Can't access geocities?

Question

It's strange. Up to a week or two ago I didn't have this problem. Now I can't seem to access www.geocities.com I can edit my site but just can't seem to access it. I can ping www.geocities.com and get 66.218.77.68 but neither http://66.218.77.68 or http://www.geocities.com seem to work for http. Really strange can anyone help me diagnose this technical problem?

Answer 1

I tried the IP Address and got an error message that says "We've encountered an error..." Most likely, they are using host headers and that's why you cannot connect via the IP Address only. If you're getting that error using the IP Address, it's normal.

I think your problem is a poisoned DNS entry at your ISP. What I suggest trying to do is using one of the root DNS servers as your DNS server for 5-10 minutes to test it. It's simple to do. Simply change either your Windows setup or your routers DNS setup to point to a root DNS server. The root DNS servers and IP addresses are located at the link below. If this works, you need to call your ISP and tell them to fix their problem.

Other problems could be that you have a hosts entry in your hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts). This could be someone playing a practical joke on you or something you did previously to get around a Geocities or DNS server problem... Most likely it's a joke.

Another problem is that Geocities is blocking you for some reason or that your ISP, provider, or work is restricting you to get to the geocities site. Those cannot be solved easily unless you use an anonymous proxy to go around them.

Hope this helps,
WG