blocked access to pprune

[stator vane]

any help as to how i can access pprune would be appreciated.

for some reason my laptop will not pull up the pprune page at all. always the same unavailable page pops up. i can access any other web page i wish.

i have tried clearing all cookies, history etc. something is definitely stopping me from getting the page. any clues from anyone will be appreciated. i have tried with my virus protection off and on and no difference.

however all appears operational when i come to the library and use their computer.

however, i cannot use the email or private message on the library computer.

please help if possible. you can send me an email, that still works on laptop.

cheers

[PPRuNe Towers]

1. Delete cookies, then restart.
2. Make sure 'remember me' is always checked upon login.
3. Check your security softwares settings or turn it off for a second, and see if you still have a problem using PPRuNe.
4. Make sure you use pprune.org in your connections and not pprune.com.

Regards
Rob

[Tarq57]

As above. Check that the firewall hasn't decided to block prune. What sort of firewall is it? And check that prune is included in "trusted sites" on IE.

[stator vane]

i've tried all the above-but to no avail.

strange that i can access every other page in the world except for this one.
and it is such a test to use the library computer.

i have uninstalled netscape, installed a newer version, and still can't touch it. i tried to reinstall IE but it only really looked for most recent updates.
i have checked firewall settings and have even turned the bloody thing off for a few minutes and still no access just to pprune. i have even gone into msconfig and made sure all the virus and firwalls were off to check. still something blocking it.

perhaps they want me to pay for a subscription. i will as soon as i can get access to do it on my home computer.

i have tried to email microsoft for help, but that is like spitting into the wind. i have emailed my virus people and called my broadband people and they all talk me through similar steps and still no success. they then suggest my buying a new computer. but without knowing why this happened, what will protect my new computer????

surely there is a computer man/woman out there that would have a clue as to what it might be.

[Conan the Librarian]

You may have inadvertantly blocked the site. Having tried the above, I wonder if you are using Norton Internet Security or similar? I would think that the problem could easily be caused, by Firewall, Int security, etc.

Were it me, I would first, just confirm with your ISP that they too can get Pprune loading up and then unload any Internet Security suites and reinstall them from scratch. (Though do make sure that you are offline whilst doing so ) With bells and whistles like parental control and other little goodies, it is quite possible to block the site. I know that you have turned off whatever you have, but in my book, I still think it better to uninstall and reinstall.

Failing that, I will give you a tenner for your laptop.

Keep the faith!

Conan

[BOFH]

Stator Vane,

you didn't say whether other machines you or others might have on the same connexion can get through.

Are you able to ping it or tracert it? If so, can you address the IP address directly from the browser? If not, could there be any intermediate proxy that you might have which blocks pprune? I know for a fact that our firm blocks it :mad:

Just for fun, you might like trying it with a different browser - I mean Opera or Firefox.

As Conan said, keep on trying!
BOFH

[stator vane]

when at home, i only have one machine, my lappy, which has said blockage. we could bring yours over here to try.

i have uninstalled netscape and installed a newer version, but it has the same problem.

i can go into "run" and disarm all boxes related to my anti virus, "panda" as per instructions of other computer helpers, clear all cookies, history, etc-restart and still blocked. have gone into every window i can find and made sure no websites' access is blocked etc.

next step is to somehow clear out and rewrite the whole y harddrive i suppose.

very frustrating and until i learn otherwise, the best i can tell you is to avoid "panda" software and "toucan" broadband. the trouble started not long after the two were placed together into my lappy. might be some conflict. but when i call toucan, which now charges .30 per minute!!!!(after i started with them), they say the problem is not on their side. of course what else would one really expect them to say.

so avoid if possible. and if i'm lucky, they might read this here and get motivated to do something to help me.

[Tarq57]

A big possibility is the ISP. I had a look at some reviews, here's one, http://www.ciao.co.uk/Toucan__Review_5537877 and it aint too glowing. A while ago my emails were blocked to a friend overseas, turns out my ISP address appears to have been blocked by the company his ISP uses, because of spamming. (The only spamming I've ever done relates to food).He's having problems getting it unblocked. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a similar sort of case, in which case reinstalling windows or whatever won't make a scrap of difference. If you were going to change ISP's anyway, wait and see if that makes a difference first.

[P.Pilcher]

I am possibly a little out of my depth here, but as you appear to be U.K. based, it should be easy to try another ISP for free- well the cost of a telephone call. My broadband ceases to function occasionally - probably something to do with my BT line so to check that the problem is not with PPRuNe or some of my other favourite sites, I switch back to that Neathanderthal of internet systems, good old dialup! PPRuNe and all the others then come rolling in but at what speed........ and to think that a few short years ago we all accepted this as normal!

P.P.

[roach]

Don't know if this is much help but i had a very similar problem recently. I could not follow any thread or post/login through my laptop. I could open the first page and no more.I could then advance one more page my clearing cookies every time. Went to the desktop and set the same ticks in boxes in tools>internet options>advanced and all seems ok. Now the bloody PC is playing up and doing the same!
I can only login for one session on the laptop even though I ask it to remember me.
Good luck!!

[stator vane]

i dug up my old lappy out of the moldy green boxes in the attic along with the old olitec modem, got it going and it actually booted up. and amazing that through that modem and the attglobal dial up, i still couldn't access pprune. i could get any thing else i tried, even the volvo web page of all things. tried to sneak in through google, but no success.

i wonder if toucan did do something when they took access to the line. but when i call them they say they can access it on their computer whilst i am talking to them.

this will be a good story for the computer magazines when i ever get it sorted out.

must take my lappies to another house and use someone else's phone line and then see what happens! i am getting to feel a bit paranoid about the whole thing.

