when i go on ebay i can open up the home page.  it is when i click on
an item that i want to see i get a flag which states 'this page cannot
be displayed' from internet explorer.  From netscape 7.1 i get the
flag "this connection was refused when attempting to contact
cgi.ebay.com

It was working and now it does not.  I don't have a firewall that I
know of.  I called my ISP provider and went thru the "delete files -
cookies".  I also did the required information that is displayed on
the THE PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED -"If you are trying to reach a secure
site, make sure your Security settings can support it. Click the Tools
menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to
the Security section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0,
PCT 1.0.

I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT TO DO, CAN YOU HELP ME?

broker125...

As snsh-ga mentioned, it seems like an entry in your 'hosts'
file is a good suspect. This is a file with no extension, 
and can be found in different locations depending on the
operating system you have on your computer. You can locate it 
by doing a search in Windows Explorer for 'hosts', without
the apostrophes. In Windows 2000, e.g., it is located in
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\

You can then open it with the Notepad text editor and do a 
search for 'altfarm.mediaplex.com', or just 'mediaplex'.
If you find the entry, you can insert a '#' and a 'space'
in front of the entry, like this:

# 127.0.0.1       altfarm.mediaplex.com

This is called 'commenting out' an entry.

If you mouse-over the links on Ebay's front page, you will
see, in the 'status bar' at the bottom of your browser, 
that all of them contain this root address. On the 
other hand, if you enter an item name in the 'search' box,
the resulting URL is rooted in Ebay, rather than mediaplex,
so you shouldn't have a problem viewing the resulting pages,
unless, as snsh-ga suggested, cgi.ebay.com is also listed
in the hosts file, in which case you will need to comment
it out, as well.


The function of the 'hosts' file is to redirect your browser
back to your own computer when certain URL addresses are
detected. Many users take advantage of this function to
avoid contact with aggressive and common sites which flood
your webpages with advertisements, by using a modified 
'hosts' file to redirect the browser so the ads won't load.
If the hosts file on the computer you're using is modified
in this way, it will be a larger file, over 400kb in size,
whereas the normal hosts file is only 1kb.

Since this change must be made intentionally by the owner
of the computer, if you find a large hosts file, you should
determine if the owner cares if you modify the file to 
allow the browser to display links from altfarm.mediaplex.com
or edit the entry you modified back to its original state:

127.0.0.1       altfarm.mediaplex.com

If you bought the computer from someone else and the file
has been modified, you can restore the default hosts file
by deleting all entries except:

127.0.0.1       localhost


That should resolve your problem, but if it doesn't,
or if you need further assistance with any of the steps,
please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.

Since this appears to be your first question on Google Answers,
here is a link to an illustrated user's guide by skermit-ga,
showing how to clarify a question, among other things:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify

sublime1-ga

Perhaps you're behind a corporate firewall, that blocks connections to
certain hosts ? That's becoming standard practice for many companies.

make sure ebay is not in a restricted zone (tools-options-security)
check to see if you have a HOSTS file on your machine that includes cgi.ebay,com
try going to www.ebay.co.uk too