[K. Rattie]

I don't know what happened to cause it, but I have a problem.

Just last week, I've noticed that both Firefox and I.E. have stopped loading specific websites. Particularly websites that I visit most often, such as deviantART. Whenever I try to access these websites through one of my browsers, it will load for quite a while, but will end up stopping on a blank white page. The website never loads - the icon next to the URL in the address bar doesn't even show up. It's just a blank white page.

However, I tried running deviantART through Google, and I clicked the "view cached text only" option, instead of loading the full website. All of the text shows up perfectly, but whenever I try to access the site regularly, all I get is the blank white page and nothing.

To try to verify that it was a problem with my computer, I tried logging on to my laptop. It's a seperate computer, and I plugged it in to the same connection I am using for this computer (a Comcast modem). To my suprise, the same websites did not work on my laptop, either.

Though, I've asked friends to try to access the websites I've been trying to go on, and they have all claimed they work fine. So, as far as I know, the sites aren't the problem.

I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm currently running Norton Internet Security / Antivirus and Spy Sweeper on my computer, and I do full system sweeps regularly. But I don't see that as the problem, hence I couldn't connect on a different computer, either.

Please help? I don't want to be banned from my favorite sites, anymore!

 

[kiwiguy]

Some times when new batches of IP addresses are issued, it takes a while for all servers to recognise them as "valid".

It is referred to here as the "Bogan IP Address issue".

It's *possible* that could be the problem, but that would depend on your allocation of the IP, if it is Dynamic (as mine is) or Static. Should not be an issue for a Static IP address.

 

[K. Rattie]

Is there any way to clarify whether I have a static or dynamic IP address? And if this is my problem, will I eventually be able to access the sites again, or is there a fix to it? If I just have to wait, how long would it be?

And I'm a beginner when it comes to dealing with topics like these, so I'm sorry if I sound slow.

 

[kiwiguy]

Your ISP will know, but as we do not know if you use cable, dial-up or DSL, and what country you are in or who your ISP is, even a guess is difficult.

Generally all dial-up is dynamic, the rest depend largely on ISP's and trends for the country concerned.

As an example, in NZ you pay extra for a DSL connection with a static IP so they tend to be rare, dial-up is always dynamic.

 

[K. Rattie]

Well, I'm using a cable connection by Comcast right now. I would expect my connection to be dynamic, though, hence - aren't static IP addresses limited by internet service providers?

But are there any solutions to my current problem, most importantly, if I do happen to have this issue?

 

[kiwiguy]

If that is the case, then only time will heal it.

Or, if you can identify 100% somehow that it is the case, you would need to track down the webmaster for each site, get them to communicate the issue to their server provider to see if they can update the validation table.

Start by talking to your ISP about the issue, see what they have to say.

 

[K. Rattie]

Thank you for your help!

My ISP will hopefully give me some advice from here.

 

[Mouse_Nightshirt]

I'm hoping someone can help me out here.

The same problem has just arisen with me with the website http://www.aamisiondepot.com which is very very pants, as I've had this problem before, and only repaired itself after I did a reformat for something else (more on that later).

Just to clarify, this page tries to load, then simply stays at a blank page. On checking the page source, there is nothing there at all. This happens on both Firefox and IE7.

Now last time I had this problem, I tried and I tried to fix it (this was with http://www.sitemeter.com) to no avail. However, after recently having to get a new HDD after the old one decided to fry, that site now works. So basically it took a reformat to fix it. This leads me to believe that my problem, as well as K.Rattie's is user end instead of server end. However, it doesn't actually work on any of the computers on our network, which makes me think it has something to do with the router. However, this wouldn't explain why a reformat would make a website work that wasn't before. Another puzzling thing is that I haven't touched the router settings in between the time the site was working and the time when the site stopped working.

Any help appreciated!

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EDIT
==========

I've just run a traceroute from my computer to the www.aamissiondepot.com with VR2007. According to it, there's a firewall well down the route, but its able to make a connection on Port 80 - so this means I'm seemingly left with a browser specific problem, or as I think more likely, a network problem. I don't know what to do now, any help appreciated!

 

[dr14b]

I've had the same problem After stopping Webroot's Spy Sweeper, the problem stops and I can access formerly blocked websites and RSS feeds. I don't know yet what aspect of Spy Sweeper is causing the problem but I will continue to look.