[Edward52]

Hi!
Last week a link I use regularly jus stopped working. It's: www.ctfs.com Canadian Tire Financial Services. I have a shortcut on desktop, in My Documents, and I even tried Googling up various "fresh" links to the login page but that's where I always get the page: "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage", You are not connected to the internet, You misspelled it, and something else.
I phoned Canadian Tire customer service and they can't find any problems at their end, told me to phone my ISP.
My ISP (Primus.ca) said it can't be a problem from them if everything else works. I figured that. They told me to put the website on my 'allow' list in security or privacy (Tools, Int Options, etc.) and I did, to no avail.
I cruised through my Kaspersky (iolo) System Mechanic 7 Pro and 'repaired broken shortcuts' and checked the 'block' list. Still nothing. Just the one link. Everything else works fine. Weird eh? It was working fine for 2 years and all of a sudden this. I've had problems with the site before, but it had always been a problem with Canadian Tire's website. This time they say no.
This is the site for my 2 main credit cards. Maybe a hacker? I don't know!
I've got a Horizon from MDG (2003) Windows XP
Anybody got any clues?

[Advertisements]

The first thing I would try is another browser. Download and install Firefox from www.mozilla.com. Type the address into the address bar and see if it loads the page. Let me know if that works.

Edited by Gravity Gripp, 05 December 2007 - 06:08 PM.

[Gravity Gripp]

The first thing I would try is another browser. Download and install Firefox from www.mozilla.com. Type the address into the address bar and see if it loads the page. Let me know if that works.

Edited by Gravity Gripp, 05 December 2007 - 06:08 PM.

[Ax238]

Hello Edward52,

Is the issue only with the IE web browser or is it the same for any browser you use? Try going to the following link (ctfs.com's IP):
http://129.33.178.31/

If you can get to it from that link, go to Start | Run, type cmd /k ipconfig /flushdns && ipconfig /registerdns, and press Enter. Report any errors if they occur. Restart your web browser at this point.

If still no joy, shut down your computer and unplug the modem/router/etc for a few minutes. Plug everything back in and start up your system. Give us an updated status at this point.

Regards,

Ax

[Edward52]

Hi guys!
Thanx for the prompt replies, but nothing worked. I tried FireFox as Gravity Gripp recommended but that didn't work either. Same problem, different looking message with a 'Try Again' link that neither worked. And they don't have 'AutoFill' so I'm going back to IE. And I tried Ax238's link to no avail. I googled up that link a few times before. I powered down for about 8 minutes and that didn't work either.

Any other ideas?

Thanx anyways, Ed!

[Gravity Gripp]

Wow, well that is a strange problem.


Ok, lets try this. Click on the Start Menu, then go to "run". In that box type "cmd" and click ok. In the command prompt window, type the following, "tracert www.google.com" This will be our control group.

You should see something like

Tracing route to 11.1.0.1 over a maximum of 30 hops
   ---------------------------------------------------
   1	  2 ms	   3 ms	   2 ms	  157.54.48.1
   2	 75 ms	  83 ms	  88 ms	  11.1.0.67
   3	 73 ms	  79 ms	  93 ms	  11.1.0.1

   Trace complete.

Now do the same thing with www.ctfs.com.

Once you have done that, post that back here.

[rf6647]

I will leap to a conclusion: CTFS is blocking your IP.
Work with your local ISP to assign a new IP to your connection.
Then try connecting to CTFS immediately after receiving the new IP.

Another alternative is to sign up with a proxy server. There are many to choose from.

If this solves the immediate problem, another problem lurks in the background. It is your problem if a virus hacked your computer. If a wifi connection is involved, it is also your problem. It is beyond you if someone spoofed your IP or if you were blacklisted in error.

If this does not correct the problem, then you're back to finding the problem on your computer.

Only you can judge if your router has been programmed to block this url or your computer.

[Gravity Gripp]

I suggest that you DO NOT access your bank account while on a proxy server. You have no idea who is running that proxy server and what they are doing with the traffic that flows through it. That being said, there is a chance that your IP has been blocked by CTFS, and that's what we are trying to figure out.

Edited by Gravity Gripp, 06 December 2007 - 02:42 PM.

[rf6647]

Excellent point about security. WIFI connections with no encryption or weak encryption (wep) are also a security risk when it comes to protecting credit card transactions.

