Toms Hardware access blocked at home

[SpinachEater]

This has some irony too it but I cannot access Tom's Hardware from my home computer any more. It just randomly became blocked. I can get to TG Daily, but not the forums or the home page. It is probably my most visited site too...this is an emergency!!!

I go through a wireless router...last night I checked to make sure there were no blocked sites in the router settings or odd security changes. I played with the firewall settings and nothing changed. I disabled the NOD antivirus and nothing changed. I do have spybot but I haven't ran it in a long long time. I also checked all of my internet settings to make sure the security and cookie settings didn't get altered. I cleared them on both FF and IE with no luck...relaxed the security settings...no luck.

I don't have access through Firefox or IE...so it has to be a windows xp / router thing right? I haven't gone into the system files yet and I haven't had time to bypass the router to see if it is the culprit. Any suggestions? I am not too network savvy so I don't know exactly where to look if I need to delete a certain file, so if anyone has some good ideas that I can try tonight that would be excellent. I NEED THG BACK!!!!

Acutally, if someone could help explain why only one site would be randomly blocked (it is the one I probably access the most too) that would be cool too so I can understand wtf happened.

 

[rgeist554]

Sounds like it may be a DNS issue. Have you tried going directly to the sites IP address?

You'll always want to check the hosts file and make sure nothing is blocking a certain set of IP's.

Hosts file should be found in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ or more commonly, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

 

[SpinachEater]

Nope, I haven't tried the IP. I am checking the files out on my work computer just as a practice run...what would I be looking for exactly in the host file? Would it have the IP of THG and then some sort of blocked comment?

 

[rgeist554]

I think I found the problem... apparently there was an issue for the hosting company of Tom's that was blocking anyone with a Comcast based ISP from accessing the site. Do you fit in that category?

Nope, I haven't tried the IP. I am checking the files out on my work computer just as a practice run...what would I be looking for exactly in the host file? Would it have the IP of THG and then some sort of blocked comment?

It would be something like this:

127.0.0.1 www.tomshardware.com

I'm inclined to believe it was the problem mentioned above though.

 

[SpinachEater]

Yes sir, I do have Comcast. Where did you find info about that? My list of why I hate Comcast is getting longer...

 

[rgeist554]

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248462-33-widescreen

Thank you all for your replies.
You're cracking me up.

I just spent the last 48 hours on the phone and email with the owner/CEO of tomshardware.com. Apparently something was wrong at their hosting company that blocked tomshardware.com, pkpublishing.com and bestofmedia.com (the actualy owners of tomewardware.com) from being see by anyone in the US using Comcast. This was HUGE. Antoine lost tens of thousands of ad generated dollars in that time.

Back on subject: I do think the 24 inch idea is good. Given the fact that our Kenmore front loading washer just kicked and would cost $500 to fix... so we're buying new, means that fund for a 24 inch just evaporated.

There are some good points made in your replies and some insightful ideas I will consider... next time I have some cash.

To ganpachi... I actually cheered when the teeter tottered to 1024x768. More real estate and easier on the eyes. My beef is really with these crazy, non-conforming aspect ratios that resemble 16:9 but often have pixel ratios that are whacked out. Also... the field of available 4:3's is but a speck compared to the WS's. The WS's are now cheaper. The good 4:3's are getting hard to find at the same price point.

Thanks for all the input.

I can't validate it, but it sounds legit... no one asked him about it. He just brought it up.

 

[SpinachEater]

Hmm...I just used the google and found a handfull of posts where some other comcast people got blocked as well. Thanks dude, nice work.

Yep...I can get to it at home now.

 

[Sengoku]

There was a problem with some comcast and verizon dns servers. The problem is now fixed.

Stuff like this reminds me of how important a trustworthy DNS server is, and how little I think about it.