# Can't Access Geocities Websites **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708 "2003-10-05T14:15:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708/1 "2003-10-05T14:15:11Z")
For at least several months now, my browser has been unable to access Geocities websites. Every time I try, I get a “Internet Explorer was not able to open this website” error message. For a long time, I figured that Geocities must have gone down. But then I became confused since so many Geocities websites keep coming up as Google search results, so I tried to access a one on my friend’s computer, and hey! It works! So what’s going on? I attempted to look up the problem on Google, but I couldn’t find anything. I’m using Windows XP Professional, completely updated (I think). Is anybody else having this problem? How did this start? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708/2 "2003-10-05T14:44:02Z")
Probably because Google search results are stored for sometime on their computer. I notice it with other websites too. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708/3 "2003-10-05T14:53:04Z")
Sorry, I should have been more explicit in my original post. It doesn’t just happen with Google. When I try to access Geocities websites through posters’ links on this board, I get the same problem. Regardless of how I try to get to it, I get the same message. If I go to just plain old [www.geocities.com](http://www.geocities.com), I get a whitepages search engine site (which annoyingly always maximizes my browser window). I can go to [geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1](http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1), but no member pages. It’s really bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708/4 "2003-10-06T21:31:14Z")
When I go to [www.geocities.com](http://www.geocities.com) , I get their homepage, [geocities.yahoo.com](http://geocities.yahoo.com) . Sounds like your browser has been hijacked somehow. Exactly what is the search engine page that comes up? The standard advice around here is to try Spybot and/or Adaware. I don’t know if that’ll work, but they’re free and worth a try. ---
**Author:** ![Mike.V](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Mike.V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike.V)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-access-geocities-websites/205708/5 "2003-10-06T23:29:14Z")
For the member pages you can’t access, what is their second level domain? In other words, are they on **[geocities.com](http://geocities.com)** or **[yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com)**? Because if you are only having trouble acessing those sites on **[geocities.com](http://geocities.com)** (like member pages and the geocities version) the problem may be in your **hosts** file. This file acts like a mini DNS system just for your computer, allowing you to specify what domains are linked with what IP addresses ([What is the Hosts File?](http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html)). Look in \*_C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\*_ for the hosts file, and open it in notepad (make a backup first!). Check to see if it has anything listed for [geocities.com](http://geocities.com), and if there’s anything suspicious, try commenting it out (place a pound (#) symbol in front of the line) and see if that fixes the problem.