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got a problem on my son's PC. He is running ie5.5 & Win98. Everytime he connects to the net (using several different ISP and accounts) he gets the "unable to find the page" screen.
Any ideas on the reasons why or settings that may need adjusting?
Wouldn't mind betting that if you got to Tools, Options, Connections, in IE5.5, you'll find the "Never Dial a Connection" box ticked. If so, the ISP you use would not matter, because IE won't go looking for one. Change it to "Dial my Default Connection" and make sure that the default connection exists in the box above.
Let's assume he is connected, otherwise the above in checking what connection, if at all IE will use becomes a factor.
If connected and getting this, then try an IP address in the browser. If you get a site up that way, but not thru it's domain name, then you likely have a DNS resolution issue with the service you are on, or your DNS settings are not correct, (you may be specifying a set, where in most cases the selection of "assigned by server" will suffice.)
Anytime you are connected and not getting pages, I advise to try the IP checking, can save time in issue determination ...
and the latter of the above is also true, it could be the browser being corrupt. But we need to hear more info on the conditions at the time (connected, not connected, etc.)
Firstly, determine that you have a good connection to your ISP, by going to Start-Run, then typing 'winipcfg' and hit Enter. You should have a bunch of numbers in the IP Address section. If they are all zero's, then your problem is with the dial-up.
Next we need to check that you have a good connection past your ISP. Go to Start-Run, but this time type 'command' and hit Enter. Within the black window type 'ping 192.148.252.54' and hit Enter. This will "ping" a DNS server to check for a good internet connection. If this returns a 'Request Timeout' or 'Destination Host Unreachable', then your ISP is having problems with their connection to the internet which should be temporary. If it returns the ping correctly, then your connection to the internet is good.
This then means that it is your browser at fault or your destination website is unavailable. Try running the connection wizard for the browser again, or confirm that it is the browser at fault by installing another browser such as Netscape. If Netscape also has problems, then the chances are that the destination site is unavailable at that time.
Thanks for the advice. It's certainly not a homepage problem - all of the links produce the same result! It's not an ISP problem as the accounts work fine on my other PC. I think it is a browser fault.
In that case, a quick cure would be to try Opera.. only catch is that you will have to have a successful internet connection to download and install the browser (www.opera.com). You can sometimes find it on the free CD supplied by those Internet magazines. Its only a small file, non invasive and easily removeable if it does not do the trick. Hope this helps.