Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Carolyn on 14/03/2006 05:44:56
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I've been trying to access a particular website and I keep getting a "This page can't be displayed" message. I had a few friends try to access the site and they were successful. Evidently the problem is with my pc. Any suggestions?
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Is it because you are restricted from looking at certain websites you naughty girl !! [:D]...there may be sofware on your PC that controls the type of sites you are not allowed to see *giggle*......if you get a letter from a responsible grown up that gives you permission to view that website and show it your PC owner then they may allow you access to that site !! [:D]
Failing that Carolyn, it may be an overzealous firewall program..but this is best answered by the likes of UKMicky et al....
Listen, if you want to view 'special' pics !!...email me ok ? [;)]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
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quote:
Originally posted by neilep
Is it because you are restricted from looking at certain websites you naughty girl !! [:D]...there may be sofware on your PC that controls the type of sites you are not allowed to see *giggle*......if you get a letter from a responsible grown up that gives you permission to view that website and show it your PC owner then they may allow you access to that site !! [:D]
Failing that Carolyn, it may be an overzealous firewall program..but this is best answered by the likes of UKMicky et al....
Listen, if you want to view 'special' pics !!...email me ok ? [;)]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
LOL! First, I don't know any responsible adults, and second, expect an e-mail coming soon.[;)]
Seriously, I don't have parental blocks on my pc. I really didn't think I needed them. My PC is in a common area in our home, where the kids can be supervised. I don't let my kids have internet access on the pc's in their rooms. I thought this was enough to keep them from going on inappropriate websites - WRONG! Several months ago I caught my son, age 12, going on a gaming website that has a chat section. I walked up behind him and saw what some of these perverts were writing to him and completely freaked out. Although he wasn't writing anything inappropriate, other than LOL, he knew better and was punished. It didn't occur to him that what he thought were pretty young girls chatting with him, were quite probably nasty, skanky, perverted sexual predators. We took him to the online sexual predators registry in our area, and he was shocked. He found out there were approximately 10 predators within a 1 mile radius of our house. And we live in a "safe" area. He's no longer alowed to chat online. I thought that was enough to convince him to be more responsible online. Wrong again. A few days ago I caught him on another gaming web site. This time there was no chatting. It was a motorcycle race, and the better you did in the race, the farther the "hot chicks would go". He has now lost all internet priveleges, all x-box games, all ipod activity, all tv. Pretty much the only thing he's allowed to do for the next 6 weeks is breath. And if he pisses me off for any reason at all, I'll add more time to that. I'm thinking that after the 6 week punishment, before he's allowed his privileges, I'll make him do a research paper on sexual predators, or something along those lines. At any rate there will be parental controls activated on my pc before he's allowed back online.
Carolyn
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quote:
Originally posted by Carolyn
I've been trying to access a particular website and I keep getting a "This page can't be displayed" message. I had a few friends try to access the site and they were successful. Evidently the problem is with my pc. Any suggestions?
Don't suppose you'd like to give us a web address we could go with.
I assume that the "This page can't be displayed" is what is also known as a 404 message (do you have the number 404 coming up with the message)?
It is unlikely to be anything to do with your PC (although it is just possible that it might be a protocol misconfiguration – but the less likely option) as such, but probably with the network between your PC and the website.
If it is a DNS problem, it may be something that will cure itself (if the site is relatively new, or recently changed address, it could be that the name has not peculated to your segment of the network yet).
It could be a gateway problem that blocks your accessing that segment of the internet, or, as Neil suggested, a firewall that blocks that server.
Have you tried 'pinging' the server (get into a command line screen, and type “ping the-web-address-you-want”).
George
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Hi George - I'd be glad to give you the web address. www.willowcsn.com
No, I haven't tried 'pinging" the server, I have no idea what that is.
The following is the message that was displayed.
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please try the following:
Click the Refresh button, or try again later.
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings. The settings should match those provided by your local area network (LAN) administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
See if your Internet connection settings are being detected. You can set Microsoft Windows to examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings (if your network administrator has enabled this setting).
Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options.
On the Connections tab, click LAN Settings.
Select Automatically detect settings, and then click OK.
Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength security you have installed.
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.
Click the Back button to try another link.
Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer
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Works OK for me.....sorry..this is not really helping is it ?
Carolyn, I am very impressed with your discipline...my son (nearly 12) also plays online games with chat features...I will be keeping a very close eye....thank you for the ' eye opener '....
I hope you get this dreaded web thing sorted !!
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Have you tried http://65.82.147.24/ (should get you to the same place).
FYI, they seem to be hosted by theplanet.com, probably on a server in or near Dallas (not that any of this makes any difference to your getting on to the site).
George
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I tried, couldn't get on from there either.
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There are a number of possible causes why this is happening. If as it seams you have ruled our blocking software on your PC then I need to know first what operating system and browser you are using. Also what farewell if any you have running?
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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quote:
Originally posted by Carolyn
I tried, couldn't get on from there either.
Try and get to a command prompt (also known as a C prompt) and type in:
ping 65.82.147.24enter
and tell me what reply you get.
George
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This is most unlikely to be anything to do with external assess to the website. It is far more likely to with how the security is set up on the pc and browser. And perhaps firewall may be involved.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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quote:
Originally posted by Hadrian
This is most unlikely to be anything to do with external assess to the website. It is far more likely to with how the security is set up on the pc and browser. And perhaps firewall may be involved.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
It certainly is not a DNS issue, since she has failed access using only the IP address.
A firewall is a possibility, but then the issue is whether we are talking about a software firewall on her machine, or a hardware firewall sitting outside her machine.
Using a ping would at least tell us whether it the server can be accessed from outside of the browser. If the ping is successful, but we cannot get at the site through the browser, then we can be fairly certain it is a browser issue. If the ping fails to get to the site, then we are probably talking about a firewall (either sitting on her machine, or sitting outside of her machine).
George
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I concur. It would be very unusual if turned out to be an external issue unless she part of some sort of network.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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quote:
Originally posted by Carolyn
LOL! First, I don't know any responsible adults, and second, expect an e-mail coming soon.[;)]
Carolyn,
I got your email......you dirty Minx !!...I've never seen such language !!...pphhwwooaarrr !! [:D][:D][:D]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
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Don’t you just hate it when they leave you out loop
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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quote:
Originally posted by another_someone
quote:
Originally posted by Carolyn
I tried, couldn't get on from there either.
Try and get to a command prompt (also known as a C prompt) and type in:
ping 65.82.147.24enter
and tell me what reply you get.
George
I did this and got the following:
Pinging with 32 bytes of data.
Request timed out
Request timed out
Reply from 208.62.25.4: Destination net unreachable
Reply from 208.62.25.4: Destination net unreachable
Ping statistics for 65.82.174.24
Packets: Sent=4, received =2, lost = 2 (50% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milliseconds:
Minimum=0ms, maximum=0ms, average=0ms
Well George, I'm completely lost. In case you haven't guessed, I'm quite illiterate when it comes to pc problems.
Carolyn
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are you on a network
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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quote:
Originally posted by Hadrian
are you on a network
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
Nope, no network.
carolyn
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hi Carolyn it could be a problem with a program which loads up when start you pc like your fire wall if you've got one, you have got one haven't you.[:)]
What to do
Try creating a new account if your using xp and see if the new account has web access problems.
Next go to the run command and type in msconfig, when the box appears click on the services tab enable all the services, click ok, restart your pc and see if it works.
If it dont work then do the run command services thing again put a tick in the hide Microsoft services box which should remove some things from the list as you dont want to mess with these ones. Then click disable all , click ok shut down and restart pc and see if the connection works. if it does then you will have to find which one it is that's given you the problem by enabling them a few at a time and restarting in-between each enable. it will probably be your firewall. [:)]
ps always try to keep a note of any changes you make. and if possible create a restore point in system restore
Michael
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OK, the ping seems to have been a waste of time.
I tried pinging from here, and it seems the host is redirecting the ping to an unavailable address (possibly some network translation going on behind their firewall).
They have some peculiar and irregular things going on at their web site – for one thing, they have some javascript between the <html> tag and the <head> tag – which is illegal, but unlikely to have the results you are seeing – it just shows that the site was written by amateurs (in the derogatory sense of the word).
