I can’t open web pages

Lately, users very often turn to computer repair services, formulating the following problem: «The Internet works, even Yahoo Messenger and Skype, but I can’t open the web pages.» The wording may be different, but the symptoms are the same: trying to open a web page in a browser, I receive the message that the browser cannot open the page. At the same time, various programs for Internet communication, torrent clients, cloud services – everything works. It happens that a page opens with difficulty in one browser, for example in Internet Explorer, and all other browsers refuse to open. OK, let’s see how we can solve the problem.

How do we solve the problem?

From my experience I can say that hypothesized problems on the Internet regarding the hosts file, with the address of the DNS server or the proxy server in the browser settings are very rarely the cause of the problem. Although we will also analyze these options.

The first method: we look at what we have in the registry

Access the registry editor. To log in, regardless of the version of Windows – XP, 7 or 8, press the Win keys (with the Windows logo) + R and in the dialog box enter the command regeditand press Enter.

The Registry Editor will open. On the left – files – registry section. We have to enter the section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows. On the left we will see a list of parameters and their values. Pay attention to the parameter Applnit_DLL and if its value is not empty and has a path to any file .dllcancel this value by right-clicking on the parameter and choosing «Edit» in the context menu. So look at the same parameter, only as in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. We have to do the same thing there. Next we restart the computer and try to open any web page. In 80% of cases the problem is solved.

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Static path

We enter the command line and enter the order path -f and then press Enter: This command will clear the list with the static path, which may be the solution to the problem (after restarting the computer).

Fisier guests

This method has little chance, but it wouldn’t hurt to try it. Let’s go into the file C:WindowsSystem32driversetc and open the file guests. The content should be:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains mappings of IP addresses to hostnames. Everything is fine
# entry must be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be entered in the first column followed by the corresponding hostname.
# The IP address and hostname must be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, you can post comments (like these) about individual users
# lines or following the machine name indicated by the ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # origin server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

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# Localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost

If after the last line 127.0.0.1 localhost you see other lines with IP addresses and you do not know what they are for, and if you do not have pirated programs installed on your computer (for some, registration in the hosts is mandatory), we remove these lines. Let’s restart the computer and try to open a web page again.

DNS error

If you try to open a page and the browser tells you that the DNS server is not responding (DNS server down) or that the DNS server is crashing (DNS server crashed), the problem may lie here. What should we do?

• In the properties of your Internet connection, instead of «Obtain DNS server address automatically», try entering the following addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
• Enter the command line (win+r, enter cmd, press Enter) and enter the command: ipconfig/flushdns

Virus and wrong proxy

And another method, which may be the cause of the problem. Perhaps the malware has made some changes to the properties of your computer (these properties apply to any browser).

We enter the Control Panel – Internet Options. Open the «Connections» tab and press the «Settings» button. No kind of proxy server needs to be passed there, as well as no kind of automatic script configuration (usually taken from some external server). If something exists there, we bring it to the state that can be seen in the image.

In most cases, one of these methods helps. If you still can’t fix the problem, try to remember what programs you installed recently and whether they might be affecting your Internet connection settings or maybe your computer is infected. If none of the methods can solve the problem, you will have to call a specialist.