My OS is win98. My browser is IE 5.01. I have cable hookup. I recently had my two computers networked. Since then I have not been able to go to some of my favorite sites on either computer no matter what I do. I sometimes get the message: Gateway Timeout. Others are visiting the sites everyday with no problem but I have no access. Does it have something to do with the recent networking, does anyone know? Any solutions? Thanks, maggie

It's probably a slowdown at your cable company, if it continues ask them if they are working on the line,or otherwise inform them about it

Thanks, Jim, that's what I thought too but I called the cable company and they said it was probably IE. I forgot to mention that I also use Opera and I can't access the sites on that either. I think it is something the computer repair guys did while hooking up my networking cables but I don't know what it could have been. I just know the problem started shortly after that. maggie

What about your security settings in IE, set at medium and also check advanced settings you may have something disabled.

Thanks John, I have all security settings at Default. The settings are all on medium or medium low except for Restricted Sites which is on High. The advanced settings are on Default also. The sites that I can't access are all computer forum sites as far as I know at this time. Thank goodness I am able to access this one and one other. But I miss the group I usually interact with. maggie

That was quite a puzzle.
Maybe it a sign from the Lord. He want's You to frequent computing.net instead of the other forums. I dont know:)

lol Thomas, you are right. It is a puzzle but I am hoping some genius on this forum can solve it. I like this forum but I want to visit other forums as well. 8^( maggie

Have You recently installed ad-blocking software?
When I got "Norton internet security" I used this to avoid annoying adds and pop-up's,
but found that I suddenly was unable to visit my favourit page. It turned out that some sites require their add's to be
"undisturbed" to allow surfers access to the page. Websites earn money on add's so they want us to see them. When people started useing pop-up/add-blocking software they invented add's that won't let You access a site unless You also view their add's.
It would seem like this kinda add's would pay more to the website-owners than the regular add's, and since this is the only income for a forum(they cost money to run)
it is not unlikely that add-blocking software would prevent You from reaching Your forums.
Because I see here that You can still access the net(with different browsers to), but these forums You can't reach.
Now I'm exited. Could this be the solution?

Thomas, I do use Pop-up Stopper and have for some time but I disabled it when I tried and couldn't access my favorite sites but it did no good. Here are two examples of sites I can't visit: http://www.pcnineoneone.com/ and http://www.help.com/. I can visit hundreds of sites but can't understand why some are suddenly inaccessible when they have been listed in my Favorites for a long time. I'll tell you what though, I will uninstall the pop-up stopper and let you know what happens.

Sorry Thomas, uninstalling Pop-up Stopper did not make a difference. maggie 8^(

Ok maybe a problem with Explorer, but lets do everything in a little order. First turn off all tray items than do a scan disk, if it is successful than lets try to repair explorer by going to one of two places based upon what you may be operating with. First try the start,programs,accessories, system tools, system information and click on tools, if you have IE repair located here click it on and say yes to repair. If it is not located here than go to start,settings, control panel, add/remove and go to IE and hit remove it should give you the option to repair and I would chose that. If that does not work, then and over the top reload may work of IE 5.01 I can dig up a site that you can download it from if the above does not work. Good luck

Both of the named sites rely heavely on java script on their main pages. Since you do manage to connect to other sites, this may be your problem area.
If the IE repair tool doesn't fix things, try downloading and installing the MS Virtual Machine update ( MS's Java app) from MS Updates, or if Updates does not function due to lack of java support, go to MS Downloads to find it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp

Hi.

I wonder if when they set up your network, if they used an IP number for one of the pc's that match the site or sites you are trying to access. Also, do you have a hosts file on your system? This file is used to provide your system with a quick way to look up an ip number of a site. If the incorrect IP number is set up in there, the system won't go anywhere. The file should only have one entry (pointing to 127.0.0.1 I believe). If you have other entries pointing to what seems like valid internet addresses, I would delete them and see if that solves your problem. Just my 2 cents...

