# Trouble connecting to just one website **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497 "2005-10-23T04:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/1 "2005-10-23T04:27:39Z")
(The $14.95 annually is a much nicer pricetag than the $239 Dell wants to leech from me – and look at the benefits!) Okey-doke. I can connect to every single obscure corner of the Internet except – _except!_ – the site I use the most often (of course), [LiveJournal.com](http://LiveJournal.com). I have: - Rebooted - Tried connecting at several different times/days - Tried connecting with two different browsers (Firefox and IE) - Tried connecting from different computers (at libraries, labs, etc. – it works there) - Cleaned out my Temporary Internet Files folder - Beat my fists against the wall - Spent 30 minutes on hold while Dell Tech Support determined that they needed to charge me half of next month’s rent to solve the problem. Does anyone have any more ideas or help? Or should I give up and pony up to Dell to fix (or try to fix) the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/2 "2005-10-23T05:04:54Z")
Here’s a guess: If you’ve cleared your cookies and you’re still having problems, the most likely next cause is that somehow there’s a \*.livejournal.com entry in your HOSTS file. Some plugins edit the file. You can manually edit your HOSTS file and check for this. If you’re not sure how to do that, you can run the installer on [this page](http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html), which will replace your HOSTS file with one that blocks most advertising. If you don’t want to block ads, and you can’t find the HOSTS file, let us know what OS you’re running, and we’ll point you there. > [@](#): > > Or should I give up and pony up to Dell to fix (or try to fix) the problem? You’re kidding, right? Hell, no – you ain’t no fool! ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/3 "2005-10-23T05:09:33Z")
Are you on broadband or dialup? ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/4 "2005-10-23T05:32:13Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > You’re kidding, right? Hell, no – you ain’t no fool! I knew I could count on you guys. 🙂 I ran the plugin you linked, and I still can’t access the page. I’m running Windows XP with a wireless broadband connection. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/5 "2005-10-23T06:14:09Z")
Huh. Ain’t a rogue HOSTS entry, ain’t a messed-up cookie (shoulda known that since it’s pan-browser.) Uh… can you get through if you [click here](http://66.150.15.150/)? ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/6 "2005-10-23T06:47:24Z")
That’s a negative on both browsers. And before I forget, thanks both excessive and effusive for your help! My computer knowledge is in the “fair to poor” range, and although I have a _pretty_ good grip on terminology, I have no idea what to do with all the words. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/7 "2005-10-23T07:14:09Z")
Can you try accessing the site through a proxy? You can find a list here: [http://nntime.com/](http://nntime.com/) To set it up in firefox you’d go to tools-\>options-\>general-\>connection settings then fill in the http proxy field. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/8 "2005-10-23T07:36:54Z")
Yes! That works! THANK YOU! Does this mean I have to go through a proxy server every time I want to access the site? Or is it indicative of the Actual Problem which can now be addressed? ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/9 "2005-10-23T08:22:52Z")
> [@](#): > > ``` > Yes! That works! THANK YOU! > > ``` > > Does this mean I have to go through a proxy server every time I want to access the site? Or is it indicative of the Actual Problem which can now be addressed? No, you shouldn’t have to go through a proxy every time. This tells me that it is a problem with your computer(some program is blocking access, or your hosts file is) or your ISP. Do you have access to another computer which you can try from your network? Now that I think about it…did you reboot after running the hosts file utility? XP likes to cache entries in the hosts file (checks cache-\>host file-\>DNS server when trying to resolve a url) so if you didn’t reboot it may have still been using the old hosts file… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/10 "2005-10-23T08:39:25Z")
It’s definitely not the HOSTS file – the direct IP link didn’t work either. Either something local is actively blocking LiveJournal’s IP – or LiveJournal is blocking **Tracy Lord** ’s IP. Do you have any firewall software installed? If not, maybe send an e-mail off to LiveJournal’s support folks, asking if your IP is on a blacklist? (You can get your IP address here: [www.whatismyip.com](http://www.whatismyip.com) ) It’s _possible_ that your modem has inherited an IP address that previously belonged to a dickhead. Otherwise, I got nuthin’, and someone with more geek points will be along shortly to figure it out. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/11 "2005-10-23T08:46:15Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > It’s definitely not the HOSTS file – the direct IP link didn’t work either. > > Either something local is actively blocking LiveJournal’s IP – or LiveJournal is blocking **Tracy Lord** ’s IP. > > Do you have any firewall software installed? If not, maybe send an e-mail off to LiveJournal’s support folks, asking if your IP is on a blacklist? (You can get your IP address here: [www.whatismyip.com](http://www.whatismyip.com) ) > > It’s _possible_ that your modem has inherited an IP address that previously belonged to a dickhead. > > Otherwise, I got nuthin’, and someone with more geek points will be along shortly to figure it out. 😃 The dangers of posting at 4am…I’d go with your analysis over mine ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/12 "2005-10-23T11:41:34Z")
Hmm… what do you get if you type “nslookup [livejournal.com](http://livejournal.com)” from a command prompt? (that’s “START-\>run…-\>cmd”, brings up a black window that looks to all the world like a DOS prompt) Most importantly, does the string “66.150.15.150” appear anywhere near the name “[Livejournal.com](http://Livejournal.com)”? I’m thinking maybe there’s an upstream DNS resolution problem rather than one with your own “hosts” file… in which case you will need to talk to you ISP (rather than Dell) – but let’s see what you get, first. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/13 "2005-10-23T14:43:26Z")
