Problems accessing certain websites

[wan2no]

Hi,

I have been trying to access www.msn.com, www.hi5.com, and trying to download messenger from msn sites and I am not getting any access, yet when I access for instance www.google.com, I am able to access it.
I have 2 gb of memory, 2.2 ghz of cpu speed and I have Microsoft Vista 32bit.

At first, I thought it was a virus so I went and did a scan. I have Mcaffee Security Center 2007-2008. I was unable to do an update on my signatures. Well the program said that I retrieve new signatures yet when I go into the Windows security center it is saying different.

Secondly, I tried removing any spyware with lavasoft adware program. When it was finished, I tried. Nothing

Thirdly, I tried to see if it is a problem with the firewall, that is try to see if these sites that I am unable to reach are being neglected by the firewall. However, in my opinion, Vista is soo much different to XP. I could not find the firewall option.

Can someone tell me if what I am doing wrong? I need to access my email and I just can not get onto it

Thanks

[usually_quiet]

I dont't have Vista, but wouldn't think your problem was caused by Vista's firewall blocking these sites.

I just tried MSN, and the site was up and running. How long have you been unable to access these websites? Even if it has been hours, it could just be a temporary problem with the network (the Internet's, not yours) or these sites could just be especially busy.

[wan2no]

it is nothing temporary. It wasn't running since April, 2008.

I wanted to know if it would be Mcaffe. It has been giving me some problems lately. I had gotten it installed on 11th of April, 2008.

I purchased the program online that is I downloaded the program directly from them

[aedipuss]

bring up task manager and see if anything suspicious is running. also try some of the online virus/trojan scanners. something may be blocking sites by putting them in your hosts file. where it is stored in vista i don't know. winxp it's windows/system32/drivers/etc

[aedipuss]

english is fine.

mcaffee not so much. there should be settings for allowing websites in the mcaffee firewall/security center.

personally i wouldn't allow mcaffee on my computers if it were free - and it is if i wanted to download it from comcast.

[wan2no]

Can you give me some of the online virus/trojan scanners?
so what other antivirus would you recommend?

[usually_quiet]

I use AVG 7.5 Free, and am about to switch over to AVG 8 Free. Othes here prefer Avast for a free antivirus. More good choices for antivirus are Bit Defender and NOD32, but they only have pay versions. I also use Comodo's free firewall, and it works well, although it is a little paranoid sometimes. I don't know how well they perform under Vista.

In case you don't already know, I will warn you that there are often conflicts when you run more than one antivirus at the same time. Unfortunately, McAffee is supposed to be very difficult to shut down completely or uninstall.

[handyguy]

Some browsers won't access certain sites, try another browser.

Also, reset your router, it can also limit what sites you see.