Help! No other forum has been able to solve a computer problem

[olddvd]

OK, I am at my wits end on how to solve a problem I'm having with my Windows Explorer 6.

 

I am attempting to download the Windows Media Center program for my childern's Xbox 360, but everytime I click the button a new window opens up saying, "The page cannot be displayed" Now I've gotten persons from other forums to verify that they were able to download the link, but none have been able to give me a solution. Here's the link I'm trying to download from btw, http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/XPSP2.htm

 

I've got all the Windows security updates, I've run trendmicro's housecall, run norton antivirus, and Ad-aware and SpyBot programs and nothing worse than cookies have been found and removed. I've removed my router, shut down my firewalls, used my kids computer with XP, installed Mozilla Firefox browser, and even pulled out an old laptop with 98se on it to try to get this thing to download, but NOTHING WORKS!

 

Now here's the other werid thing that's been happening for a month. From time to time I have been unable to link to websites because they had "www." infront of them, but if I removed the "www." and just used the web address to go to the website it would work.

 

As a last ditch effort I called my cable modem company trying to figure this out and it's not a cable problem as my connection is fine and now all I can do is call Xbox and see what suggestions they have. I'm not expecting any resolution from them as I can almost bet something's gotten messed up on my IE settings somewhere.

 

I'm hoping somepersons will be able to suggest a solution.

[lfcrule1972]

EDIT: Sorry just read you have tried Firefox.......

 

Mmm - well I had a problem with IE6 back last year whereby it kept closing itself and all instances of IE6 down when you clicked a link on a page.

 

I tried uninstalls then reinstall's scoured the help pages, posted everywhere but nothing that matched my problem or that seemed to be able to fix it ! In the end I ditched IE6 (except for the automatic updates) and switched to Firefox.....

 

I realise you (like me) want to get IE6 working again, in the end I couldn't be bothered anymore, Microsoft even offered to charge me to fix it !!!

 

It may solve the problem for you if you use Firefox instead of IE6 to grab the download.

 

Regards

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Sounds like your ISP has the IP address of the above site in its blacklist.

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Not knowing what version of the program you wanted (there's 3 of them), I've downloaded the XP SP/2 version and am uploading it to my webspace for you. I'm convinced your ISP is blocking IP ranges which, unfortunately, is also where the XBox site lives. Anyhow, grab it from my place at:

 

http://users.tpg.com.au/adsldxhe/xboxxpsp2-enu.exe

 

 

If it's not a the right version, leave a post here and I'll grab the correct one for you.

[chewy]

nice bandwidth Shamus

 

somehow I kept getting the download from MS, why would it be

blacklisted?

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

The bandwidth should be good as it's sitting on my ISPs HD.

 

The file itself looks to be just an installer like some of the Windows updates. You know the ones - run the file and it installs over the internet. Kodak do it with their camera software too.

 

As for being blacklisted - Well, ISPs rely on DNS blacklists to ban traffic from suspected spammers. If an updated list blocks IPs in the range of 202.140.223.0 to 203.200.123.123 (for example), all inbound or outbound traffic within that range will be discarded. If an innocent business or individual owns/rents an IP within this range, they may not be able to contact websites hosted on that ISP. The reverse is also true. If a number of IP addresses are being blocked by a users' ISP, they will not be able to contact it - even if it's legitimate. It's happened to me on a couple of occasions when the "powers that be" have gotten it wrong and I've been unable to connect to a particular site when all others work fine.

[chewy]

The bandwidth should be good as it's sitting on my ISPs HD.

 

The file itself looks to be just an installer like some of the Windows updates. You know the ones - run the file and it installs over the internet. Kodak do it with their camera software too.

 

As for being blacklisted - Well, ISPs rely on DNS blacklists to ban traffic from suspected spammers. If an updated list blocks IPs in the range of 202.140.223.0 to 203.200.123.123 (for example), all inbound or outbound traffic within that range will be discarded. If an innocent business or individual owns/rents an IP within this range, they may not be able to contact websites hosted on that ISP. The reverse is also true. If a number of IP addresses are being blocked by a users' ISP, they will not be able to contact it - even if it's legitimate. It's happened to me on a couple of occasions when the "powers that be" have gotten it wrong and I've been unable to connect to a particular site when all others work fine.

 

I was linked to the full installer, 80MB.

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Yeah. I thought that might be the case when you mentioned the Microsoft site. Logically, there's a problem with "OldDVDs' ISP not wanting to talk to the XBox site.

[chewy]

DNS issue?

