Strange problem accessing search engines

I know this is a hardware group but other groups I've posted to seem to be
dead.

Weird a$$ problem. The other day I could not connect to anything (browser or
email) so I called
up comcast. They had me change to "Obtain DNS server address automatically"
rather than the 'use the follow DNS server addresses'. Btw this may not be
related but I think its their DNS servers are messed up.

Anyway if I try to go to www.google.com or altavista.com it comes back with
'the page cannot be
displayed'. If I try lycos or altavista I get a page which reads 'there is
no website configured at this address'. That page is owned by
http://www.cpanel.net/

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine. It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

One other thing, I tried SlimBrowser and have the exact same results. And I
forgot to mention yahoo, if I goto yahoo that page is displayed but in IE
I'll hit the search button and nothing happens in SlimBrowser it appears to
be working but eventually times out with 'the page cannot be displayed'

btw I'm running win2000 IE 6.0.2800.1106 and cipher strength 128 all the
latest patches and releases

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can get
there directly.

Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

On Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:56:08 GMT, "er3scf" wrote:

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine. It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

Another micro$oft security hole? (as yet unpatched)
http://securityresponse.symantec.com...an.qhosts.html

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can get
there directly.

I get:-

F:\ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.akadns.net [216.239.59.99] with 32 bytes of data:


Geo

Spybot S&D get it/run it

http://www.safer-networking.org/



"er3scf" wrote in message news:YQDfb.497207$cF.175465@rwcrnsc53...
I know this is a hardware group but other groups I've posted to seem to be
dead.

Weird a$$ problem. The other day I could not connect to anything (browser or
email) so I called
up comcast. They had me change to "Obtain DNS server address automatically"
rather than the 'use the follow DNS server addresses'. Btw this may not be
related but I think its their DNS servers are messed up.

Anyway if I try to go to www.google.com or altavista.com it comes back with
'the page cannot be
displayed'. If I try lycos or altavista I get a page which reads 'there is
no website configured at this address'. That page is owned by
http://www.cpanel.net/

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine. It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

One other thing, I tried SlimBrowser and have the exact same results. And I
forgot to mention yahoo, if I goto yahoo that page is displayed but in IE
I'll hit the search button and nothing happens in SlimBrowser it appears to
be working but eventually times out with 'the page cannot be displayed'

btw I'm running win2000 IE 6.0.2800.1106 and cipher strength 128 all the
latest patches and releases

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can get
there directly.

Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

"Groove" wrote in message
...
er3scf said this...
Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.


You've been hit by an ActiveX exploit throught your IE browser. This
messes
up your DNS settings and dumps a fake HOSTS file on your system. Read all
about it and the fix here...

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100719.htm


When you're clean goto MS Update, there's a new patch available.

HTH. Good luck.
--
º~ dªv¡d ~º

Thanks alot for your prompt reply.

"Geo" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:56:08 GMT, "er3scf" wrote:

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine. It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact
Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

Another micro$oft security hole? (as yet unpatched)
http://securityresponse.symantec.com...an.qhosts.html

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page
owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can
get
there directly.

I get:-

F:\ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.akadns.net [216.239.59.99] with 32 bytes of data:


Geo

Thanks alot for your prompt reply.

Thanks alot for your prompt reply.


"JAD" wrote in message
nk.net...
Spybot S&D get it/run it

http://www.safer-networking.org/



"er3scf" wrote in message
news:YQDfb.497207$cF.175465@rwcrnsc53...
I know this is a hardware group but other groups I've posted to seem to
be
dead.

Weird a$$ problem. The other day I could not connect to anything
(browser or
email) so I called
up comcast. They had me change to "Obtain DNS server address
automatically"
rather than the 'use the follow DNS server addresses'. Btw this may not
be
related but I think its their DNS servers are messed up.

Anyway if I try to go to www.google.com or altavista.com it comes back
with
'the page cannot be
displayed'. If I try lycos or altavista I get a page which reads 'there
is
no website configured at this address'. That page is owned by
http://www.cpanel.net/

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine.
It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact
Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

One other thing, I tried SlimBrowser and have the exact same results.
And I
forgot to mention yahoo, if I goto yahoo that page is displayed but in
IE
I'll hit the search button and nothing happens in SlimBrowser it appears
to
be working but eventually times out with 'the page cannot be displayed'

btw I'm running win2000 IE 6.0.2800.1106 and cipher strength 128 all the
latest patches and releases

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page
owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can
get
there directly.

Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

I had a problem with dns server --exactly what you describe. It is not a
virus.
it seems to occur when there is a conflict between which browser is the
'default' .

I am not using broadband, but it happened here also.

When you get a message in the address bar, highlight it, copy it, paste in
notepad.

What it does is redirect the browser back to itself.

Finally, I set ie as default and lo and behold it clears up!!

Unless, your ie browser is an oem of your access provider, there will be a
conflict.

ie. aol, bundles an oem version of ie which does not conflict .

Hope this helps, as it is very frustrating!!
***********

I know this is a hardware group but other groups I've posted to seem to be
dead.

Weird a$$ problem. The other day I could not connect to anything (browser or
email) so I called
up comcast. They had me change to "Obtain DNS server address automatically"
rather than the 'use the follow DNS server addresses'. Btw this may not be
related but I think its their DNS servers are messed up.

Anyway if I try to go to www.google.com or altavista.com it comes back with
'the page cannot be
displayed'. If I try lycos or altavista I get a page which reads 'there is
no website configured at this address'. That page is owned by
http://www.cpanel.net/

Any other type of website such as boston.com, cnn.com, etc works fine. It
just seems to hate search engines. Comcast suggests that I contact Microsoft
on this matter. I checked for viruses and didn't see any.

One other thing, I tried SlimBrowser and have the exact same results. And I
forgot to mention yahoo, if I goto yahoo that page is displayed but in IE
I'll hit the search button and nothing happens in SlimBrowser it appears to
be working but eventually times out with 'the page cannot be displayed'

btw I'm running win2000 IE 6.0.2800.1106 and cipher strength 128 all the
latest patches and releases

If I ping google.com I get 207.44.194.56 which as I said is the page owned
by cpanel. Can someone ping google and post the result to see if I can get
there directly.

Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks











Subject: Strange problem accessing search engines
Path:
lobby!ngtf-m01.news.aol.com!ngpeer.news.aol.com!newsfeed1!bre dband!in.100
proofnews.com!in.100proofnews.com!attla2!ip.att.ne t!attbi_feed3!attbi_feed
4!attbi.com!rwcrnsc53.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "er3scf"
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Lines: 37
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165
Message-ID: YQDfb.497207$cF.175465@rwcrnsc53
NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.91.169.32
X-Complaints-To:
X-Trace: rwcrnsc53 1065290168 24.91.169.32 (Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:56:08 GMT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:56:08 GMT
Organization: Comcast Online
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 17:56:08 GMT

Btw this may not be
related but I think its their DNS servers are messed up.

They have way over loaded their DNS servers.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rema...cast~mode=flat
The only people in our computer group that have constant DNS troubles
are on Comcast. You can change to another DNS server even though
Comcast says not to.
http://support.open-rsc.org/

------------
When your PC gives a little they give a lot.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/disco

er3scf said this...

Weird a$$ problem.

So, did you get it sorted yet?

--
º~ dªv¡d ~º

"Groove" wrote in message
...
er3scf said this...
Also if anyone has any idea whats going on I'd appreciate any thoughts.


You've been hit by an ActiveX exploit throught your IE browser. This
messes
up your DNS settings and dumps a fake HOSTS file on your system. Read all
about it and the fix here...

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100719.htm


When you're clean goto MS Update, there's a new patch available.

HTH. Good luck.
--
º~ dªv¡d ~º

And many thanks from me, too. I got the damned thing somewhere, too.
Fortunately, it was easy to fix with the link you gave. (I used the manual
method.)

I found this thread by googling on another machine. Thank you very much for
pointing me to the solution to this baffling-looking problem.

(Dick-heads! Can't they be shut down? Is this crap really going to go on
forever? Here's an idea: bounty hunters. Perhaps some MORAL people, with
the same kind of techy minds, could be harnessed to CATCH these wipes. (And
mpegs of their executions, available on some site.))

--cleve