Internet Page Load Help

[Woas]

Hi gang. For the most part between my computer-savy friends and myself I can answer most computer issues. But I've run into an internet problem and none of my usual help sources can give any headway. So I figured I'd ask the nice people here at ENWorld.

Basically I'm trying to access this website: Digital Cameras, Digital Camera Reviews - The Imaging Resource!
It's a site about photography, which is an interest/hobby of mine. Somebody referenced it to me and gave me the link. They can load and access the website without problem. I cannot. I've tried IE, Firefox and G-Chrome and all three give me there equivalent of a Page Load Error. Does anyone know what could cause this and how to fix it? I'm really perplexed. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I have no problems visiting any other website.

Thanks.

[XCorvis]

Works for me. Are you at work? It's possible that a web filter may block the site for excessive display of skin or some other nonsense.

It's also possible that it's a DNS related issue. You could try contacting your ISP. If you have a laptop, take it down to the coffee shop and try it over their wireless. That'll tell you if it's a problem with your connection (if it works) or the computer (if it doesn't).

[Woas]

No I'm at home at my regular computer.

I don't have access to a laptop, so can't try the website from another locale. But I have asked said close friends to visit the site, all of which live anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes from me. And so far all of them are able to view the website. Not sure if that is proof one way or the other at all.

[Nostrildamus]

Ultimately, Firefox and G-Chrome share some fundamental elements with IE, so that something affecting IE will likewise affect them. This is particularly true of redirect viruses and the like. Your particular problem, though, doesn't sound like a virus, since it's only one page that won't load. The error you're getting, assuming the page itself is available (which ti is, I clicked on it), usually means:

a) Cookies blocked or Internet Security setting is too high
b) Cache needs cleaning: delete Temporary Internet Files/Browser History files if you haven't in a while

These are not the only reasons (and I don't know them all, I'm sure), but certainly the most common. If you've already checked those issues out and are certain that they are not the problem, you might add the url to your Trusted Sites, in case IE's security (or any other browser) simply won't allow access. This is not likely to be the case, but can be.

Usually if there is an issue with an ActiveX control or some other executable, the page will load but certain functions won't be there.

[Woas]

No even after a Temp file and cookie flush, still won't load. I also tried internet security levels and making the site trusted with similar results.


PS:

So I was checking out the ENnies nominations an I've heard about 3:16 before and thought maybe I'd finally check it out, buy a copy yea know? As it turns out, http://www.indiepressrevolution.com doesn't load for me. Asked the same pals as before to visit it and check if they could connect. Sure enough they can. So there is another website that refuses to connect for me.

[ssampier]

If this is Windows, see if you have anything weird in your Host file

Using the Windows Hosts File

You can safely delete anything after 127.0.0.1 localhost

Otherwise you must have some weird proxy or firewall blocking that site.

[Woas]

Host file is crystal clear.




Edit PS: So I got a hold of my ISP and talked with them earlier today. They had me do some minor trouble shooting at first but then we got into the nitty gritty. I plugged my computer straight into my modem (I normally have a wireless router) and was able to hit the websites no problem. So it looks like an issue with my router. The ISP tech told me to contact my router tech help so I'm not looking forward to that as I doubt they will be as easy, friendly and helpful.

This new insight to my problem doesn't spark any fix ideas from anyone does it? Just throwing it out there....

[Redrobes]

Over the last few weeks theres been a lot of problems with DNS and site addresses going into no mans land. What I expect is happening is that your router (which does the DHCP - dynamic host control protocol) is setting up your network DNS gateway addresses and it gets these from either a) somewhere other than your ISP or b) is fixed like say you set it up with OpenDNS. When you plugged into the ISP router you probably booted and fetched their DNS server addresses which were different.

I found this week that some of my popular websites were offline for me and a bunch of web proxies but that it was up for some other people. If you plug back into your router and find a site that you cant access then open up a command promp and type:

ping www.sitethatsdown.com

(replaceing site thats down.com for the yours- obviously...) and see if it tells you that its unreachable. Whether it is or not is not quite such an issue. The thing is that next to the pings going out it will tell you the actual IP address of the site. Get your friend on the phone/email who can see the site to do same and compare the addresses to ensure that they are the same.

If they are not then you could ask friend for his DNS addresses. To do that, get him to type:

ipconfig /all

and look for the primary and secondary addresses (actually mine is saying just the one address). Then go into your router config page and set up the DHCP DNS entries to those given and reboot the machine. If you now go ping to site thats down you might get a different address listed and if thats the case then its likely that the browser will see the site.

Edit -- if its always true that your plug into ISP router works and your don't and if you on your machine go ipconfig /all in a command prompt when plugged into ISP or router and addresses are different, its very likely that your router has a "Get network settings from ISP" option in the WAN / DHCP settings area. If you do that then you should get their DNS addresses which should be better.

Hope that helps.

[azhrei_fje]

Originally Posted by Redrobes

What I expect is happening is that your router (which does the DHCP - dynamic host control protocol) is setting up your network DNS gateway addresses and it gets these from either a) somewhere other than your ISP or b) is fixed like say you set it up with OpenDNS. When you plugged into the ISP router you probably booted and fetched their DNS server addresses which were different.

It is always best to use the DNS addresses that your ISP provides. The reason is that some DNS servers (most?) will refuse DNS requests from clients they don't recognize as a way of reducing their load. So if you're a client on one ISP's network and try to use the DNS servers of another ISP (or, potentially, even other DNS servers of the same ISP) your requests for DNS could be ignored.

If I were the network admin at an ISP, that's what I'd do.

If you plug back into your router and find a site that you cant access then open up a command promp and type:

ping www.sitethatsdown.com

If the problem he's having is DNS, then this will also produce a DNS error. The only way for him to know if it's a DNS problem (other than carefully reading the error message page the browser shows him!) would be to visit a site that allows you to type in a name and get their IP address, such as going to http://netcraft.com/ and typing the domain name into the search box in the upper left. You'll eventually get a single page with their IP address. You can try putting that into your browser's Address bar and see what you get... (May not work if they're using name-based virtual hosting, which many sites use.)

(replaceing site thats down.com for the yours- obviously...) and see if it tells you that its unreachable.

Doesn't help much since many firewalls in front of web servers will block the ICMP "echo request" packet (commonly referred to as the ping packet).

I would suggest that the OP start by resetting his router back to Factory Defaults. That will clear any domain-based filtering done by the router. (I use such filters on my router to block ad-related sites like doubleclick.net and similar.)