1. I see nothing in your log which indicates that malicious infections are the source of the problem.
2. In terms of the hosts file, you can restore it to its original state with a utility called Hoster (although I can't remember if it's designed to work on Win 98).
DMR
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Yeah- I didn't really think the hosts file was a problem, but I thought I'd suggest it since you asked.
Can you give us the specifics of your network setup please (type of connection, makes/models of modem, router, etc.)? The cause of intermittent loss of abilty to reach sites could really lie anywhere in your network chain.
DMR
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Dial-up connections can be pretty prone to dropouts and interference from electrical noise on the phone line; you might have a problem in that area.
The next time that you find that you can't reach a site through your browser:
- Open an MS-DOS window: Go to the "Run..." option under your Start menu and type "command" (omit the quotes), and hit Enter.
- At the DOS prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
ping www.google.com
If the ping works, it should return 4 positive responses and some summary information. If it fails, tell us the exact error that it returns.
If the above ping does fail, try pinging Google by its IP address instead of by its URL:
ping 66.102.7.147
Let us know the results.
DMR
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Which ping? The one by URL, the one by IP address, or both?
If only the ping by IP address worked, you most likely have a DNS problem, because DNS is responsible for translating the "www.somesite.com" URL into the actual IP address that the computer needs have in order to contact the site.
If both pings worked, your problem lies elsewhere. Is it only certain sites that you're having trouble reaching, or does the problem occur randomly occur regardless of where you're surfing?
DMR
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why are you using dial up?
frenemy
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why are you using dial up?
Probably because a lot of people still don't have a choice. :(
DMR
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There are talented troubleshooters on many of the online support forums, but there's really no way that I could know who will definitely be able to fix your particular problem. It's obviously usually more difficult for any online person to diagnose a problem than it is for a technician who can physically work on the computer; you might want to find such a person in your area and have them take a look at the problem.
However, since you said that both pings worked while your browser wasn't working, I'd look into that further first:
- Download and install a different browser and see if it exhibits the same symptoms.
- Reinstall/repair your current browser. If you're using Internet Explorer right now, you can try the free IEFix utility.
DMR
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... I addressed them in my first post...
My apologies- I've been experiencing some problems accessing this site for the last week or so, which has made it a bit difficult for me to correctly follow all of the threads I've been working on.
However: you mention DNS problems, and determining if your problem lay in that area was exactly why I asked you to try the pings (both by IP and URL) of Google at the times that your browerswere not able to reach that site. A ping by URL relies on DNS in the same way that a browser request for a URL does; if a URL ping works, but a browser's site request by URL does not, it's usually indicative of the fact that DNS-related functions are working.
DMR
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