The site does require to be accessed using HTTP 1.1, so if you are using an old browser that only uses HTTP 1.0, it may not work – but the impression I have is that this is not the case. It is also possible to configure newer browsers only to use HTTP 1.0, but the default configuration is to use HTTP 1.1 (in any case, the site does not seem to care about whether the protocol declares itself as HTTP 1.0 or HTTP 1.1, it only insists you have the Host request header sent from the client, and this is almost certainly because the web server is being shared by several different web sites, and it needs to know which one you want to use).
I would ask which ISP are you with – not by any chance AOL? Are you on broadband or dial-up?
Not sure if this would make any difference, but AOL does do strange things with the way it caches web sites.
I can't see the problem being a software firewall, since software firewalls tend to be more concerned with inbound connections than with outbound connections.
Do you use the computer to connect up to some business network (over a virtual network)?
Are there any other sites you have problems getting to? You can try and see if you can get to my web site (which is also on a shared server, and so will require HTTP 1.1). If yo manage to get through, note the time you got through, and I will see if anything peculiar turns up on the site logs at the time you log in.
George
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quote:
ANOTHER SOMEONE I can't see the problem being a software firewall, since software firewalls tend to be more concerned with inbound connections than with outbound connections.
A proper firewall like the one with Norton Internet security etc deal with incoming and outgoing and can quite easierly prevent her from accessing website's. Most allow you to quickly disable the firewall to check for problems by right clicking on the program icon that should be placed on the far right of the taskbar.
also carolyn click on tools at the top of the explore page, scroll down to manage
add-ons in the window that appears, there is a button that says "show" which give access to two windows make sure that everything is enabled in these windows. these add-ons deal with things like flash ,java etc
(carolyn did you try what i said in my earlier post)
ps always try to keep a note of any changes you make and if possible create a restore point in system restore
pps ive had the same problem in the past and the only way i could resolve it was to reload my firewall software (NIS) Just to let you know you not alone.
GOOD LUCK
Michael
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quote:
Originally posted by ukmicky
quote]
also carolyn click on tools at the top of the explore page, scroll down to manage
add-ons in the window that appears, there is a button that says "show" which give access to two windows make sure that everything is enabled in these windows. these add-ons deal with things like flash ,java etc
(carolyn did you try what i said in my earlier post)
ps always try to keep a note of any changes you make and if possible create a restore point in system restore
pps ive had the same problem in the past and the only way i could resolve it was to reload my firewall software (NIS) Just to let you know you not alone.
GOOD LUCK
Michael
Hi Michael - I tried everything in this post and the earlier post. Nothing seems to work. I did remember to make notes of the changes I made and I restored everything once I tried suggestions. So do you think I should uninstall Norton and the reinstall?
I'm starting to think pc is now possessed, and it's giving me a headache and making me feel stupid.
quote:
originally posted by another someone
quote:
I would ask which ISP are you with – not by any chance AOL? Are you on broadband or dial-up?
Hi George - My ISP is my local phone company, which is a high speed connection.
Do you use the computer to connect up to some business network (over a virtual network)?
Nope, no networks.
Are there any other sites you have problems getting to? You can try and see if you can get to my web site (which is also on a shared server, and so will require HTTP 1.1). If yo manage to get through, note the time you got through, and I will see if anything peculiar turns up on the site logs at the time you log in.
This is the only site this has ever happened on. I was able to access your site at 10:28 pm, EST.
This willowcsn site came highly recommended as a place that I could make an extra income, so I just can't understand why I'm the only one I know of that can't access it. This is starting to make me use ugly words.
Are you guys losing patience with me yet? Again, thanks for all your help.
Carolyn
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quote:
Originally posted by neilep
quote:
Originally posted by Carolyn
LOL! First, I don't know any responsible adults, and second, expect an e-mail coming soon.[;)]
Carolyn,
I got your email......you dirty Minx !!...I've never seen such language !!...pphhwwooaarrr !! [:D][:D][:D]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
You're making me blush[:I]
I believe you promised me some 'special pics'.[:D][;)][:0]
Carolyn
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OK, I've seen you coming in.
You're coming in from GT Com, who is your local phone company.
You are using something that claims to be Internet Explorer 6.0, but it is written or modified by FunWebProducts.