… or, more likely, your computer has cached some invalid DNS translation for [livejournal.com](http://livejournal.com). :o This is not necessarily overriden by rebooting – but should clear itself within hours or days (the **Minimum** TimeToLive for a client DNS Cache Record is 1 hour, but, IIRC, it **could** potentially “live” for as long as 72 hours under some circumstances). You **can** manually “flush” the DNS cache on your computer by opening a Command Prompt (see my previous post) and typing “ipconfig /flushdns” at the prompt (in case this isn’t clear, **don’t** type in the quotes I have used to surround the text you should type!) Try this and then see if you can connect directly (without using the proxy suggested by **Nilor** ) (BTW, haven’t seen you posting for a while; where have you been?) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/14 "2005-10-23T14:56:59Z")
Why don’t you just switch over to [Firefox](http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) as a browser like a significant portion of the people here. That will probably take care of your problem. Note: It is free and you don’t have to get rid of Internet Explorer. You can have both. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/15 "2005-10-23T14:58:47Z")
I’m sorry. I didn’t read the line about using Firefox before. I will try to figure something else out. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/16 "2005-10-23T15:16:55Z")
I had an issue once similiar to this. The culprit was my wireless broadband router. Turns out, I just needed to unplug my router for a minute, and that fixed it. FWIW - it’s a LinkSys router. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/17 "2005-10-23T15:19:55Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > … or, more likely, your computer has cached some invalid DNS translation for [livejournal.com](http://livejournal.com). :o **Larry** ’s test with the IP address rules out DNS problems, since DNS isn’t consulted if an IP is given directly - as he says, it seems that some step in the route between **Tracy** and livejournal is failing, be it by accident or due to some sort of deliberate blocking. **Tracy** , If you get a command prompt up (start … run … “cmd”) and run the following command: c:> pathping 66.150.15.150 you should get a list of stages describing the route between your computer and livejournal - if you copy and paste the output here we might be able to see where things are going wrong. You might want to delete the first couple of lines, however, as your own IP address will show up, and is arguably personal information (if you’re bothered about that sort of thing). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/18 "2005-10-23T15:44:14Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > **Larry** ’s test with the IP address rules out DNS problems, since DNS isn’t consulted if an IP is given directly - as he says, it seems that some step in the route between **Tracy** and livejournal is failing, be it by accident or due to some sort of deliberate blocking. True… sorry about that. Sloppy reading on my part. 'Though I suppose clearing out the DNS cache shoudn’t actually **hurt** anything… ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/19 "2005-10-23T18:59:07Z")
The problem has been going on since Friday, FWIW – I didn’t have trouble connecting to LiveJournal before last week. Okay, here’s the c/p results of **Dead Badger** ’s test: "Tracing route to [livejournal.com](http://livejournal.com) [66.150.15.150] over a maximum of 30 hops: 0 [James.pc.ashlandfiber.net](http://James.pc.ashlandfiber.net) [192.168.1.100] 1 10.40.1.1 2 [afn-pr-2.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-pr-2.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.226] 3 [afn-border1-qwest.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-border1-qwest.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.201] 4 [afn-border2-noanet.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-border2-noanet.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.202] 5 [lsngw-huntercomm.lsnetworks.net](http://lsngw-huntercomm.lsnetworks.net) [216.110.207.117] 6 \* \* \* Computing statistics for 150 seconds… Source to Here This Node/Link Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address 0 [James.pc.ashlandfiber.net](http://James.pc.ashlandfiber.net) [192.168.1.100] 0/100 = 0% | 1 11ms 1/100 = 1% 1/100 = 1% 10.40.1.1 0/100 = 0% | 2 10ms 0/100 = 0% 0/100 = 0% [afn-pr-2.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-pr-2.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.226] 0/100 = 0% | 3 16ms 0/100 = 0% 0/100 = 0% [afn-border1-qwest.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-border1-qwest.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.202] 0/100 = 0% | 4 12ms 0/100 = 0% 0/100 = 0% [afn-border2-noanet.ashlandfiber.net](http://afn-border2-noanet.ashlandfiber.net) [66.241.65.202] 0/100 = 0% | 5 15ms 0/100 = 0% 0/100 = 0% [lsngw-huntercomm.lsnetworks.net](http://lsngw-huntercomm.lsnetworks.net) [216.110.207.117] 100/100 = 100% | 6 — 100/100 = 100% 0/100 = 0% James [0.0.0.0] Trace complete" There’s some weird spacing stuff that got lost in the c/p, but can anyone make anything of that? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497/20 "2005-10-23T19:26:30Z")
Humph. Unless someone with more networking experience has a better idea, I’d say that judging by the fact that things don’t seem to be getting past your ISP (or at least, your ISP’s bandwidth supplier), it seems most likely that for some bizarre reason, they are blocking LiveJournal. Not much more to advise, really, except to send their tech support an email (including the output you pasted here couldn’t hurt). Whatever it is, I’d say that at this point it’s certainly not a problem with your computer. Sorry I can’t be more help… ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-just-one-website/327497.md?page=2)