Cannot access a specific website (6.0)

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Using windows XP and Rogers Browser (modified version of IE) – My problem is I cannot access military sites (ie: http://www.usmc.mil) : always get a message page cannot be displayed – I was able to access them 2 weeks ago, not sure what happened. I can access any other site. I have checked my internet options and made sure the .mil sites were not listed under the restricted sites, I added them to the trusted sites, deleted my temporary internet files and cookies, my privacy setting is on medium, I have added the sites to the allowed sites for my pop up blocker, I have downloaded the browser again, tried to access the site through IE and not the Rogers browser, ran spyware scans (and did not find any items) but nothing worked. Any suggestion on what else I could do? I’m using windows firewall, Rogers Yahoo anti virus and anti spyware as well as Spybot.

Thanks

J

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Welcome to Woody’s!

Can you access http://www.usmc.mil[/url%5D using a vanilla Internet Explorer (rather than Rogers Browser)?

Check the contents of your Hosts file – typically C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetchosts – open it with Notepad and post it here if you are unsure of what it contains.

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Leif,

Thank you for your reply.

I’m not sure what you mean by “vanilla internet explorer”?? I have also tried accessing the sites using the regular Internet Explorer browser if that was what you meant and that did not work also.

As for checking the contents of my Hosts file, I understand how to get there. However I’m not clear on the reason why I should be checking it in relation to my problem. Could you explain further as I’m afraid my technical knowledge is not as advanced as yours.

Thanks a lot

J

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I suspect this is a new Homeland Security precaution: the U.S. military will no longer allow Canadians to view its web sites.

(I’m joking , but nothing would surprise me anymore!)

I noticed that the short URL you gave forwarded to a page that loaded a Java applet. Do you have a Java interpreter installed? Most commonly used now is Sun’s JRE (Java Runtime Engine), which displays a coffee cup on the system tray (“notification area”) when you visit a site that uses Java. As a test, you can try this site: http://nist.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java%5B/url%5D (the official U.S. time for my time zone). If you don’t get the clock, you may be missing some Java components.

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jscher2000,

Thanks for your reply. I will try your solution at home later on and will keep you posted to see whether or not that could be the reason why I cannot access those .mil websites.

J

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jscher2000,

I have tried your suggestion but I’m able to see the clock and have Java on my computer so this did not resolve the issue. Let me know if you could think of any other suggestion/solution

thanks a lot

J

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Have you changed any of the IE settings? Is the PC at work a member of a domain? Do you use a proxy server such as ISA? What kind of firewall(s) are being used and have the configration been changed?
Joe

--Joe

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IE settings are fine, I checked them all. The computer in question is at home and I don’t use any proxy. The firewall used is windows XP and no the configuration was not changed. If you have any suggestion, let me know.

Thanks

J

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Did you check the hosts file as Leif suggested? To answer your question a while back as to why – the hosts file contains site names and numeric addresses. Any time you type the name of a site (e.g. http://www.usmc.mil) your hosts file is checked to see if the site is in there – if it is then the address in there is used and the site’s name is not looked up on the Internet. If the address in there is 127.0.0.1 the site is effectively disabled (actually, the site points back to your own computer, but unless you have a web server running to catch that, you’ll just get an error).

It would be surprising to have .mil sites end up in your hosts file, but if none of the other suggestions are working you might at well check that.

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