You are using HTTP 1.1, so that is no problem; but I have no idea what impact the modified version of Internet Explorer might have.
BTW, if you simply want to access the web site, you could always see if you can go through a proxy (there is a list of proxies you might try using at http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/cgi-proxy.htm). It wont explain why you cannot get at the site directly, but it will provide another way of getting to it.
You could also try downloading Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ and using that in place of your modified Internet Explorer – although I suspect we both would rather find out why your existing configuration is not working.
George
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I have had a quick search on what information is available on the Internet about FunWebProducts.
Much of it is not a wholehearted endorsement of the product.
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/web/2003/1208web2.html
quote:
As Web application developers, we are in the unique position to see the impact that Web browsing technologies are having on all aspects of PC use. An interesting example of this happened around September 2003 when some Web masters started noticing a significant increase in server log entries of user agent strings from Internet Explorer Web browsers containing the text "FunWebProducts." For example: "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0; FunWebProducts)".
It turned out that FunWebProducts (see links below) is an operation of a company called IWon. Its software - a Web application - is essentially yet another piece of adware (often mistakenly called spyware although that is arguably a related subgenre).
FunWebProducts is notable because it acquired a large user population with remarkable speed. Iwon is responsible for a series of notorious adware products including IWon, iWon Co-Pilot, iWon Search Assistant, and MySearch/MyWeb.
The apparent reason for the surge in popularity is that the FunWebProducts code is built into a number of "free" products offered by the same company. These products include Smiley Central, PopSwatter, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stationery, My Mail Stamp, Cursor Mania - all but the last tool (which is a cursor chooser) are "enhancements" for e-mail. By dint of widespread advertising FunWebProducts has managed to sucker thousands of naïve end users into running its software.
According to the FunWebProducts End User Licensing agreement: "ALL OF OUR APPLICATIONS COME WITH THE MYWEBSEARCH(tm) BROWSER PLUGIN - A CUSTOMIZABLE BROWSER TOOLBAR WHICH PROVIDES END USERS WITH EASY ACCESS TO SEARCH RESULTS FROM THE BEST SEARCH ENGINES ON THE INTERNET IN JUST ONE CLICK AND ENHANCES YOUR BROWSER EXPERIENCE BY PROVIDING RELEVANT LINKS AND RESULTS IN RESPONSE TO MISSPELLED OR INCORRECTLY FORMATTED BROWSER ADDRESS REQUESTS.
"THE APPLICATION ALLOWS YOU TO EASILY ACCESS ALL OF ITS FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY DIRECTLY FROM YOUR BROWSER. IT IS ALSO HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE YOUR OWN BUTTONS AND LINKS."
What FunWebProducts actually does - as do a lot of other adware and spyware products - is to make it difficult to uninstall the software as well as hijack your browser by setting your home page to point to other sites. Worse still, FunWebProducts attempts to reset the browser home page should you dare to try to change it.
The consequences of adware and spyware in Windows systems are serious and the more desktops you have to manage the worse it gets. These programs can cause browsers to perform slowly, can degrade overall system performance, and can damage Windows configurations. They can also cause other applications to misbehave.
This kind of software is generally poorly designed and foisted on unsophisticated users through advertising and promotion that is effectively deceptive about the true nature of the product. In short, it is shameful and deceitful.
I strongly urge you to become familiar with these Web applications and watch out for their appearance within your organization - they are a support headache waiting to happen. You can find out more about removal methods and software to do it for you in the links below.
http://forum.powweb.com/archive/index.php/t-31159.html
quote:
Bloated access logs
I've been noticing alot of "FunWebProducts" (FWP) appearing in my access log - user agent strings lately. Like this: "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; FunWebProducts; .NET CLR 1.0.3705)"
Turns out FWP offer Smiley Central, PopSwatter, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stationery and My Mail Stamp, email "enhancers". All of these enhancers have inbuilt adware or hijackers. The unsuspecting user suffers slow IE speed, tags on all email and it takes over their browser. It can also damage the Windows enviroment.
Serves them right you say?.. wrong. Often they are simply unaware. And we as webmasters suffer to!. Bloated logs and repeated calls for help. In the above example my access logs alone jumped 300kb+ through one heavy user. If you spot FunWebProducts encourage the user to remove it.
