[dcarroll40]

I am running Windows XP. I can get to most all web sites just fine, but overnight, there are a small handful of websites that i cannot access. they are ones that i use regularly. One example is www.culpeppergroup.com. I have no issues accessing this website from other PCs in the house (on my network).

The affected PC is connected to my router with a cable (not using WiFi for this PC). I have the same issue whether i use IE, for firefox or chrome. I have run several virus softwares. Nothing seems to help. I have googled the issue and tried to do some of the suggestions that I see online.

Any suggestions?

[LincolnSpector]

HI, dcarroll, and welcome to the Answer Line forum.


The first thing you should do is examine your hosts file, which should be in your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc folder. This is a text file, but it lacks an extension, so you can't simply double-click it to open it.


Instead, open Notepad, then drag the file into Notepad. Or open Notepad, select File>Open, and for the file name, enter C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.


Look for a line containing one of your problem URLs. If you find such a line, type a pound sign (#) at the beginning of the line. Save the file and see if that fixes the problem.


Lincoln

[dcarroll40]

I already tried that. I created a new NOTES file and renamed the original file to NOTESOLD.

Here is what is in the new NOTES file:

# Copyright © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy







# This list is Copyright 2000-2008 Safer Networking Limited
# End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

[dcarroll40]

I meant to say i creates a new HOSTS file. in the previous message

[LincolnSpector]

at the moment, I'm stumped.


Lincoln

[LiveBrianD]

Try running this in a command prompt:

ipconfig /flushdns

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 13 December 2012 - 09:05 AM

[dcarroll40]

Thank you, that solved my problem.

What did that command do? what do you think my issue was?

[LiveBrianD]

That clears the DNS cache. (DNS is the thing that tells your computer how to translate an address like "google.com" to the IP address, perhaps 173.914.38.73)