Sometime last week, while using www.
techtv.com/callforhelp as my home page it suddenly started in a
different home page.  No problem, right?  Now I can't go to the techtv.com page
at all.  And there are a few others sites I can't go to. i.e
www.msnbc.com, www.columbiahouse.com and a few others.  I have cable
(Road Runner) with 3 attached computers.  The other 2 can get there
just fine.  And I have a backup dial-up ISP.  In fact I am the owner
of the ISP, www.purplenet.net.  And it won't work on it either. 
Obviously, my computer is the problem.  I have cleared all cache and
cookies.  And I even  flushed my DNS at the command prompt.  I am
desperate, can you please help?  New, Ctrl-Shift will not work either,
to get to URL's.
 
 
 
 
Frank Kapilow
Purplenet, Inc.
(407)297-9484

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Request for Question Clarification by seizer-ga on 15 Nov 2002 04:29 PST

Could you tell us what homepage has been substituted for the TechTV one?

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Request for Question Clarification by sparky4ca-ga on 05 Dec 2002 00:05 PST

There are a few possible cause(s) of the symptoms you've described.
Before I jump to conclusions, or fix a symptom without fixing the
cause, I have some questions:

1) What webpage DO you get when you try to open www.techtv.com?

2) Please try browsing to http://207.46.245.60 and let me know if this
gets you the msnbc home page.

3) Have you noticed any extra pop-ups or pop-unders?

4) Have your favourites changed?

5) What OS are you running?

6) What antivirus, firewall, spyware blocking, ad blocking, pop-up
blocking, or filtering software are you running?

Thanks

sparky4ca-ga

Not that I know very much, but it couldn't be something simple with
the browser, maybe some net filtering software that has accidentally
decided to block these sites ? There are controls within IE itself I
recall that can become activated and block what they view as
inappropriate sites dependent on the level of family friendliness
indicated ?

All the best

have you checked for a file called "hosts" (with no extention)
somewhere in your windows tree (main directory or a subdirectory
within the windows directory)? It might contain an entry such as

127.0.0.1 www.techtv.com

this would basically say "if you want the server www.techtv.com, just
connect to localhost"

to remedy the situation just delete the entry from the file and save
it.
use notepad to open the file.

This may not be of use to you (since you run an isp and may already
know of the hosts file) but I provide this tip in case you forgot
about it.

It sounds like there is a virus on the system.  I noticed that you
haven't mentioned it.  If you have Norton you might want to run a scan
to include the boot sectors.  If this is the case you might be chasing
your tail when a wipe and reload might be the only resolution.   Good
luck

First,

Try unplugging the power to the modem for twenty seconds then try and
plug it back in.  Then clear the internet cache on the computer
Tools-Internet Options-Delete Cookies & Delete Files.

If that does not work try repairing internet explorer by going
start-settings-control panel-add/remove programs-Microsoft Internet
Explorer-Click remove.  Then repair.

If that does not work it sounds like a virus or spyware.  Try going to
the add.  Try downloading and running ad-adware here:
http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10121984.html?tag=lst-0-1

After you save it install it then run a scan on your computer.  Then
after it finds some spyware it will automatically remove the spyware. 
More than likely it sounds like the spyware called CommonName.  If
ad-aware does not catch anything go to the control panel-add/remove
programs-CommonName, if that's in there that is your nemisis.