For more info and removal:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/web/2003/1208web2.html
George
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Hi George - This is all so confusing to me. I have smiley central, cursor mania and pop swatter on one of my toolbars. I believe they were downloaded by my kids. I have been to the iwon website. I'm having some problems with sluggishness. Some programs seem to be running slower, and logging off is a real pain. It takes about 7 minutes.
From what you posted, it sounds like I could potentially have some serious problems going on here. Well, it's gone beyond feeling stupid - I feel down right ignorant.
Carolyn
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carolyn if your pc is running slow and is taking 7 minutes (thats a life time )to log off and you havnt got a virus then your best option is to reload your pc. My pc gets like that occasionally due to my kids filling it up with crap.
Did you get a instalation disc with your pc which automatically reformats and copys all the programs which came with your pc back on to your hard drive. if you did then its easy just save your passwords and all that needs saving to a spare cdrom . place the instalation disk in the cd drive and restart your pc. i reload my pc every six months.
Michael
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Carolyn,
Sorry for throwing you in at the deep end.
Michael's suggestion of reformatting the entire hard disk and reloading everything from scratch is certainly one solutions, but it may be a complex one if you have a lot of software that you need to reload onto your system, and a lot of things to reconfigure. On the other hand, chasing down all the bits and pieces to need to do to properly remove all the garbage that might have accumulated over the years (including the FunWebProducts stuff) can also be time consuming, and at least a reinstallation sets you back to a guaranteed known point. If you want to take that route, that has to be up to you (although you must make sure you back up everything that you might want to hold on to – once the disk is reformatted, it is lost).
FunWebProducts themselves have a site that explains how to remove their product. This is at <http://www.funwebproducts.com/uninstall.html>.
From what I can see, you are using Windows XP. One question I would ask (with regard to future security) is what authority do you usually log on with, and allow your children to log on with. The majority of people still set up their default log on as having administrator authority – this means they can do everything they might conceivably want to do from the one single log on, but it also makes it very easy for malicious programs to change parts of the system you don't want them to be changing. If you are set up like this, it would be better for you to set up users (both for yourself, and especially for your children) with restricted authority, and to use those on a day to day basis (that way, if any software tries to install itself in the background, and wants to alter core parts of the operating system, it will be blocked by the security). You would still need a user set up with administrator authority, but you would only use that logon account when you know you really do want to make a change to the operating system, or do something a little bit more risky than your everyday work.
With regard to the toolbars from FunWebProducts, I generally take a very cautious view of any of these downloadable toolebars, or other ways of adding fancy bits to the browser, since they all require some sort of hack to the browser, so unless I really am confident that I know what the product is and is not going to effect, I generally stay away from them (not just FubWebProducts, but anyone's go-faster stripes for my browser).
George
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quote:
Originally posted by ukmicky
carolyn if your pc is running slow and is taking 7 minutes (thats a life time )to log off and you havnt got a virus then your best option is to reload your pc. My pc gets like that occasionally due to my kids filling it up with crap.
Did you get a instalation disc with your pc which automatically reformats and copys all the programs which came with your pc back on to your hard drive. if you did then its easy just save your passwords and all that needs saving to a spare cdrom . place the instalation disk in the cd drive and restart your pc. i reload my pc every six months.
Michael
I'm not 100% sure I don't have a virus. My daughters friend told me today that she used pc about 1.5 weeks ago and when she logged on, a Norton box opened that said I had a virus, she clicked ok. I don't know how accurate this is, she's a bit of a ding bat. So tomorrow I will try to figure out how to check for viruses. Otherwise I guess I'll have to reload as you suggested. Gosh, I hope I can find that blasted installation disk. I'm not the most organized person. I'll be sure to save everything before hand.
Hi George - don't worry about the deep end. I swim pretty well. Worst case, I'll have to bite the bullet and pay someone to come out and fix problem. But, I am trying to learn the fine art of frugality(if that's not a word, it is now), so I will exhaust every available avenue.
I only have one account set up now, but I will definately follow your advice on this.
Thank you both for helping me so much. I am getting quite the education.
Carolyn