Hi all

I have Windows XP SP3, and IE7.

I've had a problem for ages which hasn't really bothered me. On certain web pages the ads are restricted and instead of the ad I get an error message "Windows Explorer cannot display the web page" on the rectangle where the ad should be. Is this something to do with my hosts file restricting access?????

But 3 hours ago, a worse problem occured. A web site that I've accessed for 4 years now just displays the same error message. My trading site www.etxcapital.com just displays "Windows Explorer cannot display the web page". I rang them up and no-one else has this problem but me. I cleared my cache, and re-started my laptop. I still cannot access the web page. Does anyone know what's causing this?

 New_Microsoft_Word_Document.doc ( 299K ) Number of downloads: 27

am i missing something? the screenshot in your document shows the website is showing

Oh sorry, the screenshot is a forum website where the ad at the top is missing!!! It's www.trade2win.com.

Instead of the ad, you can see the white rectangle with the error message.

The web site I can't access at all is www.etxcapital.com

Cheers

press start, then run, then type "notepad C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" (without the quotes)
if that doesn't work navigate to notepad C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\ in windows explorer and right click the hosts file...then choose open with and choose notepad from the list..

once you get the hosts file open paste the contents here

also what Antivirus software are you using?

I'm reallly sad. I don't use any anti-virus software any more because I only ever visit about 6 web sites!!!

(bloomberg, mypivots, trade2win, cahoot, alltheweb, etxcapital)

No seriously, I'm VERY careful which web sites I visit because my laptop is my livelihood, and I can't afford for it to ever be infected. When I do anti-virus scans with ANY program it never finds anything, so I stopped bothering.

The firewall I use is Online Armor, and I just realised that it also has a Hosts file bit...

I found my hosts file, but its HUGE, too big to post here, but I'll paste the first bit....

 New_Microsoft_Word_Document.doc ( 24K ) Number of downloads: 38

ok. Another laptop has the same problem.

I called ETXCapital and they were very helpful, we did a tracert from Dos and it timed out after the 6th hop.

Called Virgin Media, and they suggested I connect my laptop directly to the router, and then go into Lan settings and do a "repair", which they say will flush my DNS, and should solve the problem. Only problem is I don't have an Ethernet cable....

ETXCapital also suggested I do a hard reset of the router if the above doesn't work. They're kindly posting me an Ethernet cable so I'll try to flush my DNS tomorrow when it arrives.

Definately a weird problem though.

I've attached the tracert screenshot. ETXCapital asked me to send it to them so they can talk to Virgin on my behalf!  New_Microsoft_Word_Document.doc ( 46K ) Number of downloads: 20

in your tracert you're actually stopping right after a virgin media router....i BET there's another one of their routers as the next hop....honestly the last router should have passed it through a different channel if it hit a dead device or something...they're routing is possibly messed up

as for the hosts file...can you either attach the whole file as a text file? or do a search for extc and see if the website is listed there?

Well, I don't think its the hosts file now given the tracert result, do you?

The hosts file IS probably the cause of me not seeing ads on certain web sites though...

I tried to access www.etxcapital.com from my brothers laptop here, and got the same result. Therefore, its definately a Virgin Media problem.

(Incidentally I can't access www.dixonsmobileaccessories.co.uk either. This is getting very annoying now).

There's a limit on the size of file I can upload but I'll give it another go, it didn't work the first time...

can you do a tracert on the dixonmobile one? do you get the same results?

I don't have the IP address of dixonsmobileaccessories.co.uk.

I assume you can get it fine. Could you get the telephone number for me from "Contact Us" and post it here? I need to chase up why my phone charger still hasn't arrived!!

you shouldn't need the ip just put
tracert www.dixonsmobileaccessories.co.uk in a cmd prompt...it will do a dns lookup

U:\>tracert www.dixonsmobileaccessories.co.uk

Tracing route to www.dixonsmobileaccessories.co.uk [80.175.16.69]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms witheld
2 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms witheld
3 11 ms 198 ms 235 ms witheld
4 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms gbr2.attga.ip.att.net [12.127.2.154]
5 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms cr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.96.50]
6 10 ms 13 ms 11 ms tbr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.17.10]
7 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms ggr2.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.81.97]
8 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms 192.205.33.46 if you notice...this is where the traffic leaves the AT&T network...which means it's beyond my ISP's control at this point...yours seems to be failing while it's still on your ISP's network
9 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms 0.so-2-1-0.XT1.ATL4.ALTER.NET [152.63.81.146]
10 27 ms 35 ms 27 ms 0.so-3-0-0.IL3.DCA6.ALTER.NET [152.63.41.62]
11 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-1-0-0.IL1.DCA4.ALTER.NET [146.188.15.57]
12 112 ms 112 ms 112 ms so-0-0-0.XR1.LND9.ALTER.NET [146.188.15.234]
13 114 ms 114 ms 114 ms POS0-0-0.CR1.PME1.ALTER.NET [158.43.254.66]
14 111 ms 111 ms 111 ms FastEthernet8-0-0.GW7.PME1.ALTER.NET [158.43.144
.103]
15 258 ms 266 ms 314 ms uuk204241.uk.customer.alter.net [158.43.48.202]

16 446 ms 337 ms 304 ms delme21-bb.delme.newnet.co.uk [81.3.80.21]
17 371 ms 382 ms 448 ms kondor-fw.dp.newnet.co.uk [213.131.161.54]
18 404 ms 370 ms 343 ms port-69.kondor.delme.newnet.co.uk [80.175.16.69]


Trace complete.

That's weird. The tracert completed fine. But now when I try to access it, it says "The website declined to show this web page". (This is on the dixons web site...)


I think I'll call virgin media and email them the first tracert result and see what they say....







This post has been edited by mrblue: Nov 21 2008, 09:57 AM

ok.

I renamed my hosts file to oldhosts in DOS, and restarted my laptop, and hey presto, I now have ads!!!

But www.etxcapital.com still doesn't work, unsurprisingly, as a search for the string "etxc" in the hosts file found nothing.

I'll try flushing the DNS later when I get an Etherney cable.

Here's a screenshot with my ads, now visible for the first time!!!

 New_Microsoft_Word_Document__2_.doc ( 354.5K ) Number of downloads: 17

Just rang Virgin and they've told me how to do a temporary fix. They told me how to adjust my LAN settings in Internet Explorer options, and ticked the box for "proxy server" etc... I can now get on the the web site!!

Regards