# Help! Problems connecting to certain websites **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433 "2003-04-17T23:50:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Headcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@Headcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headcoat)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/1 "2003-04-17T23:50:43Z")
I can’t connect to some websites at all. It is probably not a browser issue because I have tried with both IE 6 and Mozilla. It is also not a connection problem, as other things are downloading just fine. So far, the sites I can’t access are - Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, and Newegg - all large commerce sites. What do these have in common that I can’t receive data from them? On the other hand, I have no problem loading [barnesandnoble.com](http://barnesandnoble.com) or messageboards such as this. I have used the command line to ping the problematic domains and it tells me “request timed out”. I am using Windows XP with a DSL connection. If anyone has an idea of what I may do to correct this, please help. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/2 "2003-04-17T23:56:57Z")
Sounds like a problem with your ISP. Maybe their DNS servers are broken. Try doing this from the command prompt: tracert [www.amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com) Look for how far it gets before it starts losing packets - that will give you some idea how far you’re getting. This will be helpful info for your ISP tech support person (whom I see in your near future). Another thing to try is ipconfig/all and look for the IP addresses of your ISP’s DNS servers (these are the machines that resolve names like [yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com) to IP addresses like 127.0.0.1) Try to ping those DNS servers to make sure they’re up and you can see them. Another thing to try is find the IP address for (say) [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) by some other means (e.g. [www.samspade.org](http://www.samspade.org)) then try to access it by IP - if you can get to it by IP but not by name, it’s almost certainly a DNS problem. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/3 "2003-04-17T23:58:25Z")
Another long-shot “voodoo” thing to try - assuming you have a dynamic IP address from your provider, try ipconfig /renew This will request a new IP address from the pool - should have nothing to do with DNS resolution but worth a try. ---
**Author:** ![Headcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@Headcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headcoat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/4 "2003-04-18T00:15:02Z")
Ok, thanks…seems like thats the problem. I assume this affects all the (Earthlink) users that use those DNS servers to resolve domains, right? So most likely, it has been addressed and will be fixed? Or is this a matter that I should vocalize personally to a tech support rep? ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/5 "2003-04-18T03:16:11Z")
Another possibility is that your hosts file has been edited with an entry for these sites. What OS are you on ? Go to your \Windows directory or \Windows\System32\drivers\etc dir and open the hosts file in notepad. It’s a file called “hosts” with no extension. If you find entries for the sites mentioned above, delete the lines. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-problems-connecting-to-certain-websites/169433/6 "2003-04-18T06:46:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Headcoat \* > \*\*Ok, thanks…seems like thats the problem. I assume this affects all the (Earthlink) users that use those DNS servers to resolve domains, right? So most likely, it has been addressed and will be fixed? Or is this a matter that I should vocalize personally to a tech support rep? \*\* I use EarthLink and don’t have this problem at all. I’m on DSL, FTR.