Using the following link to test the re-directed link for CTFS Roadside assistance will only tell you if the block is from one server. If they have a gateway to screen all traffic, we learn nothing new.
http://129.33.178.32/

[Edward52]

Hi guys!

For Gravity Gripp: On the google trace, it ran 8 lines of info and said "trace complete".
On the ctfs trace, line 9 showed asterisks instead of numbers and "request timed out".
I let this line repeat about 10 times while I tried to copy to paste, or elsehow save it, but it wouldn't let me probably because it didn't stop running the repetition of *'s and "request timed out" lines.

For rf6647: I never use wifi and I'm not sure what proxy servers are. I only use my home desktop on DSL with modem & router.
The link to road. [bleep]. worked fine, but so did every other link, until I try to get to the login page, which all of a sudden never shows up; 'cannot connect to webpage' messages through both IE & Firefox.
How can my router or computer or security software 'all of a sudden' be reprogrammed to block that URL if I am the only user?
As for blacklisting, do they know it's me even before I get to the login page?
I'm STILL!!!!!!!! on the phone waiting for tech. sup. of my ISP to do the IP change. OK, they said that the IP address is changed every time the modem is powered down, which I did last night, but I could try the 'reset' switch on the back, which I just did, but it didn't change anything.

This is getting f***ing WEIRD!!!

Thanx Again Guys!

Ed!

[Gravity Gripp]

Ok, since you got 9 hops into it, that means that it's not your router blocking the request. It is possible they have blacklisted you. That's where changing your IP would help. To check and see if your IP has changed, visit something like www.ipchicken.com before you power off your modem and then visit it again to see if the number has changed after you start it backup. If the number hasn't changed, power off the modem and leave it unplugged longer.

They wouldn't know its you per say, but they know your IP and that's what they would have blacklisted.

I'm actually running out of ideas here. Let me think about this some more...

Edited by Gravity Gripp, 06 December 2007 - 11:24 PM.

[Ax238]

Hi again Ed,

There could also be some Winsock corruption, let's make sure though. Download and run Winsock Fix XP and let us know if you can then get to the website.

Regards,

Ax

[latigid]

These programs have helped me with similar problems.

dial a fix http://www.majorgeek...wnload4899.html

ie fix http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm


I change my IP address every few weeks by unplugging the modem for a few hours.

[Edward52]

Hi guys!

We're getting somewhere but it's 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

Gravity Grip's chicken thing showed me that my IP address changes with an 8 min. powerdown, but 1st I tried Ax238's Winsock which then got me to the failed site! WooHoo! Finally!

But I also got a message about Iolo's firewall having critical components removed--re-install recommended.
I guess that narrows the problem down to my firewall.
The whole System Mechanic 7 Pro package was a renewal download--no cd. So how do I re-install the firewall? I opened up my registration key code file and it was a bunch of plain text gibberish. Is that HTML? When I get the firewall back and if the CTFS link problem comes back with it, how do I fix it? CTFS is not on the block list.

I haven't tried latigid's links because I got this far (back?) something like that, whatever. Hey, we're getting somewhere!!!

Also, I installed Firefox for a while, didn't solve the problem, didn't like it as much as IE, uninstalled it.
Now when I open most of my desktop icons (not pdf's or MS Word doc's) I get a message about not being able to open the 'file' because it doesn't know which program created it. When I click on 'search the web' it doesn't do anything but close the window. When I click on 'choose from a list' a menu opens and I have to click IE and OK and then it opens up the icon's site. Can we fix that? It never did that before.

Thanx Again Guys! I hope these new issues are a lot easier to fix!

Ed!

[Gravity Gripp]

I'm glad you are making progress.

First, you need to locate the installer package or CD for System Mechanic and any license keys you may need.

To reinstall, you would go into "Add/Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. It should be something like "System Mechanic". Note that you may lose any settings or history that are related to the program. Click the "Change/Remove" button beside it and it will kick off the uninstall. Once it has uninstalled, reboot.

Before you reinstall, check to see if you can access ctfs.com.

Next double click on the installer package for System Mechanic and install it.

Edited by Gravity Gripp, 08 December 2007 - 09:22 AM.

[rf6647]

"Add/Change Programs" sometimes offers "Repair".

After that, contact the vendor for support. SM7 probably offers support for 1 year after purchase. Each vendor has its own terms for re-loading the software at no-charge or a small charge.

A re-install of SM7 may offer to remember previous settings. Choosing this one will probably bring the problem back. This could be acceptable IF they show you how to alter any setting for ctfs.com.