# Why won't my computer go to this web-site any more? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940 "2003-11-02T03:30:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/1 "2003-11-02T03:30:15Z")
I keep trying to visit a particular web-site, but every time I try, I just get a blank white page with this “²…ìQÀìQÀìQÀl:6ÿÿ” in the upper left hand corner. I thought maybe something was wrong with the web-site, but I called a friend and asked him to go to it, and he had no problem. I tried deleting my cookies, and history, and restarted the computer and it didn’t help. Anyone have any ideas of what the problem might be? ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/2 "2003-11-02T05:01:29Z")
Possibly the page encoding and fonts. What browser are you using? ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/3 "2003-11-02T05:03:13Z")
Also, it could be serving plugin content or just some binary that the browser doesn’t know how to handle. What’s the site? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/4 "2003-11-02T05:12:57Z")
Did you install all of the language support options when you installed your browser? Betcha the page has Japanese or Chinese characters on it… ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/5 "2003-11-02T14:07:48Z")
I have AOL and I tried minimizing and using IE, that didn’t work. The site is [onlinebootycall.com](http://onlinebootycall.com). The strange thing is that I’ve gone to this site several times in the past week, and it always worked fine, but for the past 24 hours it works on everyone elses computer but mine. I just used system restore to go back a few days, and that didn’t help either. Any other ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/6 "2003-11-02T14:33:52Z")
It works for me too. Can`t imagine what you`ve got wrong over there, x-ray. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/7 "2003-11-02T18:29:34Z")
Maybe the **x-ray vision** is zapping it. Try turning it down a notch. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/8 "2003-11-02T23:35:41Z")
OK, check out how weird this is. I just looked at an e-mail I got from [onlinebootycall.com](http://onlinebootycall.com), and I see in the e-mail at the bottom to sign in at their web-site at: [onlinebootycall.com/welcome.html](http://onlinebootycall.com/welcome.html). Surprise! I can navigate anywhere on the web-site that way now, but I still can’t do it the way I’ve been doing it all along by going directly to [onlinebootycall.com](http://onlinebootycall.com). It’s driving me nuts! ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/9 "2003-11-03T03:19:24Z")
You said you deleted your _history_, but did you delete your _cache_ ? Temporary Internet Files | Delete Files | Delete all offline files. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/10 "2003-11-03T21:58:06Z")
Yup, deleted all of the above. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/11 "2003-11-04T00:47:32Z")
AOL uses caching proxy servers, so if the server you want to go to hiccups and serves garbage data once, the cached result on the AOL proxy server is what you’ll see every time until that cache is cleared out. If your friend is also on AOL but not seeing this, it’s probably because AOL has hundreds of proxy servers and you’re hitting a different one. To test this theory, force it to give you an uncached version of the main page by adding “?blahblah” at the end of the url, like this: [http://onlinebootycall.com/?blahblah](http://onlinebootycall.com/?blahblah) ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-go-to-this-web-site-any-more/210940/12 "2003-11-04T03:52:07Z")
This is kind of a wacky suggestion, but try visiting the website through a relay like [www.anonymizer.com](http://www.anonymizer.com) or [www.tinyurl.com](http://www.tinyurl.com) (yes, I know they’re technically not relays but I couldn’t think of another term other than “proxy”).