Unable to browse random websites -Windows Vista Home Premium

[NeilD]

Hi All,
I have a Dell Studio 1555 Laptop, Windows Vista Home Premium, SP 2, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, Norton 360 Antivirus.I use a 10 Mbs Broadband link
Since yesterday, I'm unable to browse random websites, such as Microsoft etc.Used several browsers, IE, Firefox, Chrome, but once the URL is entereted, the browser is thinking and then "Page cannot be displayed"'m able to browse yahoo,Google, etc.
Tried pinging to the Microsoft website..these are the stats:
C:\Users\MY DELL>ping www.microsoft.com

Pinging lb1.www.ms.akadns.net [64.4.11.42] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Tried logging in with other User profile on my PC..no luck. Checked the hosts file.nothing there...
# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 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

Executed NAV..threats cleared... Can someone please advise regarding how to resolve the issue. Thanks, Neil

 

[DelJo63]

C:\Users\MY DELL>ping www.microsoft.com

Pinging lb1.www.ms.akadns.net [64.4.11.42] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

hmm; you attempted to ping microsoft.com and accessed akadns.net instead?

=== read ALL this before you do anything; there's a gotcha here ===

run IPCONFIG /ALL and report your DNS Server Addresses.

Who is your ISP? Run NSLOOKUP on the ISP domain name too and report their DNS names.

View your browser add-ons and disable ALL of them, at least temporarily.

==== here's what I discovered as I was preparing this == =

C:\Users\Jeff>ping www.microsoft.com
 
Pinging lb1.www.ms.akadns.net [64.4.11.42] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
 
Ping statistics for 64.4.11.42:
	Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

This smacks of DNS POISONING to me

 

[DelJo63]

Added info: FF & Chrome can still access www.microsoft.com, but ping & tracert time out after the node 207.46.44.71

 

[DelJo63]

More info:

ns1.msft.net [65.55.37.62] (Redmond, Washington, United States)
;;Answer
www.microsoft.com. 3600 IN CNAME toggle.www.ms.akadns.net

apparently, the akadns.net is a CNAME entry in the microsoft dns.
A CNAME acts like an alias :sigh:

So, as a site can optionally elect to accept or ignore PING requests (hence the timeouts) and still support HTTP requests on port 80, my browser access to www.microsoft.com is different than the OP's

[edit: see this tool for DNS query results /edit]

 

[NeilD]

Hi Jo,
I followed the instructions,
Enclosed within are the excerpts of the results