other possible security, tcp/ip/dun "settings and options" that may be causing your problem.

This will likely save both you and myself from having to muddle through any attempt I make at typing out an understandable informational thread.

search

Use keyword filter of hosts

Your going to get a lot of hits but the first page that comes up has enough relevant topical links, that you should need to go no further.
Worth Noting:is a sublink that explains how to ping a site to get the accurate ip and add that to the host file. [The host file is always going to be rebuilt upon deletion if some application or dun or security protocal requires it]. I'm just not thoroughly convinced that this is a hosts file problem and not something else. The complication is, there are several "something elses to choose from ".

Just make sure that you know how easily reverse any changes you may decide to make BEFORE you make the change.

 

Re: the location of your hosts file - it is different on NT systems (Nt4/2K/XP) than on 9X/ME systems and ...\drivers\etc is the proper place. Anywhere else and it's a dummy file that does nothing. Also, the version with no extension is the active one.

If you edit your hosts file and remove the line that contains that site, save the file, and then set it to read-only, you should make this particular issue go away.

It still does not address the source of the error though and they may be reasons you'll want the hosts file available for applications to make changes. Maybe. I greatly dislike anything making changes to my PC without asking so would be perfectly happy with a locked hosts file unless I wanted to tweak it myself.

Setting the file to read-only may actually tell you what is trying to do the problem changes since any app trying to create a new hosts file should fail and maybe give you an error. Otherwise the app may simply look for a hosts file to add a line and if it finds nothing, puts one on your system.

 

Perhaps you can edit the HOSTS file to have the correct IP address for www.myfamily.com. You have posted the IP as 63.92.89.130. I used a program called IPLookup and came up with the IP 66.43.25.130, with a Net Range of 66.43.16.0 - 66.43.31.255. The IP 63.92.89.130 on a Whois goes to some company named Consonus, Net Range 63.92.88.0 - 63.92.91.255.

 

I wonder if this could be a windows file protection thing. I believe the hosts file is a system file (don't know for sure). Perhaps it will allow for changing the file but not removing it. From what I understand you renamed the file. This would be the same as deleting the file. If this is the case and if it is a system file windows will create a new one. I can only guess that it creates the same file as the last one. If this is the case perhaps windows makes a new one with all the previous entries included. I would try doing as Newt or markp62 said and see if it will stick that way.

 

Okay, I don't get it. Why can I, and everone reading this, click on the clink fine, and, arbitrarily, this particular comp will not? The site is not in the restricted zone, and in the first post he said he shut everything off that could possibly be preventing the connection, including the firewall (BAD! Very BAD! Only disable firewall while OFFline!) What does the HOSTS file have to do with this? This is way over my head- deleting and recreating system files to click on a site. Is this from DOS days? Would someone explain to me what is going on, and why? In English, not tech talk. I am confused, and I've read this thread three times and just don't get it. The link worked fine for me???

Melvin, did you try adding this site to your trusted zone? I get no scripting prompts, java prompts, pop ups, nothing. It just loads normally. So why has this ONE computer decided to ban this one website? I do not understand the Hosts file connection at all, and I would like to.

Johanna

 

I did some further research on this and went to myfamily.com., and monitored the connections. There are two IP address connections, 66.43.25.130 for myfamily.com, 63.92.89.130 for adserver.rootweb.com [part of Consonus?] .
Is there some type if internet optimizer program running here? Where it is supposed to speed up web surfing? If so, this would explain the IP's and the HOSTS file. Some of these programs creates an entry in the HOSTS file, eliminating the DNS lookup for the IP, to speed up the connection time slightly for sites previously visited. This one [if exists] is inserting the adserver IP as the myfamily IP into the HOSTS file.

