Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 11/9/2006

Question
Carolyn,
No, my friend logged onto her own computer.  I have since installed her service provider (using her password) on one of my computers and that doesn't work either.  With Internet Explorer I get the error "dns error".  I checked a little further and ran a diagnostic in Internet Explorer and it states that the Network Adapter failed, WAN Miniport failed and DNS Servers failed.  I have checked the firewalls, third-party conflicts, drivers, etc. etc.  Any other suggestions?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi Carolyn,

All of a sudden I can't get to a website that I have been using for a year for my business.  I get the 504 Gateway Time Out message.  The website is www.dor.state.nc.us/business.  I have been in touch with AOL and tried all their suggestions, nothing works.  I uninstalled and reinstalled AOL at their suggestion and that didn't work.  I have two computers with AOL installed (not networked) and neither one works with this site.  I had someone else log in for me with a different service provider and it works fine.
-----Answer-----
When your friend logged into a different service provider, was it on one of your two computers that can't reach www.dor.state.nc.us/business? If so, then the fault lies with AOL, either in its software on your computer or in its network, that perhaps they don't have a route any more to that site. Sad to say, this means that it is up to them to fix their problem. Since they just fired hundreds of technical support people to save money, you aren't likely to get much help from them. Your most certain solution, then, would be to get an online service provider that cares enough about customers to be able to solve the technical problems they cause for their customers.

If you absolutely want to keep AOL, your other alternative unfortunately costs money. Several companies offer anonymous online browsing through software that you install on your computer. This software connects you to one of their proxy servers, which in turn will access any website. You would basically be paying for an alternative online service, with the added benefit that owners of the websites you visit can't tell it was you who went there. One of the best such services is available at www.anonymizer.com.

Answer
Here's a possibility. Your computer has a file named "hosts" and it can redirect your computer to a different or a nonexistent web address if an intruder or malicious software has changed its contents. The location of this file depends upon your version of Windows. You can find all files named "hosts" with an Explorer search. Since yours is a home computer, this file ought to be exactly the same as it was when Windows was first installed. Just to be safe, since I don't know your operating system, check all these "hosts" files.

You can open it with notepad or any word processor. If it is OK, it should look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com          # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost

If you find any entry in this file that includes nc.us then you have found the culprit. Remove this entry and your computer should be able to reach this website again.

If this doesn't work, take a look at your firewall settings just in case some prankster blocked this site at your firewall.

If this isn't the problem, here's another alternative. Uninstall your current antivirus program and install the free trial version of F-Secure Internet Security, which offers a free trial version at http://www.f-secure.com/home_user/support_and_downloads/evaluations/ . Download all updates and run a full system scan.

There are other alternatives but they get increasingly painful. Hope one of these works.