O, Computer Guru, Hear Me!

[Bra]

Okay, this is odd and annoying. Certain sites, including, say, gamefaqs.com among others, are totally unavailable to me. I know they're there, because I could, for example, ask a friend over IM to check the site whilst I am, so I know the problem's not on their end.

I just can't connect for whatever reason. I can ping them with success, and I've tried flushing my dns, but nothing helps. I don't know. Maybe it's something simpler than that, maybe it's not. I'll try pretty much anything short of lighting candles on my PC.

Help?

[Tobias]

Light some candles on your PC and check back.

[Saz]

Have you tried turn in on and off?

[Waffuru]

I think your problem could be your hosts file.

Try using a custom hosts file like the one listed here.

Or, (this might be easier) use something like Hosts Man and check if sites you cannot access are listed there.

[Milk Bubble]

Waffuru To The Rescue!!

[Bra]

...Not quite. ;_;

Changed my hosts file, no dice. Same problems. Anything else I should try?

[Violet]

Firewall? Perhaps you have them listed as restricted sites, or maybe your antivirus does? Try turning your AV off and visiting the sites.

[Bra]

I have. I've disabled them, fucked with them, yelled at them. Nothing.

[Violet]

Lame. i can't think of anything else that hasn't been already suggested then, unless your ISP is blocking them, for some reason. Reformat party?

[Bra]

Man, I hope not. I just did that like a month ago.

And yeah, if I find out my ISP is blocking them I'll be upset, to say the least. But I doubt that's what's wrong because I've never seen any indication of it.

[Waffuru]

Well, could be your ISP blocking them.. why they would is ???? but hey, maybe FAQs are for terrorists.

Maybe try using the IP form of the site, (although GameFAQs will show a "under maintenance page instead").

http://216.239.113.186/

What other sites are blocked/not showing up?

[Bra]

Didn't work. =\

As for your question:

Uh...

Newgrounds, a large portion of stuff on YouTube (but not the main site/several areas, for some reason), and my bro has some chat site he can't get on. Not sure what. Download.com is spotty. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I've never encountered this before, so it's all very strange to me.

[Bra]

Got a looooooooooooooooot worse.

I'm experiencing system failures all over my fucking computer. If I get knocked offline for a couple days, this is why.

[Orion]

Try a repair install. It might be spyware or some crap like that, try using hijackthis.

[Bra]

Maybe I will. I used a system restore point set a month and a half ago. Still fucked up, but less fucked up. I'll try that suggestion in a day or two.

[Hellfighter 17]

Well, could be your ISP blocking them.. why they would is ???? but hey, maybe FAQs are for terrorists.

This is Canada - if anything, those sites would get into the news and people would fight for their right to get government funding so as to keep freedom of speech.

[Bra]

Yeah, that's a pretty good definition of Canada, actually. 'Spend money on really stupid shit just to keep the populace happy.'

[Josh]

Time to get a Mac!

[Bojack]

On a slightly related note, my AVG keeps detecting some "Exploit" virus every now and then while I browse the forum.

[Bra]

Macs are gay. No thank you. I'd rather get a virus on occasion for a system that can use like 99% of everything out there than a system that's so unimportant people don't even bother creating malicious software for.