"this page is not available"

mj12_2

sb2 wrote: »

If their email works, can email them the program attached and then they can install it.

Good point :-) does depend on the email provider though, a lot of the free ones throw a terrible wobbly if you try and send attached .exe files plus theres the 10mb limit on a lot of them too :-S.

If email doenst work theres always a thumb drive or cd/dvd?

pokerpad

Thanks guys - how would I go about e-mailing it over?

Should I try something different like Firefox?

mj12_2

hey, try firefox by all means if it works then perhaps uninstall then reinstall IE.

To email it you'd need to download the program from here http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/ and then attach the file to an email to send to your parents.

Just for reference, the hosts file is like a 'directory' it tells your operating system where to look for certain addresses, if its corrupted or an entry has been added for google then the error is occuring as your computer doesnt know where to 'look' for the website. It could be that, or it could be a DNS problem as mentioned above its difficult to tell. I'd try another browser first and if that works ok then you'll know its IE that is causing the problem; if firefox won't work either then its probably the hosts file/DNS servers.

Have a go with firefox, if you get no joy then let us know the OS and we'll have to try a few other things :-)

sho_me_da_money

mj12 wrote: »

Good point :-) does depend on the email provider though, a lot of the free ones throw a terrible wobbly if you try and send attached .exe files plus theres the 10mb limit on a lot of them too :-S.

If email doenst work theres always a thumb drive or cd/dvd?

Rename the .exe and remove the .exe to send via email.

FF or GC is less than 10mb AND yes, you can also place this on an external device and/or optical media.

If email is working, there must be internet connectivity. If you are super technical, you could possibly download the package via Command Prompt and install it thereafter.

Check host file and try flushing DNS via IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS.

pokerpad

Superb - thanks so much for your help.

I'll try that later on.

mj12_2

Just thought of a very quick way for you to check if its the browser or the computer going wrong.

Go to the start menu 'run' prompts and type 'cmd'

That should give you a small dialogue window with a black background.

Type this exactly without the quotes "ping www.google.com"

This willl basically send tiny packets of information to google you should get a response something like this

Pinging www.l.google.com [209.85.143.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.85.143.99: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=55
Reply from 209.85.143.99: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=55
Reply from 209.85.143.99: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55
Reply from 209.85.143.99: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55
Ping statistics for 209.85.143.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 61ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 62ms

If instead you get a message mentioning a timeout it willmean you computer can't find google and its not the browser causing the problem.

pokerpad

(The simple e-mail method - not the super technical one!)

RussJK

Have you asked them to check their settings in Internet Explorer?
http://www.users.on.net/~russ/connection.png

sho_me_da_money

If email works (send/receive) then ping replies will work thus proving internet connectivity is fine. This appears to be a software problem, specifically the browser being unable to resolve web pages.

mj12_2

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

If email works (send/receive) then ping replies will work thus proving internet connectivity is fine. This appears to be a software problem, specifically the browser being unable to resolve web pages.

Would a ping request not also be affected by a corrupted host file or wrong/missing DNS servers?

I guess email would too though having said that :-)