Intermittent web problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adam Dawes
  • Start date Start date
A

Adam Dawes

I've recently been experiencing an intermittent problem with browsing to
various web sites, and was wondering whether anyone could give me some hints
as to how to track the problem down.

I have two PCs, one running Win2K and one running WinXP, connected via a
router to a cable modem (using NTL) in order to access the internet. On the
WinXP machine I'm often receiving "The page cannot be displayed" errors in
IE6, with "Cannot find server" as the title of the IE browser window.
However, I know these sites are working because I can access them perfectly
from the Win2K machine at the same time. If I hit Refresh, the "busy" icon
in the top/right of the IE window starts animating but no page ever returns.

I've also tried accessing the pages in Mozilla v1.4. Mozilla immediately
tells me that the page contains no data. Refreshing produces the same error
straight away without any delay.

Often I'll find if I try again half-an-hour later the page immediately
responds. Often not. When I'm working and I need to access these pages it
can be extremely irritating.

I'm rather at a loss to how to go about diagnosing this. I've tried running
a tracert to the offending website and it is able to resolve the IP address.
I've checked my IE settings and they all look normal. I've checked my LAN
card settings and they look fine too. It's presumably not my router, my
cable modem or my ISP as the pages are accessible from the Win2K machine.

I'd really rather not have to reinstall Windows on my XP machine, can anyone
offer any suggestions?

Many thanks,
 
yellowpike said:
and look for the section entitled
Problem: One Computer Can't Access Some Web Sites, but Other
Computers Can
Click to expand...

Hi yellowpike,

Thanks for the pointer; unfortunately that's not the problem. I actively
maintain my HOSTS file in order to block adverts and I know that the sites
I'm having problems with aren't included within it (though I did just
double-check just to be sure).

I should clarify that the sites come and go, often a site will work one time
I try it and won't a few minutes later. Then half-an-hour will pass and
it'll be fine again. It'll be working ok on the other PC throughout the
whole period though.

Looking more and more likely that a reinstall of Windows may be in order.
:-/
 
I am having the same problem (page not found -cannot find server -
using xp ie6 router and NTL cable modem), except I get intermittent
dns lookups which cause the problem (but you can tracert to problem
sites?)

usually it fails for a up to an hour or so, then magically just starts
working.

C:\>nslookup www.mitsubishi-elevator.com
Server: cache1.ntli.net
Address: 194.168.4.100

*** cache1.ntli.net can't find www.mitsubishi-elevator.com:
Non-existent
domain

this happens for a while then later:

C:\>nslookup www.mitsubishi-elevator.com
Server: cache1.ntli.net
Address: 194.168.4.100

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: alsace.mitsubishi-elevator.com
Address: 210.229.194.214
Aliases: www.mitsubishi-elevator.com

NTL don't seem to want to help - just complain that it seems to be
working when they look into it.

Seems odd you only have the issue with xp (i dont have any machine
without it to test it)

I'll let you know if ntl come up with anything useful.


Mark
 
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