Thanks, JohnT. The repair did not work and if you could furnish me with that site, I would appreciate it.
Thank you, tinkerbong. Great suggestion and I will look into that and let you know.
And thank you, Sorcier, I do suspect that the computer guys did something like what you are suggesting since this problem is occurring on both computers. I am copying your advice but am not sure I know exactly where to look for the IP number. Is there any way you could lead me thru this so that I don't mess up. The computer guys will charge me another $90 to come back. maggie

No problem.

If you go into the 'my computer' icon, then select 'control panel' (if I remember), then select 'network', you will see a bunch of what they call 'adapters'. Then, if you scroll down in that window, you should see at least one entry called TCPIP for one of those adapters (most like the dial up adapter). If you have a network going, you should see at least two of the TCPIP entries (one for the dialup adapter and the other for your network card). If you select the TCPIP entry for the network card, select 'properties' and look around the 'folders' for one that asks if you want the ip number to be assigned or if one is hard coded to the card already. If there is a number there (and there should be one), make sure it's something like 192.168.0.1 (where the 0.1 can be anything up to 999.999). The 192.168 should match. If it's something else, then it could map to an actual ip number for a web site and that could cause you problems. For the gateway number, make sure it's 255.255.255.0
If you have to make that kind of change, windows will ask you to reboot your machine which is normal. Then, try surfing those two web sites and see if you can get in.
As for the hosts file, it's usually within the windows folder within windows explorer. If you do a file search for it, it should show you where it's located and you can then investigate it to see if it has any extra information that shouldn't be there.

Thank you for the instructions, Sorcier. I am copying this and will attempt to follow it to the letter. I noticed that you mentioned dial up adapter. Does that mean if I have a dial up isp? Cause I have cable. Probably a dumb question but that just goes to show you what I know. Or don't know. lol maggie

Sorry Sorcier, my fingers typed before my brain was engaged. Your instructions were clear and self-explanatory. I followed them and found there were no numbers at all. This is what it said under IP addresses:
An IP address can be automatically assigned to this computer. If your network does not automatically assign IP addresses, ask your network administrator for an address and then type in the space below.
below is a dot in the circle beside: Obtain an IP address automatically. Now I will go back and search for the host file. maggie

For the record, I have just lost another of my favorite websites, Thathomesite. 8^(
maggie

Ahh.. ok. I forgot that you were using cable to access the internet. In that case, you should be seeing three TCPIP entries (one for dial up adapter which everybody has by default whether or not you use the modem to access the net), one for your network card that hook up your two computers (that's the one entry you need to set up an IP number for) and the other network card entry that hooks up to your cable modem (that one entry should NOT have an IP defined for it. The ISP will load it up for you when you connect). But, after a bit of thinking, if you don't have an IP number for the network card which connects your main pc to the other pc, your boot up time should be real slow. If you put an IP number there, your boot up time should be a lot faster. What can be tricky too is that if both network cards are the same brand, it may be difficult to find out which one controls your home network and which one hooks up to the cable modem. You didn't say if your home network is operational, meaning, can you see the other computer from your main computer. If you can, then your setup may be ok.
If that is the case, the only thing I could think is the hosts file or possibly that your ISP's domain name server cannot locate the IP numbers of the web site you are trying to access. One thing you could try is to ping the web site you are trying to access. The way to do this is to go down to the DOS level. You would do this by pressing the 'Start' button at the bottom left of your screen, then selecting 'Programs' then 'Command prompt'. You should then see a screen open up and a prompt showing something along the line of 'c:\windows>'.
At that prompt (which is the DOS prompt by the way), type in the command (without the quotes) 'ping http://www.pcnineoneone.com/' and press the 'enter' key. If you see a bunch of replies, then you should be able to see that web site, meaning it's not your ISP if I'm right. That's just another test to try.
My guess is that probably your network and pc are set up properly since you seem to be able to surf other sites properly and it may be a problem with the hosts file (notice the letter 's' at the end of the file name, important). Look for that and we can take it from there.
If you want to, we can try to continue this via email (sorcier11@hotmail.com) as it may get difficult to locate this forum entry as it gets deeper down in the list. I don't know how much help I could provide but I can try as long as I can.