internet site access problem

I always access my credit card site routinely to check charges. Starting last friday, I can't pull up the site page. Intenet Explorer 8 just says "cannot display the webpage" and the diagnotic option is worthless (just says there's no problem with the connection). I called Citibank and their tech support person was just reading off instructions which only had me ck the cookies and clear the cache then they had no idea what else to do. I disabled windows firewall to see if that helped. It did not. I downloaded Firefox and tried it but that didn't help either (I use IE because my slow dialup service's accelerator is only configured to work with that browser). Any suggestions before I get aggravated enough to change credit card companies? The site is citicards.com which then goes to secure site credicards.citi.com. I can't understand why I've had no problems for years and now I do when I did nothing different and they claim they didn't make any changes.

 

This problem is frequently a failure of the DNS server you are using - it cannot convert citicards.com to an IP number. What happens if you open a command prompt and enter ping citicards.com? It should start pinging 192.193.8.102 and although the ping itself will time out I think, it will prove whether this is a DNS problem or not.

 

It sure does sound like a DNS problem. My guess is that the problem will self correct as the lookup table on the DNS server you're accessing is updated.

 

I did the ping and that's what happened--it timed out. Thanks. I'll keep trying.

 

It times out because their server doesn't answer pings. The key thing is whether it says it's pinging the IP I gave above. If it is pinging that number it is NOT a DNS problem, it's something else.

 

I can get the citicards.com secure site up even from the UK, so the site itself isn't the problem here. However we've been trying to solve an identical problem for a lady in France unable to get play.com when everyone else can and we have yet to get a resolution. You do need your access to that site so we could do with more help on this one.

 

The IP it's pinging is different--192.193.200.102

 

I don't know if it makes a difference but it seems to have the problem when it goes to the secure site https://creditcards.citi.com

 

OK, that's interesting. What happens if you type 192.193.8.102 in the address bar?

 

same thing happens--it moves on to the https://creditcards.citi.com and then it can't display it. Do you have an IP address for that site (when I did a ping on it, came up 173.203.170.232)

 

You did better than me on that one jackie, my DNS server couldn't find the secure page at all. You could type it in the address bar but it won't change anything I'm afraid. atm I'm stuck for ideas and hoping someone else has some

 

Hello,
Just a thought. Is there any type of pop-up blocker or ad blocker used in your web accelerator? Is it possible to disable the web accelerator and try the web page again? I had an adblocker on and could not see anything on my bank page until I disabled it.

 

A couple of other possibly remote possibilities come to mind jackie - whether somehow or other you have acquired an entry in the HOSTS file for this site, or whether IE's Security setting has somehow moved up a notch. It should normally be on Medium-High. Post if you need help with either. But check out tgell's suggestion first.

 

Hi

I also use that site, and just checked it. It appears they've changed their site since I last used it, probably a site upgrade of some sort. It's likely the site was down for a brief period,as it loads fine for me at the moment.

I've freaked out about sites not working before... the last one I freaked out about was Facebook. I logged in to Facebook, only to find the list of apps on the left was missing, and all of my partners in a game were gone. The solution? 15 minutes. It could save you 15% or more.

 

I've been trying since last friday so if that's an upgrade, it was a huge one.
I finally got in thru Firefox last night (IE still couldn't do it but I checked all its security settings and my popup blocker settings were okay). Took 3 times longer than it had been taking. I'm thinking they changed something that really needs a faster internet service than I have (it's dialup and our phone lines are real old so it's like going back in time to 28.8 modems; I've had cable internet in my lifetime so moving here was a shock and when we moved here 10 years ago, there were no other options but dialup). The only faster service I can get here now is satellite and it's expensive for what it is but it's on my wish list. Thanks for all the help.

 

I asked you on your other thread about this but can you see any other secure sites? Can you get to https://www.google.com/ ?

If you can't get to another secure site, it's not a citibank issue.

 

I think internet speed could be related, as I've noticed starting a little while back, Citi's credit card site started taking longer to load (even though I have high speed DSL, it didn't take MUCH longer... still nearly instant, but I did notice the difference).

 

Thanks for the update jackie. Doesn't seem to be an issue you/we can do much about.