Website will never load, but I know it is up

[Akhet]

I have been unable to access certain sites I frequent for the past couple weeks. I tried clearing my cash but it did not work.


I keep getting the following message:

Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.



I know these sites are up but for some reason they don't work for me. Any idea what I could do?

[davexnet]

Can you ping them from the CMD line? eg.
ping www.yahoo.com

[Akhet]

ping?

[davexnet]

It's a command line tool to see if the site is reachable.
Open up a command window and enter the command as shown. Change the site to the site you're having issues with.
Here's how it looks:

Pinging any-fp3-real.wa1.b.yahoo.com [98.137.149.56] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 98.137.149.56: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=52
Reply from 98.137.149.56: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=52
Reply from 98.137.149.56: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=52
Reply from 98.137.149.56: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 98.137.149.56:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 18ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 19ms

From this, you can see the latency in milliseconds, also the IP address of the site - 98.137.149.56

[Akhet]

How do I open a command window?

[davexnet]

you run cmd.exe from the Run box, or set a shortcut on the desktop to cmd.exe.

[lordsmurf]

Try this: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com

Ping is mostly useless for this troubleshoot.
You need to tracert.
Read this: How to traceroute?

[stiltman]

That just tells you the box is up, and not blocking ICMP packets
To really tell is a web server is up and accepting connections is either connecting via a browser like you normally do or
telnet to port 80

telnet servername 80
type GET

and it should return something

[lordsmurf]

Well, don't put the cart before the horse.
First see if the server even responds.
If so, then see if web services are working.

[handyguy]

Restart your router, this works for me.

[boodechan]

I have been using ping to check the sites availability but the one you share was new to me, seems interesting.

[TreeTops]

Yes, reboot your router then report back here.

[lordsmurf]

Your ISP DNS might also suck. Change to OpenDNS.