Vizzini

Maybe someone knows whats happening here. I noticed yesterday that I cannot reach any pages on microsoft's website. Trying to run the windows updates and I get a 504 Gateway timeout error.

Anything that starts with www.microsoft.com is the same. Any other web page is fine.
I am not behind a router or firewall of any kind. I was not running any virus software either.
Originally I thought it might have been some sort of virus or something so I just installed Nortan anti-virus 2003 and ran it. No viruses. Downloaded Ad-aware and S&D and ran them for spyware. Found a bunch and removed them but still can't reach the site.

I do run the goodle toolbar (for the pop-up blocker mostly) so I disabled the pop-upo blocker feature temporarily. And bam I was able to reach www.microsoft.com! Odd but who cares I thought.
BUT, 5 mins later, the site would not come up anymore (even with the pop-up blocker disabled). So I uninstalled the toolbar... Still does't work.

Pinging the site times out with the ip resolving as 207.46.245.92
On my laptop (which works fine) it resolves as 207.46.250.222

Ok, getting somewhere here. I put in the 207.46.250.222 address in IE and boom I get to microsoft's website.

So why is it resolving diffrently on my PC? Both are plugged into the same connection so the DNS is the same.
Checked my hosts file and thats empty.

Any ideas?

__________________
Inconceivable!

glytch

I'm no expert on DNS but is it possible that the caching server your ISP uses has somehow obtained false information? If that's the case, it will probably be fixed shortly.

Edit: Oops, I didn't read the question correctly. I just now noticed that your laptop is using the same connection. I also tried to ping Microsoft, but I get a timeout as well (with a different resolving IP each time, always in the 207.46.x.x.x domain.), however I can get to it using my web browser with the host name. I honestly haven't a clue what's going on. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

__________________
If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. - Mitch Hedberg

Bamrak

Try going into a command prompt window and typing ipconfig /flushdns
This emptys your DNS cache.

hrdwrjnkie

Check your hosts file. If www.microsoft.com is in the host list and pointed to localhost or something else, it will go there instead.

EDIT: Note to self, read whole post before answering.

flushdns would be your best bet

__________________
I build, therefore I am.

Vizzini

Flushdns didn't work. Ran it. Tried, no go. reobooted and tried again, no go.
Thanks for the suggestion though.

Sigh

__________________
Inconceivable!

trache

Download HijackThis. It will list everything that is in your Startup, as well as any BHO (Browser Helper Objects). Google Toolbar is one of these such objects, which allows developers to effectively change how IE operates. One could install a malicious BHO that will intercept any microsoft.com address and shunt you to another website.

While I don't think that is what's going on here, you may want to check it out.

DNS is pretty simple on Windows machines.

If your HOSTS file hasn't been messed with (2000 - c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS, XP is C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS).

If the Windows DNS resolver can't find it there, it will then ask your DNS server. If that DNS Server can't find it, it asks its "upstream" in the heirarchy and so on.

When in doubt, use a Packet Sniffer. Packetyzer is a good choice. You can then see where your network traffic is heading to. That may help.

Update Spybot and AdAware. Also check your Add/Remove programs (something could be installed but not "classified" as spyware) and remove anything you find suspicious.

Hell, I'm actually surprised you're able to ping microsoft.com at all. They usually filter out ICMP traffic period in attempts to ward off hackers. I could probably do the same, but I have no issuse with Microsoft at the moment.

Can you traceroute to Microsoft's website address? Run tracert www.microsoft.com . Once the traffic has left your computer it's not your problem. Again, you may not be able to do this effectively if Microsoft is filtering traffic, but give it a go. At least you'll get to their border routers.

Look up the QHost Trojan program. It changes DNS settings. Use a different Anti-Virus program if Norton isn't catching anything.

__________________
"You looked at me as if I was eating runny eggs in slow motion." - Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip

bendsley

Please note that Microsoft's website is not hosted at Microsoft directly, but through NSATC.net and Akamai.com. Notice that when you ping google.com, it resolves to pinging www.google.akadns.net. Akamai is used by multiple Fortune 500 companies to handle their network, e-commerce and web/dns.

I would suggest against putting Microsoft IP address to match the domain as it may change at any time. DNS machines receive updates all the time so that they are consistent, and if your hosts file is telling it to go somewhere else than where it should, you will have issues.

Try pinging lycos.com, yahoo.com, altavista.com (which yahoo2 comes up), etc....

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."