Is this an IE problem?

Well it seems after a bit ago my IE just started acting weird. Some normal things are blocked out, lets say for example on another forum. The post reply button would always have an X on it and the text would be visible. At the top of this pageI'm typing in on MG the ad says "Action Canceled" and usually when I delete a hotmail email I get "this page cannot be displayed"....any ideas? There are no windows updates that I need related to IE. Thanks in advance guys, I know this is a toughy.

 

kay, do you know about the HOSTS file? if so have you changed it, like doing ad blocking tricks, where you redirect the ad server to yourself instead? if not......try refreshing and renewing your ip (thats run type ipconfig /release /renew)

also try flushing your cache.... tools internet options delete files.

 

I don't know what hosts files are, what are they, maybe I tampered with in by accident.

 

The hosts file is a plain text file that windows uses. Instead of going over the Internet to change domain names to IP addresses, it can use the local Hosts file. This is a lot faster, but the file isn't updated so if a server moves it doesn't resolve correctly.

On Windows 2000, the filename is:
"\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS"

The name of the file is "HOSTS". It has no extension like most windows files do. You can open and edit the file using notepad. It should look like this:

Code:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 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 hostname.
# 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

You can add IP addresses and hostnames for servers if you want. For example you could add the line:
"64.246.24.94 www.majorgeeks.com"

This means your computer will find the ip address for www.majorgeeks.com without asking online servers. Of course, if www.majorgeeks.com moves, you'll have to manually edit this file to update it. Note that any line beginning with a "#" is a comment, and is ignored.

Note that the IP address 127.0.0.1 is loopback. That means it is your machine. Some internet programs add lines like:
"127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com"
to reduce spam. Obviously, your machine is not doubleclick, so all the ads that would show up from that site (which is only ads) will time out since you have no httpd on your machine.

However, it doesn't sound like this is your problem to me. I do know that over the past 3-4 days there have been massive DNS problem on the Internet. It also might be simple timeouts. Without looking at your machine, I'd try the standard scans: scandisk, windoctor, adaware, etc. Empty your temporary internet files and clear your history. If you still have trouble, I'd re-install Internet explorer. Just download the installation program and run it again.