Problem viewing pics at Gamespot

[Thraxen]

When I visit Gamespot.com and try to view any of their pictures I just get broken links. This happens in both IE and Firefox as you can see here: No screenshots (top = IE, bottom = FF). If I right-click and select "view image" IE just refreshes the picture and nothing changes and Firefox gives me this: Error

So it appears that the problem is not specifically with Gamespot, but with image.com.com. BTW, I can usually see the thumbnails on the Gamespot homepage because they are hosted at img.gamespot.com, it's just that their higher resolution shots are all stored at image.com.com.

This has been going on for quite a while (quite a few months), but I've never really bothered to do anything about it until now. I've just thought about it recently because of E3. So any ideas? Is there something wrong on my PC or is this an issue with my ISP (maybe a DNS problem?)? I have DSL from SBC.

 

[meltdown75]

Make sure you have Macromedia Shockwave installed, and all other applicable plugins that the site may use.

I would put money on it that it's a plugin issue.

edit: or is it Flash... hmm. one of the two. i forget the name of the plugin. doh

 

[Thraxen]

I've got both of those installed, so it's not that. I can also copy the image URL and paste it directly into the address bar (so it's linked directly to the jpg) and I just get a "page not found" error in IE.

 

[SergeC]

go to (Start -> Run, paste into blank):

%windir%\system32\drivers\etc

There, open the 'HOSTS' file using notepad or some other text editor.

Delete the line that says:

image.com.com 127.0.0.1

Stop using Kazaa Lite.

 

[Thraxen]

Ha! That worked. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, what exactly does that file do?

 

[SergeC]

No problem!

That file allows you to override the ip used to connect to specific hosts, instead of using DNS. 127.0.0.1 is the localhost, or in other words, it was looking for that site on your own system. It's a poor man's ad blocker.

 

[Thraxen]

Where does that file originate and would happen if you were to delete it? There are a bunch of entries in there.

 

[aGreenAgent]

It's a windows file. Don't delete it. spybot adds a bunch of entries as a cheap way to prevent spyware. Or - those entries could be spyware themselves. You can delete all the entries safely, but I would leave 127.0.0.1 localhost.

I don't know what happens if you delete the file, you'd be better off deleting all the entries.