Hmmmmmm.... Diagnostically i'd do the following 1. Check if the IP Addy that the hostnames, for the sites that don't work, resolve into, is correct by getting someone to ping it and seeing if your DNS resolves into the same addy (If this is different change your DNS servers to be 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 (OpenDNS))
2. Ping broken sites (Start->Run->cmd then "ping www.livejournal.com") and see if the sites respond to the ping.
3. If the sites respond to the ping properly then try telneting to them on port 80 (Start->Run->cmd then "telnet www.livejournal.com 80"
If 2 succeeds and 3 fails then something is blocking port 80 to particular sites - my guess would be that that is an ISp issue unless you've got some really weird setting on your router...
Report back with the results and I'll try to help you more...
I typed the IP that my laptop resolved for www.livejournal.com (204.9.177.18) into my work PC and it worked fine.
I can ping "broken" sites fine.
Telnet: what's supposed to happen here? When I do it, either for "broken" or for working sites, the terminal goes blank except for a blinking cursor, which then moves if I type or press enter but no text appears on screen. The terminal window's title becomes "telnet www.livejournal.com". The same thing happens on my work PC.
I've scanned the laptop with a-squared (anti-spyware app); nothing.
Does any of that suggest where the problem might lie? Thanks so much for your help so far!
Hmmmm curiouser and curiouser... Re: Telnet When the screen goes blank type the following: GET / HTTP/1.1
The line should be followed by two enters which will then do an HTTP request for the root of the site - which should pull up a load of HTML as the response. If this works for broken sites then I'm completely stumped as this should be essentially what browsers do anyway.
The fact that you get a blank screen implies that you have actually connected on port 80 which is bizzare as this should mean that you could get the data from those sites - which weirdly implies it's a browser issue (except you've tried several browsers).
Does James have a computer and does it work on "broken" sites?
Heh. Thanks, probably not tonight but I may take you up on that in the near future if I can't get anywhere :)
James is a lazy sod and hasn't got his Mac out of its box yet (this weekend, he says), else that would've been one of the first things I'd have tried...
I tried the "get / http/1.1 " thing. For the sites that don't load, nothing happens at all, and eventually I get spat back out at the command prompt (not the New Jersey Turnpike, thankfully!)
For sites that do load, I get the following message: "HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request [...various lines of blah mixed with HTML tags...] Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand."
That definitely means that port 80 is being blocked for those sites - only thing left to suggest now is trying your laptop on another network / another computer on your network to check if it's the laptop or the network.
Incidently the errors you saw might be because you used lowercase? or had spaces afterwards or something? HTTP is quite picky in a lot of cases. The fact that you got spat out back to the command prompt is because a connection could not be established to hose sites on that port (80).
Something else you could try is to find a site that is "broken" but that allows https connections then try going via https as that uses port 443 rather than 80. Also try http://matt-fellows.me.uk and see if you can access that - would be useful if you couldn't then we could try various things as I have control over that server (Being my computer and all).
Ah ok. I wondered whether the errors I got were another clue, but if I understand you right, the fact that anything comes up means that the connection is essentially working. Cheers for that!
I'm popping over to Stef's after work tomorrow so I'll take my laptop with me and see if it works on her network.
Diagnostically i'd do the following
1. Check if the IP Addy that the hostnames, for the sites that don't work, resolve into, is correct by getting someone to ping it and seeing if your DNS resolves into the same addy
(If this is different change your DNS servers to be 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 (OpenDNS))
2. Ping broken sites (Start->Run->cmd then "ping www.livejournal.com") and see if the sites respond to the ping.
3. If the sites respond to the ping properly then try telneting to them on port 80 (Start->Run->cmd then "telnet www.livejournal.com 80"
If 2 succeeds and 3 fails then something is blocking port 80 to particular sites - my guess would be that that is an ISp issue unless you've got some really weird setting on your router...
Report back with the results and I'll try to help you more...
Reply
Reply
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Using OpenDNS didn't change anything.
I typed the IP that my laptop resolved for www.livejournal.com (204.9.177.18) into my work PC and it worked fine.
I can ping "broken" sites fine.
Telnet: what's supposed to happen here? When I do it, either for "broken" or for working sites, the terminal goes blank except for a blinking cursor, which then moves if I type or press enter but no text appears on screen. The terminal window's title becomes "telnet www.livejournal.com". The same thing happens on my work PC.
I've scanned the laptop with a-squared (anti-spyware app); nothing.
Does any of that suggest where the problem might lie? Thanks so much for your help so far!
Reply
Re: Telnet
When the screen goes blank type the following:
GET / HTTP/1.1
The line should be followed by two enters which will then do an HTTP request for the root of the site - which should pull up a load of HTML as the response. If this works for broken sites then I'm completely stumped as this should be essentially what browsers do anyway.
The fact that you get a blank screen implies that you have actually connected on port 80 which is bizzare as this should mean that you could get the data from those sites - which weirdly implies it's a browser issue (except you've tried several browsers).
Does James have a computer and does it work on "broken" sites?
Reply
"Have you tried turning it of and then on again?"
Reply
James is a lazy sod and hasn't got his Mac out of its box yet (this weekend, he says), else that would've been one of the first things I'd have tried...
I'll let you know how the Telnet-ing goes.
Thanks again!
Reply
I tried the "get / http/1.1 " thing.
For the sites that don't load, nothing happens at all, and eventually I get spat back out at the command prompt (not the New Jersey Turnpike, thankfully!)
For sites that do load, I get the following message:
"HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
[...various lines of blah mixed with HTML tags...]
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand."
Is this a bad thing? Looks kinda error-y to me...
Reply
Incidently the errors you saw might be because you used lowercase? or had spaces afterwards or something? HTTP is quite picky in a lot of cases. The fact that you got spat out back to the command prompt is because a connection could not be established to hose sites on that port (80).
Something else you could try is to find a site that is "broken" but that allows https connections then try going via https as that uses port 443 rather than 80. Also try http://matt-fellows.me.uk and see if you can access that - would be useful if you couldn't then we could try various things as I have control over that server (Being my computer and all).
Reply
I'm popping over to Stef's after work tomorrow so I'll take my laptop with me and see if it works on her network.
Thanks again!
Reply
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