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DNS/host problem in Windows

MegaManMegaMan The Blue Shooty GuyRegistered User regular
edited March 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
For the past several weeks, I've been unable to connect to Amazon.com using its hostname. If I type the site's IP address into my browser, it will load (although won't load or save cookies). This happens in both Firefox and IE, but does not occur with any other computer on my network but mine.

I tried flushing my DNS cache and clearing the cache in FF, to no avail. Resetting my cable modem and router also did no good.

Up until yesterday, when I tried to ping the site from a command prompt, it would give the IP as 127.0.0.1, suggesting to me that something on my computer is redirecting amazon.com to local. However, there's no reference to it in my hosts file, and a laundry list of virus and spyware scans came up empty (on this problem, anyway).

Suddenly, yesterday an attempt to ping amazon.com went back to bringing up the real IPs (72.21.210.11 and a few others). However, the site still won't load for me.

I'm using Windows Vista 64-bit, and my network is Comcast cable, and includes a Linksys wireless router.

Any advice?

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
- Albert Einstein
MegaMan on

Posts

  • jotatejotate Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    You've done some pretty thorough troubleshooting thus far. Sounds like a toughy of a situation. The only thing I can think of is maybe a local firewall setting. Very strange, though.

    jotate on
  • thej3wthej3w Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Do you have a router? If so what type of router do you have? Is it wireless? Is it secure? What kind of security?

    If it's wired, who else uses the internet?

    What are your DNS servers? If you replace the main one with '4.2.2.2', does it still not work?

    If the IP changed from 127.0.0.1 to 72.21.210.11, and you still couldn't access it then that sounds like a DNS issue or someone messing with you. If you have more than one computer see if you can access it from that computer.

    thej3w on
    J4ku.png
  • MegaManMegaMan The Blue Shooty Guy Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Yes, I use a wireless Linksys router (WRT54G). Yes, it's secure (WEP). Yes, I can access Amazon from other computers on my network using the hostname. And all along, I've been able to access it on this computer using the IP in a browser window, but not the hostname.

    The DNS servers don't appear to be the problem. I generally use Comcast's, but I tried switching to OpenDNS and still had the issue. And I've flushed my DNS cache numerous times.

    MegaMan on
    "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
    - Albert Einstein
  • thej3wthej3w Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Could anyone else on your network be having a bit of fun with the network? Me and my old roommate used to ARP poison eachother for fun and profit!

    Check the hostfile again as that seems to be the best bet, hell, if nothing is in there for amazon, add it yourself and see if it does anything. Also, if you are currently wireless, try going at it wired and see if that does anything. Otherwise, try safemode with network or whatever and see if you have any issues in there.

    thej3w on
    J4ku.png
  • MegaManMegaMan The Blue Shooty Guy Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    No one's messing with me; it's just me and my gf here and she wouldn't even know how. Re-checked the hosts file. Still nothing. My router is wireless, but for this computer I do use and have been using a wired connection, so wireless interference isn't it. I've also tried safe mode, and still had the problem. Also did virus scans there since some viruses can hide at startup. I found something, but cleaning it didn't fix the Amazon issue.

    I considered adding Amazon's real IP to the hosts file, but I see that as just putting a band-aid on the problem.

    MegaMan on
    "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
    - Albert Einstein
  • thej3wthej3w Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Well, the reason to switch from wireless to wired was to just try a different network interface. If you could switch to wireless and try on that to rule out that possibility.

    Your browsers aren't setup to go though any proxies or anything right?

    Can you goto http://www.amazon.ca/ ?

    thej3w on
    J4ku.png
  • MegaManMegaMan The Blue Shooty Guy Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    No proxies. The site can't be accessed via wireless either. And I can't access any of the regional Amazons: amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk...they're all blocked.

    MegaMan on
    "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
    - Albert Einstein
  • RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Have you tried running tracert?

    Ruckus on
  • MegaManMegaMan The Blue Shooty Guy Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Ruckus wrote: »
    Have you tried running tracert?

    It gets to step 13, xe-3-1-0.was11.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.84.117], and then times out after that.

    MegaMan on
    "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
    - Albert Einstein
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