Unable to find .com servers, but can find .edu just fine...

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First off, I just want to say that this is a fantastic site with a great, helpful community. It has helped me solve several computer related issues and has saved me lots of time.

Here goes my problem:

I've noticed that lately my desktop and my laptop are having issues going to any website ending in .com (google.com). The browser will sit there and load for a minute or 2, then it will say that it can't find the server. However, when I go to any website ending in .edu (i.e. uc.edu) the site comes up rather quickly as it should. I just noticed this in the last couple of days and I just recently installed Norton 360 on both. Could this be causing the issue?

Could it be my ISP? router? I don't really seem to notice this issue when I take my laptop on campus and use my college's internet. But I've only used it on campus once so far this quarter, I might have gotten lucky. It doesn't seem to have this problem all of the time as well. Sometimes if I reset my router it helps.... I'm a complete loss on this issue. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help in advance.

- Mike
 
Hi Mike,

Your problem seems to be in your firewall settings.
Temporarily disabling your firewall, and testing, should show .com sites load without error.

As you are a student, it is possible that the Admin who set up your computer has place restrictions on your user account.
Therefore creating a new Administrator user account should fix those issues, but you may need to approach your computer technical staff at uni (?) and confirm with them first. ie you do not want to upset any user network settings made by your school for you.
 
A laptop! You likely took it to school and the DNS settings are wrong.
This is NOT a firewall condition :)

View Network Connections
find the LAN Connection and right click->Properties
pull down to TCP/IP -> properties
be sure DHCP is selected for both IP and DNS
use the Alternate tab
clear all data
save the results

get a command prompt; enter ipconfig /flushdns

reboot and enjoy :)
 
Could a busted hosts file do this? *.com 127.0.0.1 ? Could be a prank if so.
 
Yes

Anything that appears in your HOSTS file without an # at the beginning, apart from the "127.0.0.1 localhost" line, should be viewed with suspicion
 
Start -> Run -> C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Double click on "HOSTS" and open with Notepad

All the # entries mean nothing

But is there any line without a hash symbol before it ?
If so just copy and paste the line(s) into here
 
Pay attention to who mentioned this - I was just tossing it out there as a possibility. I don't know that his/her hosts file is actually abnormal.
 
> *.com 127.0.0.1

this is a bogus attempt to capture/inhibit all dot com domain access :(

I believe that the meta-character '*' pattern match is invalid in the HOST file
and ONLY domain names are valid therein.


edit:
For each host a single line should be present with the following information:

IP_address canonical_hostname [aliases...]

Fields of the entry are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters. Text from a "#" character until the end of the line is a comment, and is ignored. Host names may contain only alphanumeric characters, minus signs ("-"), and periods ("."). They must begin with an alphabetic character and end with an alphanumeric character. Optional aliases provide for name changes, alternate spellings, shorter hostnames, or generic hostnames (for example, localhost).
 
kimsland said:
Start -> Run -> C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Double click on "HOSTS" and open with Notepad

All the # entries mean nothing

But is there any line without a hash symbol before it ?
If so just copy and paste the line(s) into here

these are the only lines w/o a # sign before it:

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
 
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