cant load a website for some reason.

[Vip]

I know this is not the forum for it but I like the fast response and explanations i get. So here goes.

I buy alot of power tools off hardwaresales.com internet division for my ebay business. Im on this website for hours some nights untill about 2 weeks ago when all the sudden none of my computers could load there website anymore, im on vista and XP Home but everything i do doesnt seem to work, I just the same old msg from google chrome, IE and firefox.

I went to my next door neighbors house and it worked fine and they have the same ISP as me, it even worked fine at my olds house. The only virus progame i have running is Avira and im pretty sure that is not interfering with it.

Can you guys give me some hints on what to do? I emailed hardwaresales but they said they still have heaps of orders coming from australia with no complaints about the webpage at all and it all seems fine on there end.

thanks heaps,
Damian

[Vip]

wow, ive been a member for 6 years, cool.

[admin]

First thing to try is to turn off your firewall, and then try to access the website. If it works, then that's your problem right there, so try to add hardware.com to the list of allowed sites (white list, exceptions or whatever your firewall/security software calls it). If you're using Windows Firewall in XP, then I don't think it has the ability to automatically block particular websites/IP addresses, so the firewall is probably not the cause of your issues. Might also be worthwhile to check your hardware router, to see if its firewall (if it has one) has blocked hardware.com's IP address (which appears to be 81.171.205.101).

Second thing to try - do a traceroute to hardware.com. To do it, get to a command prompt (Start -> Run -> type in 'cmd' without the quotes), and type in the following and press Enter:

tracert hardware.com

It will trace the route to hardware.com. If you can reach all the way to lon307.star.net.uk (or something similar) before the requests time out, then it means you're getting to their server at the very least, so nothing in between is blocking you. If it times out before you get to star.net.uk, then this usually indicates a routing error, which normally should fix itself over time. This again is unlikely, since your neighbour can connect to the website and that it's been so long, but their connection may take a different route that bypasses the affected router. To fix this problem, contact your ISP and show them the traceroute.

To rule out a software problem in XP, you can download and burn a Linux live CD (for example, http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download), which hopefully will have the drivers that will allow you to connect online while booted into Linux (via the CD, so no installs) - if you can suddenly connect to hardware.com via this method, then it means it's probably a software thing, not a connection problem.

If it still doesn't connect, then it's very likely a connection problem. If you have a static IP address, then it could be that the website/server for hardware.com has blocked your particular IP address. An good way find out for sure is to take your computer to your neighbour's house (or use their Internet connection, which will have a different IP address) and if the website loads, then it's probably the IP address being blocked, and would also at the same time rule out anything on your computer being the problem. Another way is to use an proxy, but hardware.com may also have the proxy blocked, so it doesn't always tell you everything you need to know. If your IP is blocked, you will then have to email hardware.com, provide your IP address (find out via: http://www.whatismyip.com/), and get them to unblock it.

If you have a dynamic IP address, then it's unlikely to be an IP block, considering your neighbour uses the same ISP and most likely is part of the same IP range. Your neighbour may not be part of the same IP range though, which can happen even if you use the same ISP. In that case, email your ISP, explains your problems and the things you've tried, and maybe they can help find the problem (if it's something on their network).

[joshrockman]

Reboot your modem!