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OS: Windows 2000 5.00.2195, Service Pack 3
Hardware: Dell L733r, Pentium III, 400MB RAM
Software running: Norton Anti Virus 2002 (always have current virus list), Zone Alarm 3.7.193, WinPatrol v4.0.2.7, Dr. Speed MemRx Version 2.0.0, Aluria's Everlasting Popup stopper.I have 25+ years of computer software experience, with the majority of it on PCs and this one has me stumped. I am on a network at home that has been functioning fine for about one year. Within the past two months or so, peculiar things have been happening. My earliest recollection is that I was unable to get to the www.microsoft.com page. I received the infamous "The page cannot be displayed...".
Thinking that this was a temporary problem, I dismissed this as insignificant. However, the problem has escalated in the past several days. In addition to the Microsoft site being unavailable, I can no longer get to the ebay home page at www.ebay.com although I can get to pages.ebay.com which appears to be the same or a redirected page. Furthermore, when I get to ebay via the pages.ebay.com URL and hyperlink to the lists for the individual items for bid, everything goes fine until I get to the page that requests a specific item up for bid. I then receive the "The page cannot be displayed..." error.
Other websites can be accesses without difficulty, e.g., Google, Yahoo, etc.
My first conclusion was that it was a problem with my browser (IE 6.0.2800.1106). I then installed Netscape 7.1. I had exactly the same symptoms as with my original IE 6. Very strange. I've discounted a virus as being the problem because I am on a network with a router with a firewall activated as well as ZoneAlarm (overkill?), and a regularly updated virus list in Norton AV.
My current hypothesis is that this is a problem with my Win 2K operating system because the same problem appears regardless of the browser used. Otherwise the OS has performed admirably and has been stable since its installation. The solution is more troublesome though. Will it be necessary to reinstall Win2K to solve this problem? Or can I use prior System State backups? Or is there another solution to this problem?
Thanks for any insights to this problem.
Steve Zalewski
I take it you have already cleared out all cache and Temp files, from both the profile directory and the system directory?
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I have similar problems with IE. I just built my new system and installed 2k and SP3. I can't access ANY sites with IE. I always use Netscape 6.2 as my default browser anyway so I installed it. It works fine. Problem is I can't get updates for 2k bacuase you can only do this with IE. I also use Norton, but ive tried it with the virus scanner and firewall off.
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Analyst: per your suggestion I cleared out all cache and temp files from all profile directories and system directories. The bad news is that I still have the same problem. The good news is that I reclaimed a TON of disk space! :)
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Man, there has been a lot of postings similiar to this just today, and I've felt like a broken record with my cahce and temp files thing, because that usually clears it.
There's been a lot of worm activity on the Internet causing problems for websites, but from reading I just don't think it would be that alone.
I think I'll be sitting out on the posting for these problems and see what someone else turns up.
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I had a simular problem. I searched through the MS Faq, and discovered that this problem has existed all the way back to Win95/IE4.
In the W2K Faq after searching for "The page cannot be displayed..." I found a solution to my problem (I think) which was to update the cipher strength to 128 bit. It seems many sites that have sensitive information etc use that strenght as opposed to the older strengths.
I don't do E-Bay, but I looked after my update and I didn't have any problems getting in there.
Your milage may vary.
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BR-549: Thanks for your response. My current cipher strength is already at 128-bit. Of course since I can't get to any Microsoft web page, I cannot search the MS FAQs.
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CHKDSK C: /R
Maybe there is a file system corruption or bad cluster IE is sitting on causing the problem?
And I take it you already ran a repair process on IE from Add/Remove Programs....
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Analyst: Thanks again for your suggestions. I ran the CHKDSK C:/R and received "The volume is clean" message after it was done. I did run the repair process on IE from the Add/Remove Programs but the problem remains.
Because the problem occurs regardless of the browser, I'm less inclined to think it is IE. The problem hyperlinks or URLs might use certain HTML commands that the parser does not resolve correctly. If each browser has its own HTML parser, then, IMHO, the problem must be at a higher level, i.e., Windows 2000.
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Sounds slightly similar to something I ran into a few months ago. Ended up being realted to the the inadvertent install of newdotnet. Check if newdotnet is listed in add/remove programs. If so, see if you can get here: http://www.cexx.org/newnet.htm and get the removal utility. Worth a shot maybe - let me know if it helps!
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Matt: Thanks for your response. Fortunately, I don't have NEWDOTNET on my PC. I had the unpleasant task of correcting that fiasco on one of my client's PCs and it was a real nightmare. It is the risk one takes when downloading certain freeware. Your URL is a good introduction for those considering installing KaZaa, Morpheus, et. al.
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I have the same problem; it is very strange, be cause when i try to connect to web sites except Yahoo.mail hotmail and google it is working, but when i tried these sites it was not working... All these strange things happened when i installed a speed booster to my computer. i made a research and i found that some of these softwares install BHO's (Browser Helper Object) or a .dll which can block what it wants. And this is correct, because when i search a word like "home" in google, it is returning the results instantly, but when i search "i can't access to yahoo", it gives a page like this "The page cannot be displayed"... So i will find a spy&add remover software and i will verify all running dlls with iexplorer...and i will reregister some dlls. somebody is filtering browsers, it is sure. but norton or mcaffe are not able to find this virus!!!
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Seran, Thanks for your feedback which is quite interesting. I attempted to duplicate my Google search based on your experience with the sites that I was having difficulty with but I was unsuccessful. I tried "Home" in the search field as well as "Microsoft" and "eBay" and all were successfully resolved.
I have used Adaware from Lavasoft to remove spyware and it seems to do the job.
The other correlation with our problem is that I also installed a speed booster program from Aluria when I was using a dial-up ISP but now that I'm on cable, it's unnecessary. I noted my problem several months after I installed Aluria's software so I feel it's unlikely the culprit.
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Yesterday i tried with pestpatrol, but it didn't work. Today i will try with Lavasoft, i hope it works, ifnot i will try another ISP for understanding the cause of the problem ,ISP or my computer?
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SOLVED!!
I got the major clue in the Microsoft Support Newsgroup from Ace Fekay. He suggested that I check the HOSTS file to see if any of the URLs had been hijacked. Although I couldn't tell if the IPs for the URLs were hijacked, I commented out the lines that related to the websites that I was unsuccessful in reaching. This is done by placing a "#" in column 1 of the line. These lines could be deleted, but I wanted to ensure that I didn't lose anything while I was trying to solve this problem.
My thanks to all the responders to my original post. It pays to have many eyes looking at the same problem. I hope this solution can help others with a similar problem.
Steve
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I've run into this same issue myself. I'm actually running XP Pro, and was aware of the Hosts file. However it contains no refrences to ebay (what I'm trying to access) at all. All the same, I backed up and renamed the file. I currently have *NO* hosts file, and still access is blocked, seemingly limited to ebay. I can get to Microsoft and all others I've tried with no problems. I've cleaned cookies, cache & temp files, history and my toilet all for naught! Ad-Aware is not aware of any issues, and my firewalls remain up 24/7. Norton Antivirus finds no isses, nor does the infamous chkdsk. The problem must lie within THIS PC, considering the others on the network suffer no similar hangups. I've attmepted to repair IE from control panel, and checked my software firewall and IE's non-trusted lists. No dice. I've even gone so far as to add ebay to the "trusted" list, just for giggles. Still nothing.
I have noticed that when aiming IE at www.ebay.com, I get a blank page, with "http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/711-1751-4022-0?bfinfo=MS0307282006627B1017451EB9A0BF4DFCBB98B4" as the title and address. Perhaps I have a hijack which is limited to ebay sites?
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