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Nope. The fact that he posted here confirms that DNS works fine. If his DNS server (at his ISP) wasn't working properly he wouldn't be able to use a web browser as there would be no way to translate "www" addresses into IP addresses.

[chewy]

we had similar problems when our isp switched dns servers last year,

nothing worked quite right, the old servers weren't being updated and

some sites worked fine others not at all

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Ah! Now I'm with you. Yep. A DNS problem but not at the user end. It's possible (even probable) that his ISP has imported a dodgy blacklist that blocks some parts of the world but not others. Something like this:

 

Block:

 

ARMENIA:194.67.218.0-194.67.219.255

ARMENIA:194.84.221.0-194.84.221.127

ARMENIA:195.151.94.0-195.151.94.255

ARMENIA:195.250.64.0-195.250.95.255

ARMENIA:212.42.192.0-212.42.223.255

ARMENIA:212.73.64.0-212.73.95.255

ARMENIA:213.165.202.0-213.165.202.255

ARMENIA:213.187.224.0-213.187.231.255

ARMENIA:213.208.33.0-213.208.33.255

ARMENIA:213.255.198.168-213.255.198.175

ARMENIA:217.113.0.0-217.113.31.255

ARMENIA:217.151.229.0-217.151.229.255

ARMENIA:217.151.233.0-217.151.233.255

ARUBA:66.247.200.0-66.247.207.255

ARUBA:199.0.80.0-199.0.87.255

ARUBA:199.2.112.0-199.2.119.255

ARUBA:201.229.0.0-201.229.63.255

ARUBA:204.212.120.0-204.212.127.255

ARUBA:209.239.81.0-209.239.81.255

AUSTRALIA:58.3.128.0-58.3.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.6.0.0-58.7.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.27.128.0-58.27.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.29.0.0-58.29.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.64.128.0-58.64.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.65.32.0-58.65.63.255

AUSTRALIA:58.65.224.0-58.65.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.68.128.0-58.68.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.84.64.0-58.84.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.87.0.0-58.87.63.255

AUSTRALIA:58.96.0.0-58.97.255.255

AUSTRALIA:58.99.64.0-58.99.255.255

 

 

Allow:

AUSTRALIA:59.100.0.0-59.103.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.107.128.0-59.107.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.110.0.0-59.111.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.151.128.0-59.151.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.152.128.0-59.152.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.154.0.0-59.155.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.167.0.0-59.167.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.172.0.0-59.175.255.255

AUSTRALIA:59.191.128.0-59.191.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.13.64.0-60.13.127.255

AUSTRALIA:60.205.0.0-60.207.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.224.0.0-60.231.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.235.0.0-60.235.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.240.0.0-60.243.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.244.128.0-60.244.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.245.64.0-60.247.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.249.0.0-60.252.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.253.64.0-60.253.64.254

AUSTRALIA:60.253.96.0-60.253.255.255

AUSTRALIA:60.254.192.0-60.254.255.255

AUSTRALIA:61.4.80.0-61.4.127.255

AUSTRALIA:61.4.176.0-61.4.191.255

 

 

etc..

[olddvd]

Shamus,

 

Thx, I was able to download the program from your website.

 

Now the question remains, how the heck can I convence my ISP that they're the problem and not my browser? Such as the blocked range of IP.

 

Then there is still the question about why the heck I'm having problems with the "www." in front of web address' and me having to remove it so that I can go to a website.

Edited January 26, 2006 by olddvd

[Kenadjian]

Pending on the type of error you're getting, you could have a corrupt Winsock 2 reg key, if that's the case, this should fix it, it happend to one of mates after installing Firefox, then ie6 would not work.

 

Look carefully at your error before jumping into this.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308780/en-us

[olddvd]

I was about to review Kenadjian's idea and decided to click on link with Xbox that I was having problems with. The link decided to work!

 

I tried to fix this problem trying a few different ways, but did them 2 days ago and was unable to link up after rebooting. Now out of no where, I'm able to link up; unreal. Plus the fact a website that I had problems with just 6 hrs ago, with the "www." problem, now can be viewed WITH "www." in the web address without a problem.

 

Guess, I'll see if everything goes screwy later on or if I did something to fix the problem and didn't realize it.

 

Thx everyone

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Sorry for the delay but I?ve had huge h/ware problems for the last 3 days. (I hate computers sometimes)

 

Glad to hear you got it working. ?Why? is a bit of a mystery though. It?d be interesting to know if your ISP changed anything at their end. It sure sounds like it.