[drauk]

What happens if you browse each of these sites:

http://www.dsc.net
http://www.extrasheet.com
http://www.connextra.com

Also, from the computer with the problem, visit this page and send me a private message with your IP address: http://www.whatismyip.com

[5milesbaby]

I had the EXACT same problem, but not only with the wireless laptop but also with the non-wireless desktop upstairs starting about the time of your first post. I too on the laptop re-installed everything I thought was a problem, and turned off Norton/Zonelabs even to try and cure it, personalising the IE security too, and kept attempting connection with the desktop too. Nothing worked. I logged in on a friends computer with my ID during this period no problems. I tried googling PPRuNe and used their links but no joy, however I checked the cashed version (don't understand computers that well and don't know the difference really) and this managed to load up the front page, but I couldn't get any further in without googling the individual pages and seeing if a cashed version was available. I tried emailling [email protected] and they kept being bounced back as failed. I even tried emailling a couple of Mod's whose addresses were in one or two of the threads I was able to pull up through the cashed versions and even these failed. Then lo and behold on Monday 6th the desktop got in without any problems, but still not the laptop, until on Tuesday when again got straight in, and been working fine ever since. I'm glad that you started this thread as I thought it was just me and my lack of computer knowledge causing problems, but maybe there is something far more technical to discover. Good luck :ok:

[stator vane]

i have uninstalled panda antivirus. and downloaded NOD32 instead. the computer does move a lot faster now. but still no pprune access. i have started using mozilla firefox.

we have done the ping thing and the tracert. first couple of pings worked. but not anymore!!!! but even when it pinged, i could access the pprune any other way. i talked to the "2nd level" technician (the inner sanctum people) at toucan and they could access pprune when using my sign in connection. they are saying something is in my machine that is blocking the pprune access. but just last day we spoke to them, i couldn't ping pprune and they couldn't ping pprune. perhaps pprune has something that is blocking our access and now the toucan's access.

to the earlier post asking me to check access to the other websites, they worked fine. i am a bit relunctant to give my IP on the open pprune page. and this computer here at the library does not allow access to private message section.

just received a new windows xp disc and will re write the harddrive and start all over again. when you reply to this page, i receive the message via my normal email but i cannot reply until back at the library and then only on this page.

also learned that toucan uses tiscalli for their system!!!! my advice is to dig around on the net before choosing a broadband service. my next choice will be pipex, which had the best ratings that i have found thus far. and then again, panda hasn't impressed me much at all. so when you choose a broadband server, talk to them and confirm which anti virus they recommend etc. might just be a conflict between the various softwares.

just at the time when the hiring starts for the coming summer, i can only access pprune in the library whilst others are breathing down my neck!!!!

[Tarq57]

I'm quite out of my depth here, but the sort of thing I think might be likely is a changed registry entry. Since there are 10's of 1000's of these beasties, it's a good place for programs with hooks ie malware to hide some of their nasties, it sounds like it could be something leftover after uninstalling a program that has altered or deleted a specific registry entry. Very weird. Pprune is the only affected function on your computer? I would look at a Hijack-This scan. Maybe post the logfile on a computer geek forum if it's too confusing (and they tend to be, a bit.) Good Luck.

[BOFH]

Stator Vane,

you must be climbing the walls by now - we all are!

Do you have a friend with a laptop? Get him around to try, and make sure that you Google thorougly to tell your ISP what you think of them.

If you don't have a spare friend with a laptop, try a Knoppix disc on your machine, configure, test and abuse as suggested above.

As far as ISPs are concerned, there is one which rhymes with 'ten' - expensive but worth it.

BOFH

[stator vane]

earlier thread was blocked access to pprune.

after all was said and done, it took a call to microsoft tech-via a UK number to customer service-then connected to someone in India to get it sorted.

after his talking me through run cmd and pinging around-no ping to pprune, but good pings everywhere else-he then sent me run system32-then looked for "drivers" folder, open that, then "etc" folder open-and then open "hosts" folder with notepad. came up with a list of IP's and websites. he then said to put a # in front of each line. he said it makes them into "comments." close and save. then back out, restart and lo and behold access to pprune possible.

i could have kissed him if he weren't so far away.

i offered to buy a drink, and that's when i found out he was in India.

God bless him.

[stator vane]

i'm so chuffed that it is working!!!!

but he didn't know how and why and neither do i.

and suggestions?

at least will know where to look next time.

cheers;

[Globaliser]

but he didn't know how and why and neither do i.
and suggestions?An explanation of the HOSTS file (and how to use it to block nasties) is available on this page (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm).

But that doesn't in itself explain how pprune.org got into your HOSTS file, or how some other HOSTS file entry had the effect of interfering with your PPRuNe access.

[stator vane]

i have no idea how it got there. i've never done anything to change it-at least not to my knowledge.

i wonder if the panda antivirus did it some how.

i'm sticking with the Nod32 for now.

my father used to tell me "if it works-don't fix it."

if i ever find out i will post it.

cheers

[Devlin Carnet]

Is it the standard hosts file, or a custom one, because if I had to put a #
in front of every entry in my hosts file it would take me a week!
The best prevention of adware ever invented, the hosts file.

[drauk]

Post the hosts file here and we can tell you why it fixed the problem.

[stator vane]

we're getting out beyond my reach here. can only tell you what happened. i don't know why any thing got into the host file or how. i just went where i was told and did what he said and it worked. there were only 13 or so in my host file. so it didn't take long at all. he also said that i could delete all and it wouldn't matter.

don't ask me why it wouldn't matter. but he said to put the # in front of them all instead of deleting them and somehow they became "comments" whatever that really means.

it works so i will leave it like that. if i ever find out how they got there i will let you know.

by there way there was only one line that already had a # in front of it.

some sites i recognized some i didn't.

i will check from time to time to see if the file changes.

wish i could tell you more.

cheers;