For the Experts, Can't connect to microsoft.com

[Gepost]

I posted this in the general forum but got no response. It is driving me crazy. I cannot connect to microsoft.com or download anything from them like windows or IE updates. I have tried using IE 5.5 and Netscape. I can connect using my ISP account on the other computer in my home. I have disabled anti-virus, reverted back to IE4.0. Deleted all my cookies and Internet files, including the hidden ones.

Any ideas are appreciated because now I am using IE 4.0 and can't upgrade until I can find a disk or an independent download site for IE 5.5.

 

[bub]

What do you suppose you did to get on Bill's s**t list?

You do have cookies turned ON. Right?

And what's this about hidden files?

 

[SF DUDE]

What do you mean "cannot connect". Does it stall or time out? Do you get an error message? More info please....details.

 

[Horsepower]

Did you try: This?

 

[Gepost]

It times out. When I try to update IE 5.5 from like CNET, it downloads IE setup then tries to connect to a Microsoft download site but it times out and says cannot connect. Cookies are turned on. Hidden files are the ones that you cannot see the temporary internet files folder. However, if your right click on the Start button, explore, and go to Temporary Internet Files, and expand, you will see four files that have weird names.

Horsepower, I tried your link, but since it is a microsoft.com site, I cannot connect. It times out.

 

[Gepost]

I just tried to install IE 5.0 over 4.0 from a CDRom. Still can't connect. No I don't have Content Advisor enabled.

 

[SF DUDE]

Try searching the Knowledge Base.


Start with this one: Q193691

 

[PowerJoe]

Check with your ISP

-PJ

 

[Gepost]

I cannot get into the knowledge base because it is at microsoft.com.

I have a second computer in my house and using the same ISP account, I can connect no problem to microsoft. I tried another account with another ISP and cannot connect on my computer. Like I said above, this is driving me crazy.

 

[Gepost]

SF Dude, that link does work. I am working on the solution now. Will let you know.

 

[SF DUDE]

Just clicked it myself. Link is fine.

 

[Gepost]

Using SF Dudes article, I was able to get into Windows update and download the latest version of IE. I still could not get into microsoft.com though. I could get into support and updates, but not the basic microsoft website. I then deleted some security files as described in article: Q166917 I reinstalled IE 5.5. Still not able to get into microsoft website. It is not that I really need to, since I can get to the knowledge base and updates, but you know how it is. Something is not working right and I feel the need to try to fix it.

 

[Gepost]

A little more informatin. If I have a word before microsoft in the Internet address, I can connect. For example, because "support, or officeupdate" come before microsoft.com, it seems to connect. If microsoft.com is first, it will not connect. Strange.

 

[sun818]

This is a long shot, but it it could be your local DNS lookup "hosts" file. In Win9x it is in c:\windows\hosts In NT/2000 it is c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. You could have a host listing for microsoft.com that is pointing to an IP other than what it should. If it exists, remove that line and see what happens.

Can you also try microsoft.com's IP address of 207.46.230.229 and report back to us? If you can reach the microsoft.com site through the IP address, but not through the name, then it could be a DNS or proxy issue.

Thanks,
Sun

 

[goldboyd]

good point about checking the hosts file. also have you tried tracing too it? if so where to the traces die? also another long should would be possibly you have a static route defined for it thats not working? do a route print and see if it shows up in there.

 

[UnixFreak]

try www.redhat.com I bet it comes up LOL

 

[Vinny N]

Gepost, I think I saw a problem like that today at work...
www.microsoft.com wouldn't work, but support.microsoft.com would work, etc.

However, just microsoft.com(exactly like that without a www in front) WOULD work.

A few other sites on the system behaved the same way: www.ati.com didn't work but ati.com worked.
www.atitech.ca didn't work but support.atitech.ca worked...

Still haven't figured out the system, the customer wants a reformat though, so that gets me out of it fortunately, but unfortunately that means I may not be able to monkey around with it.

Have you used any of the content advisor/ratings functions built into IE?

That's the one big thing I noticed in this system.

 

[Vinny N]

Wonder if it's virus related...

That MTX one that's going around a lot does some web site blocking...

http://www.norton.com/avcenter/venc/data/w95.mtx.html

 

[rootaxs]

Could be the MTX bug, i just spent a whole afternoon cleaning a friends system infected by it. Unfortunately there's no easy way of ridding your system with it.

Here's the worst part, after deleting the 3 major files the virus infected and reinstalling that from the Windows CD the systems still seems to be buggy and still can't get to some site. Norton and McAfee scanners do say the system is already clean so i'm thinking it might be another virus.

 

[Gepost]

Sun818, your idea worked. I changed the IP address to the one you gave me and microsoft.com comes up no problem. For future reference, it we have trouble getting certain sites to come up, and suspect a corrupted entry in the hosts file, is it okay to just delete the hosts file and will IE recreate it? I would guess it would, but just take longer to connect to the sites the first time.

 

[Yknot]

Unless you have a good reason to use it, avoid the hosts file as it overrides DNS which means it won't track IP changes of domains. Yes, it can speed up transfers, but how much time has this problem cost you and others! 8P

If the HOST file entries weren't hand-editted, you're running (or have at some time run) an add-on package that sets values into the hosts file: familiarize yourself with whatever maintenance that program requires -- how to clear/refresh its host file entries on a regular basis, how to limit the domains it overrides, etc. Or, expect "surprises" like this.

If you decide to continue using the hosts file, and the package keeps it updated to minimize DNS use, it may be useful to periodically overwrite the HOSTS file to have just the "localhosts" entry -- perhaps even with each reboot.

 

[sun818]

Yeah, I don't recommend hard coding IPs into the hosts file either as IPs mapped with domain names can and will change without notice. Since you can connect by IP, it is most likely a Domain Name Server (DNS) issue. If microsoft changes the IPs associated with a particular domain, it will take a few days to propogate to all the Domain Name Servers on the Internet. If you still can't connect to microsoft.com, I suggest contacting your ISP and ask for assistance.