Some websites (including wikipedia) don't load.

MarkCorrigan

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MarkCorrigan
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
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Location
UK.
Over this weekend, a number of websites including wikipedia and thatguywiththeglasses.com are refusing to load. I can open almost all websites I can think of, including here, youtube, ebay and a number of other websites without any delay or issues, but some websites won't work. I get a generic message about not being able to find the server for the website, much like I get when my internet is down:

The connection has timed out

The server at en.wikipedia.org is taking too long to respond.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
Click to expand...

I've reset, purged my whole internet history, my DNS and I checked my hosts file in my system32/drivers file and turned my internet off then on again and nothing has helped. Any suggestions?
 
It might be a browser hijack virus. You will find out by trying some other web browser (Firefox, Opera etc.). If other web browsers find the websites but your current browser doesn´t then a virus has messed up the settings of your current browser, and cleaning it up might be a messy task.
 
It isn't that. I specifically downloaded Google Chrome and tried it and it didn't help.
 
Don't know about Wikipedia, but Fandango would not work for me this weekend.
 
MarkCorrigan said:
It isn't that. I specifically downloaded Google Chrome and tried it and it didn't help.
Click to expand...


Couldn't it still be hijacked - just on a level other than the browser? (Thinking of the hosts file or something here. The OS handles the web-connection, the browser just uses it.)
 
Hi,

First reset your router if you use a router, which can vary depending on the make and model. Usually there is a little button on the back that you hold for 30 seconds to reset it.

Then go into your router, open a browser and in the address bar type 192.168.1.1 , this is the router address for a Cisco router, you may have to look this up. Be sure to change the admin password from admin : admin and then update the firmware for your router. You will also want to reset your wireless security settings.

Now in there are also usually settings that allow you to block specific web sites, so if you don't want to reset you can check those.
Can you ping wikipedia?

I am guessing your have Windows?

Press the winkey + r, type 'cmd' without the scarce quotes and then click Okay
This will open the DOS CMD window

type 'ping www.wikipedia.com' without the scarce quotes and press the Enter key

you should see some text about the response time and packet drop to wikipedia, you may get a pause and 'Request timed out', which means that your OS is unable to contact the web site.

If you get a response from the ping, then that most likely means malware or something boogered up the software and you will need to reset the winsock, which I am not real clear on. It also really means you should run a bunch of scans for malware.

There is a great utility for cleaning as well called TFC by OldTimer
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/

It will clear some system files as well , that might help, make sure you java is up to date and purge the Java cache, same for Flash.

Of course you can always take it to Bleeping Computer , Major Geeks or Malwarebytes forums and they will help you.
 
It sounds like a DNS redirect virus to me.
The same thing happened to my laptop.

Changing browsers won't work because the hijack isn't browser based.

I got around it by setting the router to configure IPv4 manually and typed in the preferred DNS address.
 
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