 

The hosts file is a file that is used to store the numerical address a particular computer. When you type an address into the address bar of a web browser or when you click a link in any application, your computer first looks at the hosts file to find the numerical address. If it's there, it uses it to connect to the website. If it's not there it looks to your dns server to find the correct one. A lot of so called web accelerators (programs that are supposed to speed up your internet connection) will use the hosts file to store the addresses of all your favorites. The theory here is that if you click on a favorite (or type in the address of one), it looks to the hosts file and if www.whatever.com is listed in the hosts file, it'll use the numerical address that's specified in the hosts file. This saves the time it takes to query the dns server to find the correct address. In all reality though, we're talking micro seconds saved here. The problem with this is if you have a certain website listed in your hosts file and that website's numerical address happens to get changed (not an uncommon thing; have you ever got a redirect page that tells you to update your bookmarks?), you lose the ability to connect to the website. You type the address or click on a favorite for www.whatever.com and hit the enter key and get a page not found because your puter found the old address in the hosts file and then trys to connect to it. It no longer exists so you get the dreaded page not found thingy, or, whatever page your puter shows when it can't find a web page. If this is what's happening, the only way to fix it is to look in the hosts file and delete the reference to the website that's giving you problems. This will force it to query the dns server and get the correct address. You can play with it a bit to see what I mean by adding a website to your hosts file and point it to a phony address. Open your hosts file and type the following line in it and save it. Then try to get to microsofts homepage.

127.0.0.1 www.microsoft.com

You'll soon find out that you can't get there. 127.0.0.1 is the address for your computer. It doesn't find anything there, so, no Microsoft. Remove the address from your hosts file and you'll find that magically, you can get to Microsoft's homepage. I don't know if this is plain english enough or not. Seems plain to me, but what's plain to one person is Greek to the next (no offense to those of you from Greece ).

 

I figure, if it is a hosts file problem and entries from this site are in there, either the sites ip number is incorrect or something used by an affiliated server to load and view the site has been disabled (again by an entry). There is a lot of java scripting and adserver integration. Perhaps some adblocker or similar program has used the hosts file to block said same. Assumption on my part since I'm not sure if this is done with security zones or hosts file. I assume it would depend on the software.

But as stated, I to have my doubts, that this is the problem. The fly in that ointment is the successful site load when the hosts file is deleted. A rather big fly admittedly.

This site does require login/password, offers secure or nonsecure retainment, uses cookies and scripts, has default policies for maintaining and retaining site. That's a lot of ducks to line up in a row. Maybe the only way to get to "family homepage" is through the login frontdoor. Maybe it's using old or corrupted cached cookies [site specific] or on the flip side a cookie needed is gone. Maybe a security snaffu. Looks there's a lot of room for the "page can not load" if something in security or IEadvanced options is not allowing this to happen.

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I grabbed this out of the archives. The sublinks deffinitely apply:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25316&highlight=hosts

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Hmmmm while site suffering support:
Please make sure that your internet browser is set to accept JavaScript. We use JavaScript on many portions of MyFamily.com. In order for all features to function properly you will need to adjust the Java settings for your specific internet browser as described below:

INTERNET EXPLORER BROWSER
1. Open your Internet Explorer browser and click on the Tools menu at the top of the screen.
2. Select Internet Options
3. Click on the Security tab and then click on the Custom Level at the bottom.
4. Scroll down the list of options to the Microsoft VM section and mark the Medium Safety option beneath the Java Permissions heading
5. Scroll down to the Security section and make sure that all of the options are marked Enable. This will include Active Scripting, Allow Paste Operations Via Script, and Scripting of Java Applets
6. Click OK and then click OK again if it asks if you are sure you want to change the security settings for this zone
7. Click on the Advanced tab at the top of the Internet Options box
8. Scroll down until you find the Browsing heading
9. Make sure that the Disable Script Debugging and Display A Notification About Every Script Error options are not marked
10. Scroll down to the Microsoft VM section and make sure that the Java Logging Enabled option is marked
11. Click OK

More here:
http://myfamily.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/myfamily.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php